Great British Bake Off Series 7, Episode 7: Dessert Week (Recap With Spoilers)

I have been not feeling well this week, so I am a week behind on my GBBO write ups. Episode 8 is already out, and I've not yet recapped episode 7 from last week! I've also lost the notes that I jotted from last week when I was already not feeling well (I'm dealing with terrible headaches and foot aches as I continue to go through my cancer treatments).

I think I am too tired to review episode 7 from last week again, so I will give just a couple of quick jots about it here.

The dessert week was interesting because it focused on desserts I knew nothing about. Here they are:

• The signature was a roulade, essentially a rolled sponge cake filled with different kinds of sweet fillings
• The technical was a marjolaine. That is a cake that combines meringue, praline buttercream, and chocolate ganache. It looks lovely and also challenging: you can see the recipe by judge Mary posted here at the BBC website. 
• The showstopper was two sets of miniature mousse cakes, twelve each, with each dozen flavored different.

I usually write up detailed lists of who do what, but I am way too exhausted this week to do that and can't remember the details well (since my notes are missing). I am also struggling to write because my terrible headache pains and lack of sleep are making me have a hard time coming up with common words (a little scary for me as a writer, teacher, and thinker, but I will take a deep breath, keep praying, and assume that words will come back to me soon).

So here's the super, easy recap that I remember a tiny bit.

Andrew had an amazing week. He did every single challenge beautifully, creating roulade and marjolaine that looked lovely and tasted delicious. His miniature mousse cakes were especially cool, and he placed them on a ferris wheel that helped present them in an especially festive way. I've been wanting Andrew to manage a win the entire series, and this was the first time he actually managed it!

Jane also had a good week, and the other women still left did pretty well, though Candice had a rougher week than usual. All of the women went on to the next episode.

There were other two men left: Selasi and Tom. I would have guessed Selasi might not make it, but surprisingly, Tom (who had won two weeks this season) had a terrible week. He messed up every single challenge in some way, especially the mousse cakes at the showstopper, and surprised us all by having to head home. Although Selasi is the most relaxed of all the contestants, and hasn't yet won an entire week, he does seem to be getting better as the show continues.

I was liking Tom more and more as each week went by, and I appreciated the way Jane tried to encourage and help him (she's probably my favorite person in some ways, and her mousse cakes were seriously incredible). If you remember from weeks ago, Paul Hollywood had reminded us that all winners of the bread week had made it to every final in the first six series. Since Tom won the bread week this year, Paul seemed to be providing the possibility that Tom would do that, but here he is, losing it in episode 7 and not even making the quarter final.

Episode 8 (the one I hope to see in the next day or two) is the quarter final with five contestants, with episode 9 the week after being the semi-final with four. If you remember, the tenth episode is the final between the last three bakers.

Andrew, Selasi, Benjamina, Candice, and Jane are the five currently left after this episode. Who do you think you might want to win from here? I tend to be leaning toward the hope of Jane winning, which would be fascinating since she has only won once...the very first episode! Is it possible? Stay tuned and see.

Great British Bake Off Series 7, Episode 6: Botanical Week (Recap With Spoilers)

The big news from the bake off this week is that octogenarian judge Mary Berry will not follow the show when it departs next year for channel 4, but younger judge Paul Hollywood will. Bless Mary's heart. I had a feeling she wouldn't make the transition, especially since Mel and Sue had already made it clear they wouldn't leave the BBC either. I was less surprised that Paul decided to take the leap, and I hope his presence will somehow keep the show afloat, though it's hard to imagine what it will be like without the charm and witticisms of the ladies.

For now we still have all four of them, of course, for the remainder of series seven. And we're half-way through....

Week six of the series brought us something new again: botanical week. I wasn't sure what it would involve. Here's what they came up with:

• The signature bake was a citrus meringue pie
• The technical bake was herbed, leaf-shaped fougasse bread
• The showstopper was a three tiered floral cake, with the floral notes affecting both the flavor and the decorations 

Citrus meringue pie involves three challenges. You need to bake a good pie crust (mostly sweet short crust pastry), create a delicious citrus flavored curd with the right consistency, and then whip up a  meringue that you can pipe or spread onto the top of the pie with good beauty and also brown the meringue peaks delicately either in the oven or with a blow torch.  There are basically three types of meringues you can create: French, Swiss, or Italian. Each one of them is a variation of egg whites, sugar, and heat. If you want to read about their differences, check out this helpful article.

As soon as I head about this signature bake, I thought immediately of lemon meringue since it's the most common type, but the seven remaining bakers in the competition were far more inventive.  On the humid, rainy day they had to bake, they tried a variety of interesting flavors. Selasi, wearing a colorful floral shirt in honor of the botanical theme, attempted a grapefruit, orange, and mint pie. Benjamina was also making grapefruit and mint, and the two of them had fun exchanging words about their endeavors (they seem to have gotten a bit flirtatious)! Jane, also dressed in a floral shirt, seemed smiling and relaxed as she put together her lime and coconut pie. Candice tried lime and coconut too, but added lemongrass. Tom tried a more savory crust with pecans in it, and then tried a rather odd combination of blood orange and pumpkin filling. Rav went for a booze infested filling by adding tequila to mandarin orange, and Andrew tried lime with three different kinds of ginger. In other words, nobody attempted a primarily lemon pie, and that surprised me.

No one ended up with a precisely perfect pie, but I thought Jane and Selasi's were the most beautiful. Jane pleased Mary by providing a great looking Swiss meringue that she browned in the oven, being the only one who bypassed the blow torch (which pleased Mary no end). Selasi's meringue looked gorgeous but he was told his filling was too stiff. The judges seemed to love the taste of Benjamina's filling and called her pie well proportioned, but they thought her pastry was too thick. Tom and Rav had the most problems in terms of taste.

On to the technical, which this week was a tasty and beautiful bread called fougasse. This bread met the botanical theme both because it was baked with chopped up sage, thyme, and rosemary herbs, and because it was supposed to be shaped into two giant leaf shapes which the bakers had to slice through in the middle and on the sides. The challenges involved how to cut and shape the loaves best to look like leaves, and how long to prove the dough before they baked it.

Tom was thrilled with the challenge since, as he put it, bread made him "happy and comfortable" (if you remember, he was the star baker of bread week). Tom seemed most confident about what to do and also came up with the great idea of adding steam to the oven to make his bread come out in a wonderful combination of moist and crisp. Selasi was "so zen" (as Mel called him) but in the end he was really too relaxed and didn't put his bread in for long enough. His underbaked result landed him in last place in the technical. Andrew, Candice, and Jane all struggled, with Rav, Benjamina, and Tom battling for the top three spots. Rav was thrilled to come in third, I think, since he'd been last in the technical for the three previous weeks. Benjamina finished second and Tom came in first.

I always enjoy hearing Mary and Paul talk about the first day and who's in trouble. It surprised me that they seemed to agree that in general, all the men bakers were on the bottom, and all the remaining women were in strongest form as they went into the showstopper day. Given how well Tom and Rav did with the bread, it made you realize how truly awful their pies must have been in round one! Benajmina, Jane, and Candice, in that order, seemed poised for possible sparkling showstopper performance.

