The Great British Baking Show: Pies

We've been watching the Great British Baking Show since PBS aired the first season.  Of course we are way behind the British seasons.  The latest episode was pies and for the British a lot of pies are savory so that's why they started off with a "Wellington".  I've only heard of "Beef Wellington" but the bakers did several takes on it, with lamb, pork, fish and vegetarian fillings.  This was followed by a little feature on the historic eel pie among the working class in London which, of course, I appreciated tremendously.  Shall we have a Beef Wellington when we are there?

This week's "technical challenge" was a hand-raised pie which was also a savory pie and historically interesting, using wooden dollies to shape the pie pastry, which was then filled with chicken, apricots and bacon.  The results were uniformly disastrous since no one had ever used a dolly before.  In case you are ever chosen by Paul Hollywood to make one, here is a nice recipe that uses a dolly to make a pork pie.  There's also Paul's recipe for the chicken, bacon and apricot pie on the BBC.

Finally, the "show-stopper" was to make an "American" pie. Paul Hollywood doesn't care for American pies because he says they are all way too sweet for his tastes.  Hmmm, I don't suppose he's had a Treacle tart, a Gypsy Tart, a Sticky Toffee Pudding, a Banaoffee Pie or a Bakewell Tart recently...

In characteristic British fashion, the "American" pies they chose were not American as Apple pie, or blueberry or huckleberry pie, or strawberry/rhubarb pie or even Concord Grape pie.  They were those cloyingly sweet pecan pie with chocolate, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie with peanut butter, and banana pie.  I don't know how they missed the Boston Creme Pie!  The two Paul and Mary liked most were a key lime pie, followed by a blueberry/raspberry chiffon pie.  And they all had sweet crusts, which is not as common in the U.S. as it is in Britain.  Camila, when you do the Pie book for Cook's Illustrated, send a copy to Paul Hollywood and make sure it has a recipe for Concord Grape pie!!