Paul’s S’mores | Bake Off Technical Challenge

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Another week of the Great British Bake Off has come and gone and so another week of Technical Challenges is complete! Last week was the Bake Off’s first-ever Halloween week and for the Technical Challenge Paul Hollywood asked the bakers to make S’mores. This American treat consists of two digestive biscuits (I believe in America you would use Graham crackers), sandwiched with a dark and silky chocolate ganache and a sweet and sticky marshmallow. I even managed to get my blowtorch out for this challenge which was very fun! Check out the video and recipe below to see how I got on!

Check out the video here:

How to make Paul’s S’mores

Luckily, I have made Chocolate Digestive Biscuits before, and made the Wagon Wheel Technical Challenge a few years ago, so I had a little previous experience for this recipe!

The digestive biscuits are very easy to make if you have a food processor, as you can just whizz everything up into a dough! Although using your hands in this part would have been just as easy! Paul’s recipe called for using wheat germ in this recipe, but as this was quite expensive to buy and I didn’t think it was 100% necessary, I just left it out and it worked fine (see recipe below).

For the marshmallow, the original recipe called for corn syrup, which I have since found out is a very American ingredient that seems impossible to buy in the UK (at least where I checked). Luckily, I used golden syrup as an alternative which worked just as well, however, I do find it annoying that a recipe from the Great BRITISH Bake Off includes ingredients that you cannot buy in Britain… Oh well, I found a way around it.

More Bake Off Technical Challenges

I am absolutely obsessed with the Great British Bake Off and have challenged myself to attempt all of (or at least the ones that are “realistic” – I won’t be making pitta breads on a camp fire in the back garden!) the technical challenges from the programme! I have tried quite a few already, so make sure you check out some of the other recipes and see how I got on!

• Mary Berry’s Religieuses
• Mary Berry’s Fraisier Cake
• Paul Hollywood’s Hand-raised Chicken, Bacon and Apricot Pies
• Mary Berry’s Bakewell Tart with feathered Icing
• Paul’s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
• Mary Berry’s Frosted Walnut Layer Cake
• Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf
• Mary Berry’s Homemade Jaffa Cakes
• Paul Hollywood’s Wagon Wheel Biscuits
• Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Cake
• Paul Hollywood’s Mini Pork Pies
• Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls
• Prue’s Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts (S2UC Special)
• Pizza Star Bread (Junior Bake Off)
• Mary Berry’s Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake
• Paul’s Crusty White Cob
• Paul Hollywood’s Rainbow Bagels
• Prue Leith’s Malt Loaf
• Paul’s Jammy Biscuits
• Paul Hollywood’s Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks with Homemade Tzatziki
• Prue Leith’s Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles
• Prue Leith’s Prinzregententorte
• Paul Hollywood’s Baklava (22cm)
• Paul’s Caramel Biscuit Bars (Twix)
• Prue Leith’s Vegan Sausage Rolls
• Prue’s Sablé Breton Cake
• Paul Hollywood’s Sticky Belgian Buns
• Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
• Prue’s Garibaldi Biscuits with Feathered Chocolate Icing
• Paul Hollywood’s Pain au Raisins
• Paul’s Spicy Beef Tacos
• Paul Hollywood’s S’mores
• Prue Leith’s Pistachio Praline Ice Cream Cones
• Vegetable Spring Rolls
• Prue’s Vertical Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Raspberry Tarts
• Paul Hollywood’s Devonshire Splits

Paul’s S’mores | Bake Off Technical Challenge

Recipe

Ingredients

FOR THE MARSHMALLOW

• 50g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• A little vegetable oil, for greasing
• 4 leaves of gelatine
• 3 egg whites
• ¾ tsp cream of tartar
• 125g caster sugar
• 175g maple syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste

FOR THE DIGESTIVE BISCUITS

• 170g wholemeal flour, plus a little plain flour for rolling out
• 110g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
• 75g light brown soft sugar
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp salt
• 4 tbsp milk

