It is 'Bread Week' on the Great British Bake Off, our Dorset contestant's favourite
Maggie from Poole says she never goes to the shop to buy a loaf
Last updated 5th Oct 2021
It could be a doughy start to this week's episode for our Dorset GBBO baker, Maggie, as it's bread week in the infamous Bake Off tent.
Last week we saw the first ever Dorset Contestant make a childhood beach house playset out of biscuits in her showstopper challenge.
But, she was told by judge Paul Hollywood that she 'must try harder' after he found it 'disappointing'.
Maggie is hoping her skills and talent shine through this week as bread is her favourite thing to make. The retired midwife doesn't ever buy a loaf or a cake, she makes everything herself.
When asked if any Dorset links come through on the show this week, she told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset that she hasn't made out county's Beer bread
"I make bread a lot so it is the thing I am most familiar with as I have made almost every kind of bread there is. The most famous Dorset bread that viewers will have heard of are the Dorset knobs, they are incredibly difficult to make and terribly long winded but they are worth it.
"Dorset knobs, if you have never eaten one are a little sort of round, hard biscuit type of thing but they are absolutely brilliant with a strong cheese or a soup. I haven't come across Dorset beer bread but there may well be a loaf in the making this afternoon."
Maggie says she loves flavoured bread but sometimes with modern baking the flavours can be too strong.
"I think just the taste of bread is nice, while a white bloomer might be really, really boring it's really, really delicious when it's got a real good crust when it's straight from the oven. Having said that I do love putting all sorts of things in to bread, you can put practically anything in to it and it works really well.
"I have always made bread, ever since I was a tiny child, so I think they just used to give me a bit of dough to shove me in a corner and get rid of me, to keep me quiet. Bread making has always been quite important and so my recipes came from just ideas that I have had and recipes that I like making."
A SPATULA IS MAGGIE'S FAVOURITE UTENSIL
The team were all asked what kitchen utensil they would take with them if they were about to be marooned on a desert Island.
Almost all of them said that a spatula was their favourite, Maggie says you can do anything with one, dig up roots, stir, mix and even kill flies!
"They are just essential to life, what they can be used for is clean down your bowl, to mix things up, for folding flour in to a very, very light sponge, if you just wanted to make that little figure of 8 and you wanted to scoop from the bottom, a spatula will do it for me much better than a spoon will do it, I think you can be more gentle with a spatula."
REVEALING TENT SECRETS
All the bakers get an opportunity to try each others which Maggie says you learn a lot from as some of the contestants were using ingredients that she has never even heard of.
"It was nice to have a little try and you learn a lot. Once we have eaten it the crew pounce on it all and it's really important your everyone to know that nothing gets wasted."
The signature challenge and the showstopper are made known to the baker before you go in to the tent so contestants do get a chance to come up with the idea and to practice it.
"There isn't a lot of time to practice but you have got a chance to do it, the biggest difference for me cooking at home is it's quiet, maybe I have the radio on but there are no interruptions.
"But in the tent it's this fantastic fun of all these people talk to and all these people running around and the atmosphere is completely different and it's very easy to get distracted, but give me an opportunity to chat to anybody and I will."
You can watch Maggie on the Great British Bake Off tonight on Channel 4 at 8pm.