I know I’m late to the party but I just watched The Great British Baking Show on Netflix.

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Prior to starting watching this I would have said that I liked baked goods.  Cupcakes are yummy.  I’m a fan of dessert in general.  Bread is good.

But I am disturbed by some things I saw on this show.  At first I was confused by the presence of eggs.  Eggs? People still cook with those?  I realized then that I’ve been living in my vegan cooking blog bubble for a long time.

Then they had a challenge about breadsticks.  I do love breadsticks.  I like soft garlicky ones.  I like soft pretzel ones dipped in cheese sauce when I’m cheating on my vegan cooking blogs.  You might see a theme here.  So I was quite taken aback when the judges said that their main criteria was that the breadsticks should snap in half.  Snap?  Crunchy breadsticks?  What fresh hell is this?  No one seemed to find this strange on the show.  Are soft, yummy breadsticks an American thing?  (Pixabay doesn’t have a picture of crunchy breadsticks available because they are an abomination.  Look at these proper breads instead.) bread-83242_1280

Then, then, I found out about tuile.  Tuile is basically bread shaped to look like a Pringle.  Why would anyone fuss about with these fiddly things that don’t really even have any flavor?  Life is too short for this.  I like Pringles but they have flavors.

As the series went on I started to realize that I wouldn’t eat a lot of things that were being presented if they were in a bakery shop window.  That got me thinking.  Maybe I’m not really a dessert lover after all?

  • I hate flaky pastry crust.  I can tolerate a shortbread crust.
  • Yorkshire pudding is not a descriptive term
  • British people eat some weird stuff

But I have learned some things too.

  • I’d never had a macaron.  I bought some the other day.  They are ok.  Mostly they seem to me to be a vehicle for carrying whatever flavor they have been infused with.
  • I never knew that cakes came in so many different types like genoise and victoria sponges and apparently these things are common British knowledge.
  • Strong flour and plain flours are things.  
  • I still really like desserts but I don’t like baked desserts.
  • The Great British Baking Show influence will be seen in my July Eat the World post.  Stay tuned for July 10.  

Have you watched the show?  Did you bake more in response?