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What's Katie Doing?

Gin Travel Food

October 5, 2019

Bake with a Great British Bake Off legend

If you are anything like me, then you spend your Tuesday evenings in the Autumn following the Great British Bake Off (GBBO). The show has captured the hearts and imaginations of people around the globe, and now you too can bake with a Great British Bake Off legend! Baking with a legend is a company based in London, Brighton and Manchester, offering baking lessons with your favourite GBBO contestant. So when I was invited to attend one of their baking classes via Love Pop Ups London, I jumped at the chance!

Selfie with Great British Bake Off legend James Hillary

Me and Jo from Love Pop Ups London, with James Hillary from Bake with a Legend

*My experience baking with a legend was gifted in return for this review. As ever all opinions remain my own*

Bake with a Great British Bake Off legend

The location for London classes

For my class, I headed to Hackney in East London. Bake with a Legend use the Meringue Girls kitchen just off Broadway Market for their classes.

The pink doorway to the Meringue Girls kitchen

The entrance to the Meringue Girls kitchen

They have room for 12 people per class in this commercial kitchen, and all the equipment needed for our baking.

Inside the Meringue Girls kitchen

Our work stations set up inside the Meringue Girls kitchen

 

You are paired up to bake, so if you come on your own you will be working with someone else. This makes Bake with a Legend great for couples, or friends, and we saw all types there.

 

My bake with a legend class

I was going to be baking with James Hillary, who was on Season 8 (2017) of the Great British Bake Off. It was a chocolate themed class with an added Autumnal (or should that be Fall?) twist. The bake I was making was a chocolate s’mores tart! This has a cinnamon pastry filled with a dark chocolate ganache, topped with Swiss meringue as the ‘marshmallows’. We would make 6 tarts per couple, so would have 3 each to take home.

An example of the tarts we were making

This is what we were making

The class is three hours long, starting at 10am. I arrived just before 10, where I was greeted by founder Josh, with a well needed cup of coffee. I had an opportunity to say hi to James whilst the rest of the class arrived.

Josh the founder of Bake with a Legend with James

Josh and James talking to us before the class kicks off

We were a mixture of locals, people from the US who were obsessed with the Bake Off and a lady from Korea, who had seen the experience advertised on Air bnb.

Fancy some competitive baking? Then check out The Big London Bake

 

Ready. steady, BAKE!

Once we all donned our Bake with a Legend aprons and had washed our hands, we started baking. Each step started with James demonstrating it, before we then attempted it in our pairs.

Stainless steel work station with all ingredients ready to start

Each work station had a recipe and all the ingredients and equipment needed to make the chocolate tarts

The S’mores chocolate tarts involved the following steps:

  1. Making the cinnamon pastry
  2. Blind baking the tarts
  3. Making the chocolate ganache filling
  4. Making the Swiss meringue
  5. Piping the Swiss meringue on to the top of the filled tarts

 

Making the cinnamon pastry

James Hillary showing us how to make the pastry

James demonstrating the pastry technique

 

James with hands in the bowl of flour and butter

James getting stuck in

 

James with bowl of pastry

James bringing the pastry together – its important not to overwork it, else it will go tough

After James had demonstrated, it was my turn.

Bowl with flour and butter

All ingredients into the bowl

 

Katie with hands in the bowl

Hands in rubbing the butter into the flour

 

Katie with bowl of finished pastry

Our finished pastry

When the pastry was done, got to roll it out and cut into rounds to line the pastry tins.

James with rolled pastry

James demonstrating the pastry cutting

 

Jo rolling out the pastry

Then it was our turn!

 

Katie cutting out pastry for the tins

Look at my concentration (& double chin!)

Blind baking the tarts

As we wouldn’t be baking the filling, the pastry need to be ‘blind baked’ before filling.

Pastry lined tart tins

Our lined tins

 

Pastry with fork pricks

First you need to prick with a fork – this helps the pastry from expanding with any air bubbles

 

Tarts ready to go in the oven, weighted down with ceramic baking beads.

To further discourage the pastry from expanding and also to allow it to bake evenly, we filled the tarts with ceramic beads to weigh them down.

Whilst the tarts were baking, we could move on to the filling:

Making the chocolate ganache filling

All the equipment and ingredients needed to make the chocolate ganache

Three ingredients for the chocolate ganache – dark chocolate, cream and butter

 

Chopping the chocolate so it melts quicker

James chopping chocolate

 

Pan of cream being heated on the stove top

We then heated the cream to just under boiling, before adding the chopped chocolate in to melt it

 

Chocolate bowl being heated on the stove

We continued to melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water on the stove

 

Glossy bowl of chocolate ganache

When the chocolate was all melted, we added the butter to make the ganache lovely and glossy

We poured the ganache into our baked tart cases and smoothed the tops down, ready for the S’mores part of the dish.

Katie pouring ganache

Pouring out the chocolate ganache

 

A tray of chocolate filled tarts

Our tarts look pretty good so far!

 

Katie licking the chocolate spoon

Licking the spoon is always the best bit!

