The Great Canadian Baking Show - Season 1 Episode 7

For the semi-finals, the four remaining contestants will be tackling French patisserie. Whatever goals each remaining baker may have had at the beginning of the competition has changed to at least wanting to make it into next week's finals. For the signature challenge, the bakers will have two hours to make twelve milles feuilles each with at least three layers of puff pastry, six milles feuilles each of two different flavors. The limited time leads to the challenge of keeping the butter in the pastry cold enough so that it won't melt before baking, the cold butter the key to flaky puff pastry. For the technical challenge, the bakers will be making an opera cake in two hours and fifteen minutes. The cleanliness of the layer presentation will be key to success, which means good knife skills. The outer ganache layer has to firm enough before the addition of the final flourish, namely the word "opera" written on top also with that ganache. For the showstopper, the bakers will have four hours to make a croquembouche. The presentation will be key, in that the finished product must stand tall which means that there need to be a sufficient number of cream puffs – at least one hundred – and they need to be firm enough to withstand the weight.