And then came the surprising and gorgeous showstopper, which I think was one of my favorites of the current series so far. I love it when the bakers create multi-tiered cakes and spend a lot of time decorating them. I was not entirely clear on whether or not the floral taste was required, though most seemed to be attempting it. Jane seemed quite worried that she had decided not to go very floral with her flavoring: she went with a simple orange flavor for every tier, because she wanted to spend more time creating sugar paste flowers and chocolate floral collars. Unfortunately, she ran out of time and had to hurry her way through the decorating, so it all looked a bit of a mess, which is a shame because it had the potential to look incredible. Candice went overboard by attempting four tiers instead of three, which was a brilliant idea since she attempted to make each tier taste and look like one of four seasons, but she ended up a little off center with one of her tiers (the spiced carrot cake she made for autumn) which was definitely not a home run. I adored Benjamina's idea for tiers infused with floral teas, and a lovely "semi-naked" look (where the icing is thin and not covering the whole cake) but it didn't quite work either. Mary and Paul didn't think the flavors came through strongly enough and Paul didn't seem to think the cake look finished (though I thought it did).

So the ladies, who were definitely in the lead going into the day, definitely left the door open for the gentlemen. Of the four men: Tom and Selasi galloped straight to the front while Andrew and Rav both struggled mightily. Andrew's elder flower taste was not strong and his swiss buttercream was decorated too simply with skimpy yellow flowers and tiny pearl like piping -- the entire project left him in tears. Rav went way simple with an orange blossom and vanilla flavor for all three tiers, and with piped buttercream flowers that were both too clumsy and too pale to show off.  Tom used tea flavors, similar to Benjamina, but managed to hit those flavors out of the park as both the chamomile and jasmine flavors apparently burst deliciously through, and his colorful piping, while not terribly creative, looked neat and pretty. They also said his sponges were brilliantly baked. Selasi's cake was *fantastic* -- truly. It was my favorite by far, and the judges couldn't seem to find a thing wrong with it. He did three different flavored cakes (carrot, lemon and poppyseed, and strawberry and vanilla) which were all baked well and moist. His flowered piping was seriously gorgeous. I normally don't post pictures from the GBBO, but I borrowed this one from the Telegraph because seriously, isn't that an amazing looking cake?

I wasn't sure what the judges would decide, but apparently they decided that Tom's excellent cake, along with his excellent bread and first place in the technical the day before, were enough to make him star baker even though his pie was not memorable. He passed all three of the ladies, whose stronger performances on the first day kept them safe but didn't enable them to win. I think if Selasi had managed anything above last place with his bread in the technical, he would have won star baker for sure.

Selasi, Tom, and Andrew are the only men left because Rav, sadly, was the baker asked to leave this week. I'll miss him a lot since he's been such a sweet competitor, but he's struggled harder than any of the rest that are left, and his cake definitely showed that he wasn't quite at their level. Andrew clearly knew he was close to going, but overall Andrew has been more consistent. It will be interesting to see how the three men do as they continue to compete with the three remaining women. Tom is the only one of the three men who has managed star baker status, and he's done it twice, so I guess we have to consider Tom and Candice high in the lead. While I like them both, I think the other four bakers are still my favorites, and I can't help but think the final could be between Candice, Jane, and Benjamina...though the men have shown us that they can definitely surprise everyone and come roaring from behind. On we go to dessert week!

Great British Bake Off Series Seven, Episode 5: Pastry Week (Recap With Spoilers)

There may be weeks of the GBBO that I can actually envision myself participating in, but when they get to pastry week, I'm always humbled and amazed. I've never spent much time making pastry from scratch, and it seems to be one of the hardest baking tasks. I'm pretty sure that the eight remaining bakers in this year's bake off would agree with me.

This week's three challenges all proved quite challenging! They included:

• The signature bake of twenty-four danishes, 12 each of two different kinds
• The technical, which was a bakewell tart (shortcrust pastry shell with layers of jam and frangipane topped with icing)
• The showstopper, which called for 48 filo pastries called amuse-bouches (tiny, bite-sized filo dough pastries, 24 each of two different flavors)

The eight remaining bakers this week were evenly divided along gender lines, with four men and four women left. All eight of them tried to get a good jump in the signature, because danish dough needs a good deal of proving, which means they needed to get them mixed quickly.  One of the trickier parts of making danish pastries turns out to the the folding of a great deal of butter into the dough. If you don't do it right, then it sometimes comes oozing out in the oven and can make your bake quite dry or not flavorful enough.

Some of the flavors chosen for this bake sounded delicious. Jane flavored one of her doughs with cinnamon; Andrew (who laughingly attempted careful measurements that reflected his engineer background) used spiced dates; Benjamina decided on candied bacon. Candice surprised everyone by opting for savory danishes that used cheese and mushrooms. Selasi pulled on his Ghanian background and utilised tropical fruits, while Tom tried to go for a healthy approach and used granola rolled into his danish spirals.  That last bit turned out not to be the best choice for Tom, who managed a dozen danishes too dry and another dozen undercooked. Andrew's flavors worked but he made the danishes too thin. Val's seemed good and buttery but were too pale and a bit underdone. In fact, a lot of them struggled with doneness in one degree or another. In the end, Jane and Candice did the best by far, with Jane's danishes lauded for their flavor and nice bake even though they were a tad overfilled, and Candice delighting everyone with her savory danishes as well as a dozen made with pretty apple roses.

Judge Mary Berry informed the bakers that they needed to keep their cool during the technical, while Mel and Sue just kept reminding the bakers that bakewell tarts should be baked well and not badly. After a handful of mostly unfamiliar technical bakes, they all seemed somewhat relieved to get a more familiar recipe, though Selasi chuckled and surmised that the bakers who would do best on this challenge would be the "aged" bakers, since bakewell tarts apparently were more popular years ago. He must have been right: Benjamina called them retro, Jane called them "classic and classy," older contestant Val swore that she makes them once a week, and Candice pulled on her grandmother's influence to make hers.

Sue blithely cautioned the bakers not to get into a "frangi-panic," a terrific pun that I think they all enjoyed although poor Andrew came close to actual panic because he forgot to turn his oven on for the first fifteen minutes of the bake, which is what netted him sixth place. Poor Val, so familiar with this recipe, seemed to lose her focus as well as the second page of the minimal instructions they'd been given; by the time she figured out that there was a second page, she'd already mixed up her dough in a very different manner, leading to a very thick pastry shell that didn't bake well and led to the infamous "soggy bottom." Poor Rav's shell collapsed and his filling got all gooey, which landed him solidly in last place in the technical...for the third week in a row. You could tell that Mary and Paul were definitely leaning toward sending Rav home unless he pulled off something awesome in the showstopper. Jane won the technical (proving Selasi's point that age helped). Candice and Selasi came in second and third.

The showstopper was creative and fun this week, with the bakers having to make wafer-thin, see-through filo dough (really hard to do!) and then flavor two sets of their bite-sized amuse-bouches, one sweet and one savory.  Andrew and Tom both attempted wetter doughs than the rest, which didn't work out as well as it could. Val used a broom handle to roll her dough (after using dental floss...no kidding...to cut her signature danishes) but seemed almost near tears when she mismanaged her time and didn't get her mincemeat pastries baked enough. Rav pulled out all the stops and made delicious Chinese prawns and white chocolate and hazelnut pastries, surprising the judges with spot on savory and sweet bakes after his terrible day the day before. Candice used a pasta roller to get her pastry sheets super thin, a smart idea that worked well and seemed to allow her more time to put together each delicate bite with butter between the layers. Hers looked beautiful and apparently also tasted delicious. Benjamina pulled on her Nigerian heritage and made fried plantain and spinach pastries. Jane made gorgeous looking cherry and chocolate cone shaped bites (which were apparently yummy but too big) and her savory bites contained roquefurt cheese and figs. She was pressed for time at the end, and Selasi, sweet man that he is, helped her get her pastries out of the pan because he was already done with his coffee/praline and asparagus, parm ham and cheese bites.

