Kim-Joy will be watching the new series of The Great British Bake Off, which kicks off on September 24, alongside the rest of the nation – but with an added layer of anxiety.
The Leeds-based baker participated in the 2018 season, making the final alongside alongside Ruby Bhogal and eventual winner Rahul Mandal. She suggests that she gets flashbacks when watching the show – and it’s not always pleasant.
“I love Bake Off. I love seeing the technicals and what people create and the challenges, although it’s stressful for me to watch – so I’ve got to be ready,” says Kim-Joy, who has just published her latest cookbook, Bake Joy: Easy And Imaginative Bakes To Bring You Happiness (Quadrille, £16.99).
“Seeing people pick up their bake and walking up to the gingham altar – that moment waiting for feedback is like, argh!”
No one will be judging Kim-Joy’s bakes this season, but she’s well-versed in the Bake Off lexicon and so is well placed to decode what judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood might be saying. If you’re new to the show, she’s broken down some of the key bits of lingo that might come up…
Soggy bottom
“Everyone knows what soggy bottom is, right? It tends to apply to pastries like a lemon tart – if your pastry on the bottom is soggy rather than crisp. You want to blind bake it so it’s nice and crisp – and never soggy, because soggy is bad.
“It doesn’t tend to apply to like cakes or bread – it can do, but it’s mostly pastries.”
It’s simply not Pastry Week without a soggy bottom in the Bake Off Tent. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/w6v1BBOzlX
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) October 26, 2021
Tempering
“Tempering is referring to chocolate. I always love the phrase tempering because it sounds like your chocolate’s angry, like it’s got a temper and you need to make it behave.
“But that kind of is what tempering is – you melt your chocolate and it gets a bit angry – if we let it set, it’s not very good, because it’s angry. [It’s] chocolate that’s all soft and doesn’t have a nice snap.
“But if you temper it, then you make it behave, and do all these temperature stuff and stirring it, feeding it chocolate, then it sets with a nice snap and shine.”
Proving
“In real life, it’s like you’re proving yourself. But in baking life, [when] you are proving your bread, it is rising.
“You prove it before you shape it, then you shape it, then you prove it again. I always think of it as your bread is proving itself that it’s going to be good bread.”
Bake Off is back.
Tuesday 24th September. 8pm. Channel 4. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/Y1R4CeeBO0
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 11, 2024
Creme pat
“A creme pat is short for creme patissiere, which is like custard basically. I would think of it as a piping custard. Creme anglaise is like a thinner custard – they’re all just fancy ways to say custard.
“I like eating a creme pat. I don’t actually enjoy making a creme pat that much, because I don’t enjoy stirring things on the hob. I get bored and impatient.”
Claggy
“Claggy is not a good word to hear. You want ‘moist’ in your bakes, but claggy is like there’s too much moisture, combined with a denseness that is not appetising.
“It does sound bad, but sometimes you kind of enjoy having a little bit of claggy – like a bread and butter pudding. That’s always claggy, but it’s good.
“But claggy is when it’s moist and dense – but in a bad way.”
Bake Joy: Easy And Imaginative Bakes To Bring You Happiness by Kim-Joy is published by Quadrille on August 29, priced £16.99. Photography by Ellis Parrinder.