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

• 100g 52-54% dark chocolate, finely chopped (I use Lidl’s or Dr. Oetker’s Chocolate for Baking)
• 100ml double cream

YOU WILL ALSO NEED

• Baking paper
• 20x24cm tin (I have this adjustable baking frame)
• Sugar thermometer (I use this one)
• 5cm round biscuit cutter
• Two baking trays
• Small piping bag

Method

1. Start by preparing the marshmallow. Mix together the cornflour and icing sugar in a small bowl. Line a 20x24cm (roughly) cake tin with baking paper, then lightly grease with some vegetable oil and sprinkle over half of the cornflour/icing sugar mix. This will stop the marshmallow from sticking. Set aside the tin until needed.
2. Add the four sheets of gelatine to a bowl with cold water and leave to soak for 5-10 minutes until softened. Then roughly chop it into small bits.
3. In a large bowl (ideally of a free-standing mixer), whisk together the egg whites and cream of tartar until the mixture reaches stiff peaks. In the meantime, add the golden syrup and caster sugar to a saucepan. Gently warm until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat and bring the sugar syrup to the boil until it reaches 115°C on a sugar thermometer.
4. With the mixer on low, carefully pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow but steady stream, then continue to whisk for 2-3 minutes until the marshmallow is very thick and glossy. Gradually add the gelatine to the mix a little at a time, mixing well between each addition to make sure it dissolves. Finally, whisk in the 2 tsp of vanilla bean paste.
5. Transfer the marshmallow into the prepared baking tin and leave to set at room temperature for 1-1.5 hours.
6. To make the biscuit dough, tip all the ingredients apart from the milk into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (alternatively, do this by hand by rubbing the butter into the flour, baking powder and salt, then adding the sugar). Gradually add the milk a little at a time (you may not need all of it), until the mixture comes together in a dough. Press into a disk, then wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
7. In the meantime, prepare the chocolate ganache. Finely chop the dark chocolate and place into a heatproof bowl. Warm the milk in a saucepan until just below boiling point, then pour it over the chopped chocolate. Cover the bowl with a large plate and leave to stand for one minute. Then use a wooden spoon or spatula to stir everything together until all the chocolate has completely melted to make a thick, smooth ganache. If not all the chocolate has melted, place the bowl over a pan with simmering water to carefully melt it. Set aside until firm and pipeable.
8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the chilled biscuit dough to about 3mm thick. If you don’t have a biscuit stamp, you can do what I did and use the edge of a dough scraper or a sharp knife to create a pattern on top of the biscuit dough before cutting it out (see video). Use a 5cm round biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can (I managed to get about 24 biscuits). If you have a biscuit stamp, lightly flour it and press it onto the biscuit.
9. Place the biscuits onto two baking trays lined with baking paper and chill them in the fridge for 20 minutes.
10. Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan. Bake the biscuits for 15–20 minutes, until the edges turn a golden colour. Leave the biscuits to cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
11. To assemble the S’mores, spoon the chocolate ganache into a small piping bag and cut off the tip to create a hole about 0.5cm in diameter. Carefully pipe the ganache on the underside (without the pattern) of each biscuit (I had enough for about 24 biscuits).
12. If using a rectangular baking frame, release it from around the marshmallow and peel off the baking paper around the sides. If using a tin, dust a piece of baking paper with more of the icing sugar/cornflour mixture from earlier and tip the marshmallow onto that, then removing the tin and baking paper the marshmallow was setting in. Dip the 5cm round biscuit cutter into the remaining icing sugar/cornflour mixture and cut out rounds of marshmallow (there will be leftovers).
13. To make the S’mores, sandwich a marshmallow between two chocolate-covered biscuits (chocolate side facing the marshmallow). Just before serving, use a blowtorch to toast the marshmallow edges until golden brown and slightly gooey. Enjoy!