Jane showed her sweetness too by whispering a laudatory "star baker!" accolade to Candice as she headed back from the judges' table. Candice dimpled but still didn't seem so sure of herself. I thought it was especially kind of Jane because really Jane was the only baker who stayed close to Candice's level this week -- the two of them seemed definitely at the head of the class. It turned out that Jane was right about the star baker call, and Candice became the first season seven baker to take home that designation for the second time, making her the favorite for now.

Rav's wobbly performance the first day was saved by his amazing showstopper which meant that it was time to say good-bye to good-natured Val. Her baking has been up and down and all over the place the entire season, but everyone loved her pleasant attitude and sweet-natured delight and she will be missed by both her fellow contestants and by the audience. She said she thought she had done all she could, and added that she always tries to bake with love. Aww, Val...those kinds of sentiments are what will make you so missable.

With Candice and Jane in the top tier at the moment, Benjamina, Selasi, and Andrew seem firmly in the middle, with Rav and Tom struggling with enough inconsistency that I think it will likely be one of them that goes home next (though they can both pull off great things sometimes, and I'm not convinced it won't be relaxed Selasi who will get the chop next).

It's hard to fathom what might happen though as next week is a unique, first-time bake off week described as "botanical." It looks like they will be dealing with herbs and flowers and will need to make pie, bread, and cake. (This would have been an awesome challenge for season six Ian.) For some reason, I've got a good feeling about Benjamina going into next week, despite the fact that she struggled this one. Stay tuned....

Great British Bake Off Series 7, Episode 4: Batter Up! (Recap with Spoilers)

The big news from the GBBO this week had nothing to do with series 7 or the new episode, but everything to do with the bumpy road ahead for the show. The BBC, home to the show for its entire seven year run so far, got outbid by another network. If that wasn't surprising and sad enough, Mel and Sue have already announced, in their charmingly snarky way, that they won't "follow the dough" -- they have no plans to return to the show as announcers for the eighth series. That's almost a death knell all by itself; if Paul and Mary decide to quit as judges, which is rumored to be likely, it's hard to imagine what the newly staffed GBBO will look or feel like next year.

So we now know that the episodes left in this series are all that's left of the show in its splendid, original glory. I thought I'd feel mournful, and underneath it all I do, but once the episode started I got caught up in the cheerful, slightly zany feel of the baking tent the way I always do (mostly thanks to Mel and Sue, who started this week singing and cracking jokes just like always).

It was batter week, a brand new theme, and the nine remaining bakers had to handle the following three challenges:

• The signature bake was twenty-four identical Yorkshire puddings, with savory fillings
• A technical bake where the bakers had to create a dozen lacy heart-shaped pancakes
• A show-stopper where they created churros, essentially Spanish-inspired doughnuts 

All three bakes had batter as the common base. Yorkshire puddings, it turns out (I've heard of them in plenty of English books, but never really knew what they were) are essentially well-shaped popovers that are traditionally stuffed with meat and gravy. The bakers in the challenge this week opted for a variety of fillings that defied tradition, and not all of them were terrifically good at making the popovers. Apparently living in Britain means that you're familiar with the puddings and have tried to make them before, but that doesn't necessarily mean you've succeeded. Jane nervously admitted she was no good at Yorkshire puddings, Val (actually from Yorkshire) worried that if she messed up they'd never let her back into Yorkshire again, and Tom opted to try different kinds of flour than normal, including a chickpea flour. It turned out that all three of them ended up starting over when their first batch of batter failed them in the oven, and I think Candice might have ended up needing to try a second batch as well.

In the end, Val, Jane, and Candice managed to do pretty well -- their puddings may not have been perfect, but they had things to commend them and tasted good at least. (My favorite cheeky line from Sue this week was probably "there's a pud in the hud and it smells gud.") Val heaved a sigh of relief that she had made Yorkshire proud after all. Tom looked devastated that his popovers turned into flat, biscuit-like discs, even after the second attempt. Mary spoke to him kindly about the challenges with his choice of flours, but he still looked really down, which is understandable since he was last week's star baker. Kate's Christmas flavors were commended, but she didn't get enough rise. Andrew, Benjamina, Rav, and Selasi all did especially well, with Selasi, despite too much variance in the sizes of the popovers, getting a handshake from Paul because his pork and pork crackling fillings tasted "amazing" and the texture of the popovers were pronounced light and fluffy. Paul was also highly complimentary about Rav's unconventional filling, made from curried tofu: he had admitted he wasn't overly fond of tofu, but found Rav's flavors so spicy and good that he actually said he would gladly eat another one.

The signature was highly unusual in that the bakers had to make light, lacy pancakes. My husband would have been right at home in this challenge, as he can make some of the most unusual and artistic pancakes and would have thrived on this project. The bakers had a tough time as they were given very minimal pancake batter recipes and were told they had to make identical lacy heart-shaped pancakes (apparently an idea Paul got from a cookbook in the 1600s). They were only allowed one "model" pancake (which they could toss) before making 12 in a row that they had to turn in, although some of them wisely piped their batter onto paper to try different patterns before they piped the one test pancake they were allowed into their pans. The biggest questions surrounding the challenge seemed to be how how much of the sugar they were given they should use, how thick to make the batter so it wouldn't spread too thin (and would cook consistently) and how hot they should make their pans.

These pancakes took a lot of intuition and artistic sensibility, and some of the bakers found them more nerve-wracking than I expected. Kate joked it was a "heart breaking" challenge (get it? since the pancakes were heart-shaped and sometimes broke easily) and Val laughed over her designs, which she claimed were Jackson Pollock inspired. In the end, there were issues with a lot of the cakes, from too dry to not sweet enough to not elaborate enough patterns (Paul thought Selasi's looked more like alien faces than hearts). Benjamina and Candice outdistanced everyone, with their pancakes coming in at numbers one and two respectively. Benajmina's were the most lovely to look at by far, with an elaborate design that reminded me a bit of a jeweled filigree.

Kate looked highly worried at the end of the day, standing under her umbrella during a rainy interview. The cinematographer gave us a nice shot of a moonlit night and then a sunny morning hillside filled with black sheep as we ambled into the showstopper.

The only reason I knew churros (a Spanish street food that usually look like ridged straight doughnuts) is that I've seen them made on the American Food Network. Once again, the bakers had to focus on making batter, which this time around needed to be dropped into a fryer filled with hot oil. Paul said they were looking for churros that were brown and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. What I couldn't quite figure is how they would get turned into showstopper bakes, which are usually known for their unique decorative touches and amazing flavors.

Andrew attempted one of the most creative showstoppers this time around, shaping his churros to look like flowers and putting them in a chocolate soil filled window box. He covered them in pistachio dust, and for some reason that just sounded yummy. Jane also made yummy sounding pistachio flavored churros with a white chocolate cream piped inside. Val's flavors also sounded delicious: she made the batter with orange zest and then added orange flavoring as well to her chocolate sauce, which she also piped inside the traditionally shaped churros (which sort of look like long fingers). Benjamina made hers with coconut oil and then shaped them into graceful curves which could be dipped into her passion fruit and mango dipping sauces for a very tropical feel overall.

