Flour power: The Great South African Bake Off

What? On your marks, get set, bake! Those familiar words mean the fourth season of The Great South African Bake Off (GSABO) is back. The series tries to follow the format of the hugely successful British baking show The Great British Bake Off (GBBO), but without the big gun chefs such as Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood, the vast pool of amateur bakers from which to choose, generous sponsorships and big budgets and the hype and recognition GBBO receives. The local version has some way to go before it makes its mark, but what it does have is large helpings of local flavour.

In the new, 10-part series, 12 hopefuls gather in Muldersdrift, outside Johannesburg, to pitch their skills against each other in themed rounds broken down into a trio of challenges — signature, technical and showstopper. As the show progresses the baking gets more difficult. The sting in the tail is the weekly elimination of the “weakest baker”.

The ultimate prize? There's no big cheque or snazzy new car. Instead, the prize is the honour to be the last contestant standing and to be crowned South Africa's best amateur baker.

How? It's not a show for professionals. The trick for the organisers is to find the country's home bakers who do it brilliantly for love not money. There's no doubt that we are a nation of talented bakers — just think of the unique sweet delights we are famous for — so is it that difficult to find them? The original group of seven women and five men were an interesting mix that included a potential culinary student, an investment analyst, an aircraft quality controller, a voice over artist, a design director, an attorney, an admin assistant and a homemaker who is a chilli sauce maker. 

Who? In four seasons we've seen various judges and presenters come and go. In the latest series the head judge is celebrity chef and restaurateur Siba Mtongana. Dressed in pretty flouncy dresses and with a twinkle in her eye, she says she “got in” because of her association with GBBO judge Hollywood — the two baked together on his trip to Cape Town in 2017.

Joining her is newcomer to the small screen Paul Hartmann, who owns Chefs Academy and Woodstock Bakery in Cape Town, so he comes with an excellent judging pedigree. If only he could lighten up just a tad, take a deep breath, loosen his shirt and remember it's a cooking show, not the classroom. It wasn't friends in high places who landed Hartmann the role. Instead, he says, after someone suggested his name, he did a screen test, and voilà, cut the mustard.

Hosting the show are Lesego Tlhabi, the jolly one, and Glen Biderman-Pam, the man of lame jokes. They are the jam in the sandwich of the series, soothing the tension, lightening the mood and bringing it all together.

And what about the cake? Kicking off the series, we saw the bakers sweating the small stuff like biscuits and fruit loaves to get into the baking groove. It was the technical challenge in episode two that tripped many up. Witnessing the different interpretations of one recipe was an eye-opener.

Then came bread week. One of the challenges was to make a basic scone with a twist — a butternut Parmesan scone. Hearing some of the contestants say they'd never made scones before made one wonder whether, seriously, they really do represent South Africa's very best bakers.

You be the judge. Drop us a line and share your thoughts on the latest series of the Great South African Bake Off — food@sundaytimes.co.za

The Great South African Bake Off, Wednesday 8pm, BBC Lifestyle (DStv channel 174).

We share Chef Paul's scone recipe that the contestants made.

BUTTERNUT PARMESAN SCONES with homemade butter

Paul Hartmann

Butter:

250ml (1 cup) double cream

2.5ml (½ tsp) fine salt

Scones:

200g butternut, peeled, chopped and cooked till tender

150g (300ml) cake wheat flour

75g fine mealie meal

5ml (1 tsp) salt

10ml (2 tsp) baking powder

2.5ml (½ tsp) bicarbonate of soda

30g (2 tbsp) homemade butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

50g Parmesan cheese, grated

Approx 80ml (⅓ cup) buttermilk, from the homemade butter

2.5ml (½ tsp) mustard powder

Glaze:

1 egg yolk, beaten

A drop of reserved buttermilk

30ml (2 tbsp) pumpkin seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C.

2. For the butter whisk the cream until the cream collapses and separates into buttermilk and butter. Strain over a muslin-lined sieve retaining the 150ml of the buttermilk for the scones.

3. Whisk butter again to remove any retained buttermilk and drain once more. Knead the salt into the butter, then fill a small ramekin with butter. Spread the remaining butter, 1cm thick on a baking paper lined tray and freeze for 15 minutes and once the butter is firm use to make scones.

4. For the scones drain the cooked butternut on paper towel to remove the excess moisture. Mash, cool and reserve.

5. Sift the flour with the mealie meal, salt, baking powder and bicarb together. Rub in the butter using your fingertips until you have the texture of coarse crumbs.

6. Fold in the butternut and Parmesan cheese into the flour mixture, adding just enough buttermilk to form a dough. Dust the work surface with flour, tip the dough out and press the dough down to about 4cm high, don't overwork the dough, then cut out using a floured 6cm cutter. Place on a paper lined baking tray.

7. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of reserved Buttermilk and brush the tops of the scones. Sprinkle over pumpkin seeds and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with the homemade butter.