The Bake Off Bake Along 2016 – Tudor Week
Tudor Week?
What are you playing at Bake Off?
Saying that, my dad loved the Victorian week last year so much, he still talks about that damn game pie!
This year I also made pie. Two different flavoured pies in truth.
I’ll be entirely honest, I wasn’t really feeling the bake along this week. Watching the show on Wednesday I had amazing visions of an incredibly elaborate bake and I liked all three choices. It seemd like Adam’s ideal week. He loves pie, he’s great at knots and although he’s not a fan of sweet stuff usually, he actually really likes marzipan.
In reality? On Sunday afternoon I was feeling particularly tired and really didn’t fancy spending the last bit of my weekend slaving over a Tudor pie. Still, I had already cooked up one pie filling – lamb, mint and red wine, in the slow cooker all day and it smelt amazing. All that needed making was the pastry and the other pie filling, which after spatch-cocking my chicken was merrily roasting away in the oven with the pumpkin.
The bakers in the tent this week made dry stacked pies, but as it was for our dinner and we both prefer them, I went more for the traditional gravy saucy pie.
However, as Adam’s also gluten free at the moment, I’d had to do my research and buy specific flour and xantham gum that apparently helps bind the dough.
Xantham gum or not, the pastry was not that well bound, and quite possibly the most frustrating thing about this damn Tudor bake was the fact even when rolled out on plenty of flour, it kept crumbling as I tried to lift it. Not an issue for lining my beautiful pie dish as I could just squidge it into the sides when it cracked. For the lid however, this didn’t work quite so well and I ended up having to roll it out on baking paper after about 3 unsuccessful attempts to keep it together (both in terms of the pastry AND my mental state).
The fillings were actually very tasty, with big chunks of very soft lamb in a simple red wine, tomato and mint sauce (pretty Tudor right?!) and then a chicken, roasted pumpkin, shallot, and orange filling in a creamy sauce. I also added some cheeky thyme to the chicken pie pastry and it worked surprisingly well all together. That, and infusing my milk for the sauce with bay leaves, leek tops and peppercorns. Fancy huh?!
I’ll admit, if I’d started this bake earlier, I definitely would have put more effort into the decoration. The fact of the matter is, it wasn’t until about 9pm that they even went into the oven and I’d practically given up caring by then. #hanger
They tasted great alongside some garlic mash and green beans, I actually really liked the flavour of the gluten free pastry and they seemed to be vaguely Tudor in their flavour design. However, there always has to be at least one week during the bake off bake along when it doesn’t go to plan and I end up disappointed with the bake as a whole, and Tudor week, you got me. That…and you also stole Benjamina….booo!!