Selasi's lemon, anise, and raspberry flavors sounded terrific but he used an odd technique whereby he froze the batter before he fried it, which didn't work well (they burned on the outside and stayed raw on the inside). Rav seemed to be gaining confidence, especially with flavors, and attempted some unusual Japanese flavors that unfortunately didn't work; neither did Tom's fennel flavors (too savory), and his batter was overcooked and dry, though his idea to make the churros look like snakes in the grass was very creative. Stressed looking Kate attempted churros shaped like rabbit heads and flavored with ginger and nutmeg, but they somehow got a bit smushed (Paul said they looked like run-over bunnies) and they got way too soaked in oil. I felt for Kate when she said simply "It's just a bad bake."

At the end of the day, it was poor Kate who got sent home from the tent, a move that surprised me a great deal as I had placed her in the top tier of the remaining bakers last week. I think Paul knew the audience would likely be surprised; he went out of his way to say that Kate was not one of the poorest bakers overall, but that this weekend she had been, and that's why they had to tell her good-bye. Rav and Tom, who both struggled hard all weekend too, looked relieved to have dodged elimination.

I was happy to see Benjamina take home star baker this week, something I think she richly deserved as she was consistent through all three bakes. Candice and Andrew were not far behind her, but wobbled more than she did. Selasi, Val, and Jane seemed firmly in the middle.

It's been an interesting series so far because in these first four episodes, no one has yet repeated the star baker designation (unlike series 6, where Ian got off to a fast start with three early star baker weeks). However, also unlike some other series, no one who has won star baker so far (Jane, Candice, Tom, Benjamina) has been sent home yet. We're down to eight bakers, half of whom have made it to the top. Will one of those four repeat next week, or will we see one of the other four (Selasi, Rav, Val, Andrew) manage their first rise to the top? Andrew feels overdue for the accolades, but Benjamina and Candice, the most emotional bakers in the tent thus far, seem to be gaining a great deal of confidence.

On to pastry week!

Great British Bake Off Series 7, Episode 3 (Recap With Spoilers)

I know, you're beginning to think I can't blog about anything but bake off! But this week, following a long day of medical tests and evaluations yesterday, I needed to relax early with the newest episode.

It was bread week in the tent this week, always one of my favorite weeks. Emcee Sue was back to her regular job of co-hosting with Mel. Paul and Mary were in their usual challenging form as judges, with Paul seeming like he'd gotten out of the wrong side of the bed on day one. Mary chastised him for grumpiness, and he made contestants cry, bite their lips, sigh, look anxious, and sometimes just laugh rather helplessly. Bread is his specialty and seems to bring out an extra layer of arrogance in Paul. I honestly thought some of his harsher comments were unnecessary, but then I much prefer Mary's honest but usually thoughtful critiques.

The week's three challenges included:

• The signature bake, which was to create any kind of chocolate bread they wanted (they were given two and a half hours)
• The technical bake: the creation of a dozen dampfnudel (plural apparently dampfnudeln), which are steamed German dumplings (they also had to make plum sauce and vanilla custard to go with them)
• The showstopper bake: plaited bread centerpieces that used three different kinds of flour

I mentioned the time limit on the signature bake because it seemed to me that every single baker could have used an extra half hour. I understand the time limits are there to test them, but when you set ten good bakers a task that most of them can't seem to complete with much success because their breads are "underbaked" or "just need a few more minutes," then I'm not sure it's entirely fair. The one who seemed smartest was ginger haired Andrew, who chose a simpler bread recipe than everyone else and only had to proof it once (proofing, or proving, means to let the bread rise). Everyone else had a two proof bake which resulted in underbaked loaves; Paul kept throwing the word "raw" around, which seemed to make most of them twitch in annoyance or embarrassment.

In fact, he made Candice cry by refusing to even eat her chocolate and salted caramel brioche.To be fair, one he realized he'd made her cry, he backpedaled and tried to be encouraging, but it was a bit too little too late. I appreciated that Rav came over and gave Candice a hug after that. Paul glared at the smallness of Rav's cardamom, chocolate, and hazelnut loaf, but ended up complimenting him in the end (it was small enough that it actually baked through, unlike some of his fellow competitors' loaves). Paul actually got into an argument with Benjamina, who was making what she called a babka with what sounded like a great flavor combination of dark chocolate, almond, and tahini. Paul insisted that what she was making was not a babka but a couronne, but she wouldn't back down. No matter, she underbaked it and he stayed so grumpy when he tried it that he actually told her that its consistency was like wallpaper paste.

Paul likewise seemed initially unhappy that Andrew was only proving his chocolate chip barmbrack (a traditional Irish bread) once, but in the end he decided it had been a smart choice and approved both the taste and texture. He and Mary both liked Tom's bake too, especially his flavors -- chocolate, orange, and chili. Tom has definitely moved out in front as the baker who knows his flavors and isn't afraid to experiment. Michael tried putting chili with his chocolate too, but the balance was off and they thought it was too strong. Jane, who seemed tired and worried for much of the first day, made a couronne (a crown shaped loaf of bread) but spread her yummy looking chocolate mixture a little too thickly. Once again, it was declared underbaked.

If it seems like the name Paul has come up a lot, it has! It was definitely a Paul focused week, which continued into the technical, where he chose the bake they had to do. This week it was an odd but interesting one: steamed German dumplings called dampfnudel, which none of them had ever heard of (me either). It's worth watching the historic segment in this section, where Mel travels to Germany to learn about the bread's history. It's also worth watching to see lovably goofy Val, who has not had a consistent series, rise to the top (pun intended) and win the technical. She's the oldest baker left in the tent, and made a laughing and gracious comment about having had more years to learn to make dumplings than any of the rest of the them. Andrew continued his solidity by coming in second, red-lipsticked Candice redeemed the collapsed loaf and tears of the morning by coming in third, and Tom continued his strong day by coming in fourth. Selasi, who seemed a little off all weekend, finished fifth.

And on we go to the showstopper. The rainy first day gave way to what looked like a bright and sunny spring day...the cinematographer got in a lovely Wordsworthian shot of yellow daffodils before we got down to business with plaited loaf centerpieces. Happily, most of the bakers did well (or at least better) than they had the day before, with some of them turning out really lovely bakes. My favorite by far was Kate's gorgeous braided angel loaf -- if she had managed a better first day, I don't think anything could have stopped her from winning star baker. Andrew made an incredibly cool looking rye basket with a braided handle, which apparently also tasted good.

Tom made a very weird looking thing that was supposed to be Thor's hammer and featured all sorts of odd but apparently bold and once again delicious flavors, including the use of seaweed. He knocked it out of the park texture wise. Michael tried to draw on his Cypriot heritage in serving up plaited breads featuring olives (the breads were shapes that symbolized the flag of Cyprus) but apparently both taste and texture were all off. 

Jane's pesto infused plaited bread was beautiful and apparently scrumptious. Val fell flat with a creative idea for a Noah's ark with animals. The animals were apparently hard to tell apart; in fact, Mary wasn't sure where the ark ended and the animals started, and Paul once again declared it raw, though he conceded it smelled amazing. Benjamina won back Paul's respect with wonderfully designed bread whose flavors of herbs and onions and well baked texture won her the accolade of "gorgeous" in triplicate. I loved the lovely smile of relief and delight that spread over her face when she heard that! Selasi's breads were hit or miss (some got "well dones" and others not) and they weren't pleased with the overall design or plaiting. Similarly, Candice was told one of her loaves was good and the other was a complete mess, leaving her absolutely sure she was the baker heading home.