 

Making the Swiss meringue

James demonstrated the meringue making – I’ve never made Swiss meringue before (only French, which you don’t heat). We are using this meringue as the Swiss meringue method leaves you with a gooey inside to the meringue. With this meringue you need to heat it to a certain temperature, we had great fun testing the temperature with the heat gun! (Literally a ‘gun’ that you point at the bowl to see what temperature you are at – easier than a thermometer)

Cream of tartar

The ‘secret’ ingredient for our meringue – this helps the Swiss meringue rise

Whisking the egg whites on the stove

We start by whisking the egg whites in a heated bowl

 

The egg whites starting to foam

Almost there….

 

Finishing off the whisking with a machine

Giving it a final whisk when up to temperature

 

Katie with upturned bowl of meringue mixture

The true test – does it stay still when you turn it upside down? Luckily it did!

 

Piping the Swiss meringue on to the top of the filled tarts

James demonstrated how to pipe out the topping for the tarts, before browning it with a blow torch (this is really just an excuse for boys toys!).

James piping meringue

James mid pipe

 

James with blow torch in hand

Ready with the blow torch!

 

Jo piping the meringue on top of her tarts

Then it was our turn – it was tricky to pipe the meringue

 

Meringue piped on top of the chocolate tart

My piped meringue

 

Blow torching the meringue topping

Jo starting with the blow torch

The completed product

Tray of finished S'mores tarts

The finished products! They don’t look too bad, do they?

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

I don’t *just* drink gin you know! . [ad as gifted] I baked with the legend James Hillery @cluckmuckcook alongside Jo from @lovepopupslondon . Given the season we made s’mores tarts – a combination of cinnamon pastry, a chocolate ganache, topped with a Swiss meringue as marshmallow . It was great to share a cup of tea & glass of Prosecco with our bakes as we quizzed James over his @britishbakeoff experiences – thanks @bakewithalegend ! . You can bake with various baking legends in London, Manchester and Brighton – check out the @bakewithalegend website for more info, my full review is coming to the blog soon! . #whatskatiedoingblog #bakewithalegend #jameshillery #smorestart #smoretarts #discoverunder10k #lovepopupslondon #bakeoff #bakingclass #londonbakes #pastyweek #katiebakes #nohandshake #chocolatetarts #chocolatetartlets #tastybakes #greatbritishbakeoff #GBBO

A post shared by Gin🍸| Travel✈️| Food🍴 (@whatskatiedoing) on Sep 22, 2019 at 10:43am PDT

 

Three tarts in a cake box for transportation

My tarts packed in the box, ready to take home

 

Finishing up the class

We finished up our class with a Q&A session with James over prosecco and tasters of the tarts he had made.

Table with glasses of prosecco

Prosecco at the ready!

 

Samples of Smores tart and prosecco glasses

My sample of Smore’s tart washed down with prosecco

It was great to taste the fruits of our (James’) efforts, without eating our own tarts. I got to take home three tarts, which was great for sharing with friends to show my baking prowess.

James and Yanni from Great British Bake Off season 8

As we were talking to James, Yanni popped in!

The chat at the end was very illuminating about the show, how they make it and various things that go on behind the scenes. We were pleasantly surprised to see Yanni pop in too – she was meeting James for coffee after our class. If you are a GBBO fan, then you’ll love this one on one time with the show contestants.

 

The Verdict

I loved this experience. James was very welcoming and approachable from the start of the class. Whilst we had a few technical steps in our bake, we were able to pick these up easily with the instruction and support from James. I really appreciated getting the inside tips & tricks, and information from behind the scenes from the Great British Bake Off show.

Katie and Jo with rolling pin and blow torch

Jo and I ready to go!

This class is ideal for a shared experience with a partner or friend. But it’s especially great if you or your friend/partner is a baking or GBBO geek! I can’t give anything away in this post, but we learnt a lot about the programme, the characters and how GBBO works behind the scenes, which makes this baking class unique.

Do you want to Bake with a Great British Baking Legend?

 

Classes to bake with a legend are £99 per person, or £190 for two. You can even order vouchers for presents or if you can’t chose a particular date.

Check out the classes online to see which baking legend is baking which recipes and to book:

Book your bake with a legend class here

 

Thanks to Bake with a Legend for hosting me and to Love Pop Ups London for the opportunity!

 

Bake with a Great British Bake Off Legend in London

Pin me for your London activity planning

 

 

 

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Related

Filed Under: food, London, recipes, UK Tagged With: Baking with a Legend, Great British Bake Off

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lindsey Puls says

    October 11, 2019 at 6:17 pm

    What a cool experience! I would love to try this once I get to London. Your tarts look fantastic!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      October 11, 2019 at 6:18 pm

      Do you watch the bake off Lindsey? Even if you don’t this is a great baking experience (& the tarts were tasty!)

      Reply
  2. Farrah says

    October 21, 2019 at 9:29 pm

    haha, I’m actually watching GBBO as I type this! 😛 That’s so cool that you got to go to one of their baking classes! The s’mores tart looks awesome! <3

    Reply
    • Katie says

      October 21, 2019 at 9:35 pm

      I think you’d like this class then Farrah!

      Reply

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