Heel Holland Bakt talk #4: underbaked crust costs you your (royal) head
We’re getting to know the contestants of Heel Holland Bakt better and better. Hey, wait, don’t we see that familiar face from our coins?
Insta-worthy
Maybe the assignments for the bakers are devised by Robèrt and Janny, maybe there’s an editorial team of bright minds behind them—it’s unclear. What is clear is that the people who came up with them had been inspired by what’s being baked on Instagram and Pinterest, because every assignment resulted in a truly Insta-worthy little cake.
Lemon meringue is a kind of master test for every food blogger and vlogger, the apple-rosette tarts from the technical challenge look like a further development of those life-hack-style videos showing how to whip up attractive treats for an entire kindergarten class in the blink of an eye, using two wrinkled apples and a few slices of puff pastry, and the showstoppers are apparently a French hit: cakes made with fruit that look like fruit.
Something with lots of egg, but vegan
So the first challenge is a lemon meringue, the classic. Packed with eggs, for example in the curd, and butter. But Anouk doesn’t do that—she bakes it vegan. How? She makes the foam from aquafaba, the liquid from chickpeas—but don’t tell people that beforehand, Anouk advises, and nobody will taste the difference. Robèrt calls it ‘interesting’, which is often a diplomatic way of saying: ridiculous. He comes back to that while tasting: he is ‘pleasantly surprised.’ Robèrt does get a ‘puckered face’ from those lemon tarts, but that has nothing to do with veganism.
Incognito among the bunch of grapes
Willem Alexander took part in the Elfstedentocht incognito as W.A. van Buren. Because of climate change, there will be no new Tour of Tours in the coming years. It makes sense that our king has shifted his field of work. To fine patisserie, that is. Suddenly it became noticeable: that Johan, with the reddish beard and cheerful expression—is he really a cheese farmer from Groningen? Or is the first name Johan a reference to Johan van Oldebarnevelt, the pensionary of the fatherland at the end of the sixteenth century? And is it actually Willem Alexander struggling with choux pastries that have to form a bunch of grapes? The physical similarities are striking.
Baked, half-baked, underbaked
Is the crust done properly? That is the big question of this episode. Everyone struggles with it: are the apple-rosette tarts baked through, is the crust of the lemon meringue tart browned, and are the lifelike cherries actually cooked enough? Tricky, because an underbaked crust is punished: Janny and Robèrt prod it critically with a fork and hum disapprovingly. Esther is ‘disappointed in the crust’ she kneaded for too short a time, Aline has apple tarts with a dark crust, and Jeroen’s pastry is a little too thick. It can even cost you your head: cheese farmer Johan (for those in the know: WA) had to leave the competition because of his underbaked tart.
Low point
‘You were supposed to make a 3D cake, not double D!’ Police officer Jeroen has made two large balls of cherry mousse. Plus some suggestive giggling. Uh, no.
High point
That coconut cake by Pauline looked fantastic, and not difficult to make at all! Just stack some sponge cake bases into a barrel shape, spread them with chocolate, fill with coconut and… oh, actually, pretty difficult after all.
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