But in point of fact, it wasn't Candice who got the boot this week...it was Michael, the youngest baker in the tent. His struggles throughout the weekend really seemed to culminate in the showstopper, over which Paul and Mary couldn't seem to find one good thing to say. Star baker went to Tom, which surprised me a little (though I'm not sure why, as he'd been solid all weekend) but not as much as it surprised him. He seemed downright shocked, and of course thoroughly pleased.

What do I think will happen next? I'm not sure. Val keeps managing to slip through to the next round despite inconsistencies. She's such a likable lady that I can't help feeling glad, but I keep thinking the next week could be the week she doesn't make it. Likewise, I've not been hugely impressed in the past couple of weeks with Selasi. He's such a nice, relaxed man, but his relaxation doesn't always seem to serve him well when it comes to details. Rav impressed me a lot more this week than he did last, so I think I'd put him safely in the middle for now. Candice has it in her to do excellent things, but she is so hard on herself that I'm not sure how far she'll make it.

My favorite bakers currently are Andrew, Kate, Benjamina, and Jane, probably in that order. I would have awarded Andrew star baker this week. Tom's bakes keep not impressing me visually as much as some of the others, but apparently they taste amazing, so I think he needs to stay in the top tier. Plus as Paul reminded us in this episode, in every series so far, the star baker from bread week has ended up in the final. So there is that to consider.

On to batter week! That's a new one for the bake off and I'm not sure what to expect. Among other things, it looks like they will be making pancakes and using oil fryers in the showstopper. It should be fun. Then again, it always is. 

Great British Bake Off, Series Seven Episode 2 (Recap with Spoilers)

The GBBO continued on its merry (or should I say berry?) way this week. Judges Mary and Paul were in fine form, though presenter Mel had to carry the whole presenting load minus her faithful sidekick Sue, who missed the filming due to a death in the family. Mel did a great job on her own, and Sue did some voice-over work and an historic tidbit, so we didn't miss her entirely, but I'll be glad when they're working in tandem again.

Since Pastor Lee made his exit in week 1, we were down to eleven bakers. The theme of the week was biscuits. Before any fellow American viewers begin to salivate about honey, butter, or gravy, I should remind you that biscuit is the British term for cookie.

And cookies (or biscuits, as I will hereafter refer to them) were everywhere in the tent this week, including the floor as Louise accidentally knocked over one of her batches while removing them from the oven. Or was that Val? It might have been both. Obviously pressure is still getting to folks inside the bunting decorated baking tent.

The three challenges for this week were as follows:

•  Signature bake: make two dozen biscuits, uniform in their shape and size, and iced
• Technical bake: make a dozen Viennese whirls (a recipe from judge Mary Berry, which you can see here)
• Showstopper: make a "gingerbread story" -- essentially a gingerbread structure, at least 30 cm high, which had to contain 8 figures or objects also made out of gingerbread. The entire scene had to tell some kind of story that meant something to the baker

I don't often feel the "oh, I could do that" with any of the bakeoff challenges, but I confess I did feel that way with the signature. It didn't seem like it should be too hard to make two dozen good looking, good tasting biscuits, and then get them decorated and iced nicely within the time allotted. I must have been wrong about that, however, because lots of the bakers had trouble.

For sheer style, I don't think anything beat Andrew's hexagon shaped biscuits iced with yellow icing and decorated with bees piped on freehand. They were adorable, and I agreed with Andrew that Paul's judgment that they tasted "stale" seemed a little harsh. Andrew just went for a softer biscuit, a shortbread kind of thing, which seemed allowable, only Paul was into wanting crispy biscuits that snapped when you broke them or made cool little clinking sounds when you tapped them on a china plate (prelude to dunking them....apparently Paul thinks most baked goods should be dunkable).

Welsh Louise's idea for a flock of sheep biscuits was great, and they looked very cute, though not very uniform -- somehow some of her sheep ended up bigger than others which made for accuracy, I guess, since that's probably true of a real flock of sheep. This was sternly frowned upon in a biscuit flock, however. Michael's beer mug biscuits (yes, seriously, he shaped and decorated them to look like foamy pints of beer) won cute points too, and he did a good job making them all look alike. Apparently they also were spot on for flavor, with orange, chocolate, and malt featuring. Benajmina's biscuits also featured chocolate and orange, and they looked beautiful, sort of paddle shaped bouquets of flowers.

The other biscuits were not so memorable in my mind, except for the fact that they showcased bakers running out of time. First week's star baker, Jane, shaped her biscuits to resemble flowers in pots, but ran out of time icing them so they looked half-done and not very colorful. Charmingly funny Val told a sweet story about her dad not being able to give them ice cream treats very often when they were kids, but making sure they had them in later years at family get togethers. Her ice cream cone shaped biscuits again looked adorable, but weren't fully iced. Rav had this ripping idea to make biscuits shaped like the bunting flags in the tent and decorate them with the Union Jack pattern (veddy, veddy British) but his icing seemed runny and they looked messy. Oh! And I almost forgot, but Selasi made these very cool biscuits shaped like motorbikes and iced in bright red icing. He actually added chilies to these biscuits, which seemed odd but apparently worked out taste-wise.

On to the technical bake, which again didn't seem terribly hard, as long as you could figure out how to pipe wavy, star-like batter to make the little top and bottom rounds. And then have the swirls hold up in the oven. Apparently it helps if you put the batter in the fridge for a bit before baking, but this being the technical, such instructions were not given. Some of the bakers had a hunch the batter would work better cold, but some didn't. These were sandwich biscuits, so in addition to making the biscuits, you also had to be able to whip up buttercream and jam and get those piped inside the sandwich so that the whole effect was tidy and pleasing...apparently not easy to do when bakeoff pressure is on. Last's week's calm, cool, and collected contestant, Selasi, couldn't seem to get these little sandwich biscuits to hold up for anything. His tops lost their swirls while baking and everything just seemed to crumble. Astonishingly, he finished in last place. First place kudos went to brownie master and mum Kate, with Jane and Benjamina not far behind in second and third.

The showstopper was both interesting and messy. Interesting because it was enjoyable to see what scenes the bakers felt could showcase both their talents and a memory or story they loved, and messy because trying to get gingerbread structures to hold up is really hard. Unflappable Jane was actually heard to mutter "I hate gingerbread" (or perhaps it was "I never want to see gingerbread again," but you get the gist). Young Michael told a lovely story about how his gingerbread structure, a replica of Santa's workshop, was inspired by his first visit to Santa when he was a kid. The story held up better than the gingerbread, but then that was also true for bride-to-be Louise, whose church structure completely collapsed in a mess of white icing, and sunny Val, who didn't look so sunny as her New York City landmarks collapsed in what some online commentators have since referred to in post-apocalyptic terms.

The shining examples in the showstopper, in my opinion, came through Selasi's church and Andrew's Cambridge bridge. The latter was especially stunning in its precision and detail and the judges thought it tasted great, which was not the case for Kate's brownie troop outing, which looked lovely but apparently didn't have much taste going for it. Andrew's bridge seemed far and away the best of the lot until it got overshadowed by Candice's pub -- she created a very detailed replica of the pub her family owned when she was growing up, complete with a pool table covered in lime jelly and a sticky ginger carpet. I liked it fine, but the judges seemed completely wowed by it.

