The baking talk heats up! With only five bakers left in the competition, and (possibly?) a Fairytale Week on the horizon, Lisa, Cristina, Steven and Vincent break down the birthday pie signature challenge, swooning over flavour choices and intricate sugar work. We debate par-baking versus raw crusts, share favorite pie plate materials, and even wander into savory pie territory...cheese, onions, caviar, and all.

This week, the bakers tackled the tricky Egyptian Lenza technical challenge, and we swap shortcuts for pomegranate prep and suggest possible alternatives for home bakers. It’s a mix of laughter, learning, and layered pastry talk: just the way Baking Scraps listeners like it. There’s plenty of friendly disagreement about whether to par-bake or risk it all, whether puff pastry should be sprinkled with a spoonful of sugar or left bare, and whether to use glass or metal pie plates - and we can’t resist a few tangents about flavor pairings that might be a little too adventurous for our own kitchens. When the technical challenge arrives, we collectively question the sanity of attempting something so complex under time pressure, and somehow end up swapping ideas for how we’d “simplify” it… which, of course, get increasingly elaborate as we talk.

Discussion of the Mille Feuille Showstopper brings out everyone’s inner pastry artist, and by the end, we celebrate the baker who won the Star Baker crown this week, reflect sadly on another departure, and hope against hope that the “Curse of the Star Baker” is not a real thing.

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