Which is why Candice -- surprise! -- took home star baker this week. Which was less surprising than who had to leave the show: Louise. It was definitely down to either Louise or Val getting the boot, and I called Louise before it happened, primarily because they'd both tanked in the first and last bakes, but Val did significantly better than Louise in the technical.

So here's my take on what might happen next and who might be a bit wobbly going into week three...

My favorite bakers so far are Benjamina, Andrew, Jane, and Selasi. I think Andrew is due for a star baker designation soon. Selasi is one of my favorites to watch, mostly because he's so kind and generous to other bakers in addition to being cool under fire. He reminds me a bit of Tamal in that regard -- can you tell I still miss the season 6 bakers? Benjamina is also delightful to watch. I would enjoy seeing her zoom to the top and maybe win the whole thing.

I would still put Candice in the second tier, along with Tom, Kate, and Michael. I honestly keep forgetting about Michael, maybe because he's so quiet, but I think he could surprise some folks and stick around a while. Candice reminds me a lot of Flora at this point, not in her looks (hard to imagine Flora wearing fuchsia lipstick) but in the ways she worries and makes bakes more complicated than they need to be. I think she could stick around a good bit too. I can't quite figure out Tom -- he seems to always be trying odd and unusual things, which could either push him to the forefront or cause him to crash.


I think Rav and Val are on the bottom level at this point. Val has established herself as the contestant who has trouble with timing, and if she has another week as challenging as this one, I think she's gone. Rav hasn't done anything truly awful, but neither has he done anything terribly solid. His work this past week just looked lackluster, right down to the fact that he burned his gingerbread.

But you never can tell. Bread week is just around the corner, one of my favorite weeks! Someone we're not expecting might step up and shine. That's the beauty of bakeoff.

P.S. Cinematographer got in a great shot of a pine bough with a drop of rain this week.

Great British Bake off Series 7, Episode 1 (Recap with Spoilers)

Thanks to someone lively and enterprising, I got to watch the first episode of series 7 of the Great British Bake off on YouTube today.

I love this show, and waiting a year or longer for episodes to come to the States (some series have never aired here) is difficult. I don't know if I'll get to catch every week as it airs, but I plan to watch it as often as I can. This is the first time I've managed to catch a new series right as it starts, so for fun I thought I would blog my thoughts about the contestants and the baking. If you're a fan of a show, but not watching this series yet, be warned....spoilers ahead. Each week I manage to watch, I'll post who the star baker was and who left the show, as well as my thoughts about who's looking like a likely winner.

So let's get right to it, shall we?

What a delight it was to see the beautiful white tent in the distance, the green countryside, and our loopy but lovable emcees Mel and Sue, not to mention our eminent and respected judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.

As usual, we start off with twelve brand new contestants, all of whom have a bad case of nerves. The first show of each series always seems to give us insight into how each one handles stress, because there's always some to be had the first time they try a technical bake or face the judges.

Getting to know the different personalities of the bakers is at least half my fascination with this show, but the first hour there are really too many of them for all of them to make a strong impression. As usual, a few stood out more than others.

First, the women and how they came across: Jane Beedle, a 61 year old who designs gardens, radiates humility and unflappability. Val Stones, a 66 year old retired primary school teacher, is charmingly ditzy but her smiling vagueness sometimes translates into baking mistakes. Kate, a 37 year old mum, likes to bring fresh ingredients from her own farm, a little reminiscent of Ian and his wild ingredients in series 6. Candice Brown, a 31 year old physical education teacher, is slender and striking looking, partly because of the way her brown lipstick (a nod to her name?) defines her expressive mouth. Benjamina Ebeuhi has my favorite name and my favorite eyes, which tend to look anxious a lot. The anxious bakers are often the best ones. Louise Williams, a 46 year old blonde hairdresser, somehow looks as though she has more strength and warmth than her initial nervousness let us see.

Then there are my first impressions of the series 7 men: Rav Bansall, a 28 year old who works with university students and wears a nice smile and a handsome turban (exotic headgear reminiscent of Nadiya's headscarves last year). Tom Gilliford, a 26 year old who works as a "project engagement manager" (not fully sure what that is) for the Royal Society of Arts, and who likes to add booze to his bakes -- there's always one of those every series, it seems! Then there's Lee Banfield, a gray-haired 67 year old pastor whose gentleness is evident. He's the oldest contestant this year. The youngest is Michael Georgiou, a 19 or 20 year old university student, who has a nervous grin and ears that stick out sort of sweetly. Selasi Gbormittah is a muscular 30 year old financier, whose laid back attitude allowed him to take things in stride even when they didn't seem to be going his way. Andrew Smyth, a 25 year old aerospace engineer, has flaming red hair and sometimes flaming cheeks to match. He seems mild and easily embarrassed; you get the sense that he was probably an awkward boy genius in his not too distant adolescence.

I'm always interested to see how the contestants connect with each other early on. The main connection I noticed was the kind give and take between Selasi and Candice. Candice helped him out with winning advice when he forgot an ingredient in his signature bake (she suggested he put the cinnamon in his syrup, instead of remaking his whole cake, something Paul Hollywood later lauded him for). When Candice fell apart in the next day's showstopper, her face looking tragic and teary, we heard Selasi whisper words of encouragement to her.

Tears this week? Yes, at least two bakers out and out cried -- the aforementioned Candice and Benjamina, also in her showstopper -- and two more seemed glinty with near tears: Jane when she got a good word from the judges and Louise when she didn't.

Paul seemed unusually harsh this week, even for Paul. He says that they're going back to "basics" this series, but that it means judging will be even harder since they're keeping the challenges simpler. I'm pretty sure I heard him use the words "awful," "terrible," and one more pronouncement I can't remember exactly but which made me wince. Mary was her usual gentle self, saving most of her kinder come-downs for a green-tea cake that she said tasted like grass and a shiny blue icing that was just...well...too blue.

The bakes this week included a drizzle cake in the signature (cake made moist with a drizzle of usually fruit flavored syrup), odd little chocolate iced cakes called jaffa cakes in the technical, and a genoise sponge cake iced with mirror glazed icing -- any flavor, any decoration you wanted, but Paul was hoping for simplicity. Any GBBO fan is bound to remember that the genoise sponge was the downfall of terrific baker Paul in series 6, and it was almost the downfall of several bakers this week, who couldn't seem to get the consistency right. If I didn't lose track, five of the twelve had to start over and bake cakes from scratch when their first batches came out rubbery or like pancakes. Paul actually encouraged Candice to toss one of her first cakes against the tent siding, and she actually did it (it crumbled into a mess, but plucky Sue said she'd eat it anyway).

Star baker this week went to unflappable Jane, with Selassi coming in what I guess was a close second -- they don't award second, but they do show us Mel and Sue conversing with Paul and Mary about who's in the top tier. Selassi made a gorgeous raspberry mirror cake, but I guess it couldn't top the loveliness of Jane's chocolate orange one, and she seemed more consistent overall. Quiet Pastor Lee made the first exit, having fallen significantly short in every bake. His genoise especially seemed to offend -- it was too dry, and he tried way too many layers, adding in fresh fruits instead of the cream that Mary thought it needed. Sunny Val, who likes to exercise while she bakes and says she listens to her cakes, was also in the bottom tier (Mary actually said she would need to "pull up her socks" next week, a Briticism that made me laugh).

I enjoyed watching the skills of Jane and Selassi this week and think they definitely bear watching in weeks to come, but there are some other bakers I think showed great promise even though they didn't have a perfect start. Benjamina reminded me a little of both Flora (series 6) and Ruby (series 4) in that she was terribly worried that she'd messed up royally in the showstopper and then turned out this gorgeous shiny white chocolate cake that apparently tasted delicious. Also watch out for redhaired Andrew, boy genius, who came in dead last in the technical but wowed them with a gorgeously simple but beautiful chocolate cake with lovely caramel work in the showstopper. Remember that eventual winner Nadiya, in series 6, came in last during her first technical too.

And thank goodness it rained at least once. I always love it when it rains outside the tent, giving the show's cinematographer a chance to show off a distant misty shot followed by a close up of some trailing raindrops. 

Re-Watching Downton Abbey (Series One)

I've begun to turn the corner in terms of energy and appetite, but I'm still very limited in terms of what I can do each day. I get around better on my leg than I used to, but I'm struggling with neuropathy (numbness in my feet and a little in my hands) as a result of the chemo, which is also slowing me down. In between trying to do what I can do each day, I still need to rest a lot. Enter good books, my sketch pad, and yes...library copies of the first seasons of Downton Abbey.

We finally finished watching the final series (number six) a couple of weeks ago, and I found myself feeling really sad that the show was over. I also found myself trying to remember what the Abbey was like at the beginning of the show, which originally starts in 1912 (it ends on New Years 1926). Those fourteen years covered by six seasons cover a lot of change in the characters' lives.

Last week I wound my way through series one, which covers 1912 (it begins with the sinking of the Titanic and the drowning of the would-be heirs to the estate, propelling the plot forward) through 1914 (the declaration of what would become the Great War or World War I). Here are a few things that struck me as I watched the show with 20/20 hindsight (or as my husband chuckled, with "2016 hindsight"). I'm making comments here based on the entire show, so if you've not watched the whole thing, beware of spoilers.

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The music and the house itself are magical from the very beginning. The house is clearly set up as the "main character" from the get go, and everything swirls around the estate -- how people feel about it (upstairs and down), how the family is trying to hold onto it in the midst of change, how they navigate its rooms or make the whole place run. And the music is just wonderful. I've put a collection of Downton Abbey tunes on hold and am looking forward to listening to the evocative melodies minus the narrative to see how it holds up.

Bates and Anna become fast friends from the beginning too. After everything we end up watching those two go through -- their tumultuous courtship and their angst-ridden soap-opera riddled marriage -- it was refreshing to see them as friends before all that. They quickly become allies in the house against the scheming O'Brien and Thomas and it's a delight to see the reserved Bates start to unbend and smile as he chats in the kitchen or the hallways with sweet Anna. I'm not sure I really like where they took Bates' character in subsequent seasons -- they always seem to cast doubts on whether or not he was really guilty of heinous crimes -- but watching series 1 made me remember how much I originally liked him, and helped me remember why Anna fell in love with him in the first place. They do a good job of establishing Bates' deep sense of honor and loyalty (which can sometimes make him rigid and get him in trouble). They also do a terrific job of establishing those same things in Anna which somehow aren't as rigid. I also love seeing her friendship with Lady Mary and how strong it is from the beginning as well. Mary will let down her hair (literally!) with Anna when she won't with anyone else.

The Dowager and Isobel Crawley are at daggers from the beginning too, and it just makes me laugh in delight because we know how many more years of those wonderful zingers are still to come...and yet how much of a friendship will ultimately be built between the two of them as well.

I still love Matthew Crawley and mourn the knowledge that he will only survive half of the show. It's almost impossible not to love him from the very beginning, when he toddles around the village on his bicycle, exuding sweetness and putting his foot in it with Lady Mary and scandalizing the Dowager with his middle class roots and his talk of work and weekends. We begin to see his essential kindness in the way he treats Mr. Moesley even when he feels that the work Moesley does is superfluous and pointless. You begin to realize that in some ways, learning to get used to Matthew is like a trial run for the Crawleys who are going to have to face much harder things in sons-in-laws down the pike (like the Irish nationalist chauffeur).

Lady Sybil! She's alive! I'd forgotten how much I loved Sybil and why I mourned her passing with actual tears. It's so much fun to see her in the early shows, shaking everyone up with her sprightly youth and her modern ideas. She is such necessary ballast for the family, especially for Mary and Edith.

And speaking of Edith, I had completely forgotten how utterly unlikeable she was in series one, at least a lot of the time. Kudos to the actress who does an amazing job of taking the character through one of the best character arcs in the show. Edith really matures over the years, deepening in ways we can respect and admire. It's almost impossible to reconcile the elegant, assured, and caring woman we know at the end with the insecure, pinched-face, mean-spirited young woman she is at the beginning. The best we can do is to feel sorry for her because the ultimate insecurities of the younger daughter come through from the start. But it's hard to feel too sorry for her when she's manipulating events and trying to wreck everything for her sister. I know Mary's not terribly likeable at the start either, but there feels like more depth to Mary from the beginning, even though she goes out of her way to hide it. I kept wanting to say "oh, grow up!" to Edith in exasperation, but it feels good to know that she will do exactly that.

I had forgotten how much Mrs. Patmore yells in the first series, especially at poor Daisy. Knowing how close they will grow over the years, it's a little startling to see her treating Daisy like the mere servant she is...and oy, how hard Daisy works.

Then again, they all work hard....and there are so many of them in series one. I'd forgotten just how big the downstairs staff was before the war. No wonder Mr. Carson spends the rest of the show lamenting the glory years when they had a full working staff, not the skeleton crew they end up with. The pre-war years show Downton in its full almost still 19th century glory. Maids and footmen seem to be everywhere, all of them in much more formal attire than I recalled.

Mr. Carson is such a loveable curmudgeon from the start. His devotion to Downton and to Lady Mary becomes an essentially understandable part of who he is from the very beginning. Downton is his family in ways that none of the other servants ever quite feel. I was also surprised to realize how close he and Mrs. Hughes are, despite their differences, from the very beginning....I was thinking that developed more over time. We get small glimpses into each of their pasts (Carson's time on a vaudeville stage, Mrs. Hughes' early opportunity to marry a farmer) which makes them richer characters we want to know more about. I find it interesting that the only person that Mrs. Hughes tells about the farmer's second proposal (when he comes back into her life in the episode where the fair comes to the village) is Carson. I don't know if it was my imagination or not, but Carson seemed awfully relieved that Mrs. Hughes was staying...and I don't know if that was just because he prized her skills as a housekeeper.

Daisy is another character who goes through great changes; she is lovably daft in series 1. She retains some of that daftness the whole way through, but she also grows up a lot. I had forgotten her hapless crush on Tom and her cluelessness about William's crush on her. William is just a sweetie. It's a bit hard to enjoy his presence in this first series knowing what's ahead for him in the war. 

I barely recognized Tom Branson. Golly gumdrops, as Lord Grantham might say, the early Tom and the later Tom are continents apart. I remembered, of course, that Tom was an Irish nationalist and a socialist, and that he was part of Lady Sybil's political awakening ("votes for women!") but it's a bit startling to see just how much fervor young Tom has for revolutionary politics and how much disdain he has for the English aristocracy when he essentially becomes a card carrying member of that aristocracy later in the show. I get that he comes to love the family, and that he wants them to know young Sybil (especially after her mother dies) but does it seem totally realistic that he would step so easily into the world he derided for so long? I like both manifestations of Tom (and I was especially glad he was still around to help the family after the writers killed off Matthew) but I'm just not sure that I believe in the ease of his transition from one kind of life to another.

Who remembers the back story of Cora and the Earl of Grantham? I certainly did not recall that he married Cora solely for her money (they seem to have no trouble admitting that, either of them, when Robert is bemoaning the awful fortune hunting Duke that snubs Mary) and only fell in love with her later, in their first year of marriage. Some prequel fan fiction just seems to be begging to be written here. Can you imagine the Dowager Countess' indignation over her son the Earl chasing a vulgar American in order to save the estate? Even though she would understand the practical need. No wonder she and Cora are still a little prickly with each other, even twenty years or so on.

O'Brien is just wicked this first season, though she becomes a little more sympathetic in season two (more on that season later...I've only just started watching it again). I had forgotten what a terrible influence she was on Thomas, who has moments when you wish you could like him. He is so easy to manipulate, maybe because he's hungry for friendship and respect. It's amazing the way Thomas keeps managing to keep his job at Downton, despite all of his scheming.

Gwen was an interesting character in series one, but I can see why they moved her on quickly. In many ways, she stood most symbolically for the changes that were happening in the world....for women, for the servant class. She also plays an important part in showing Lady Sybil's kindness and her openness to not just embrace change, but to be part of its unfolding. I am glad that they decided to bring Gwen back for a scene or two in the final series, as it just felt like a "full circle" sort of ending to her story. It also helped us to remember why we loved Sybil's character so much.

Downton Abbey: Seven Reasons We'll Miss Matthew Crawley

We’ve just finished watching the third series of Downton Abbey. We’ve got months to go before we can see the fourth series (just now airing in the UK; not to air in the US till January, and even later for the DVD release we’ll need to wait for) so I figure that gives me plenty of time to muse about characters we’ll miss.

If you’re a fan of Downton Abbey, you no doubt know that actor Dan Stevens, who has played Matthew Crawley for the first three series, decided not to renew his contract for the fourth season. I can only imagine the headache this caused series creator and writer Julian Fellowes, who somehow had to negotiate series 3 knowing what he was going to have to do at the end of it, and how unhappy that was going to make the show’s many fans. If you don’t know precisely what happened at the end of series 3 and you don’t want to be spoiled, read no further. From here out, if you’re still reading, I’ll assume you know or don’t mind knowing.

My goodness, we’re going to miss Matthew. In trying to figure out why I felt so terribly disappointed and saddened by his exit, I realized it wasn’t just that he was a likable character who had been at the heart of the show since the beginning. His character and his character arc were tied up in many things. Here are seven reasons I think we’ll especially miss Matthew Crawley:

1)      The romantic chemistry he shared with Mary.  These two really did have chemistry, but it was more than chemistry that made their love for each other seem so luminous. Matthew brought out the best in Mary. Simply put, he knew how to melt the porcupine prickles around her heart. In series three, after they finally came together and wed (following plenty of ups and downs in the first two series) there was something especially sweet about the ways they realized they were good for each other. More than once, Mary alluded to the fact that Matthew was the only person who truly saw her as a good person, and more than once, Matthew alluded to the fact that it was because he knew her best – helping her gently understand that the person he saw and loved was who Mary really was deep-down. I hope that Mary’s unfolding understanding of herself will continue as she matures through grief and motherhood. I also hope she will remember the laughter and kindness she shared with Matthew and maybe try to share them more with others.

2)      The levity he brought to the table. Sometimes quite literally the table – that all-important gathering place for the aristocratic Crawley clan. Matthew was able to use his outsider status to help them thaw out a bit, but more than that, he had a sprightly way of laughing at himself and others that lightened up the family. A raised eyebrow, a slight smile, a self-deprecating remark – those were Matthew’s usual trademarks. There was one scene in an episode of series 3 that made me laugh aloud, when Matthew, alone with Mary in their room, dropped onto the bed with loud sigh over some bit of charged aristocratic drama that had just unfolded downstairs. Mary was sitting primly before her mirror, touching up her hair, and here’s Matthew flopping onto the bed like a fish, letting out a gusty sigh. It cracked me up.

3)      His partnership with Robert and Tom.  This was just starting to coalesce and I will miss seeing its development. Robert (the Earl of Grantham) has had such a hard time coming to grips with the need to modernize the management of the estate. He had come to a grudging acceptance of the fact that he needed to work with the newer generation and their ideas – his two young sons-in-law. Matthew’s outsider status, as the distant solicitor cousin set to inherit, seemed dwarfed by Tom’s outsider status as Irish nationalist chauffeur who dared to marry the Earl’s youngest daughter, but nevertheless, neither grew up an English aristocrat. That grudging acceptance was turning into real respect for what each young man could bring to the partnership.

Robert’s eye-opening conversation with his Scottish cousin Shrimpy, whom he discovered (in the final episode of series 3) was losing his estate due to mismanagement and a lack of courage regarding modernizing, was interestingly timed. I’m glad we had a chance to hear Robert tell Cora how much he had come to appreciate Matthew’s contributions, but I’m sad he never had a chance to tell Matthew himself. And I’m really curious to know how Robert and Tom will work together without Matthew there to act as the gracious but stubborn buffer between them. Once again, Matthew was really good at seeing the best in people – in his old-fashioned, sometimes stuck-in-his-ways father-in-law, and in his hotheaded, still often uncomfortable-in-this-world brother-in-law. They will miss him sorely. I have some ideas how I would move this scenario forward as a writer, but I have no idea where the writer will actually go.

4)      His long-awaited and newfound joy in fatherhood. Matthew was so excited to become a daddy at long last. He radiated that joy. It is heartbreaking that he only ever saw his child one time, and that he will not be there to see his son grow up.

5)      His close relationship to his mother. Poor Isobel. She tends to get a little overlooked amidst all the flashier characters on the show, but I really love Isobel. And one thing I know for sure is how much Isobel loved and respected her only son. She helped him navigate the unexpected inheritance by moving with him into a world that she isn’t entirely comfortable in herself, and she’s not let that world change who she is at the core, continuing on her outspoken, forthright way. I worry about how Isobel will navigate her own grief over Matthew’s passing…most likely, she will stuff it. Then again, this could be an opportunity for the writers to let her character really grow. Is it possible she might rethink Dr. Clarkson’s almost-proposal? And how will she and Mary relate now that Matthew is gone…how much will Isobel want to be involved in her grandson’s upbringing?

6)      His encouragement of Edith. This one feels tiny in comparison to the others, but I’ll still miss it. Matthew has been a stalwart champion and a real confidante for Edith. (Among other things, I’m pretty sure he was the only member of the family who knows that Edith is in love with a married man with a mad wife in the attic. OK, not the attic, but you get what I mean.) Edith doesn’t get close to many people, but Matthew was someone she really trusted.

7)      The way his presence on the show constantly reminded us of the story’s beginnings. It was the sinking of the Titanic, with the heir on board, that drove Matthew to Downton in the very first episode, and it was his coming that “unsettled” this aristocratic little hamlet from the start. You could say that Matthew dropping into their lives was like a rock thrown into a puddle, and the ripples have been moving out ever since. I’ll miss seeing those ripples continue to expand, and I’ll miss the ways the show might have been able to do some neat “full-circle” kind of writing if he’d stayed with it.

And I could have added an eighth: he can’t come back. I really wonder, did his exit have to be so entirely final? Could they not have talked the actor into the possibility of occasional appearances and worked creatively around the absences? Maybe not, but oh, I wish they’d tried.