Yan thankfully dispels such nonsense with her proud peanut butter and banana biscuits inspired by her wife’s favourite flavours. They’re so near to being fantastic but just a little soft-hearted. It’s not the only tale of cookie love as Julia fondly recalls a Turkish holiday with her husband through the medium of pistachio and cardamom crackers sandwiched with a vanilla and rose jelly.
Steven hints at a ‘romantic’ Italian encounter. His coffee cream filled ‘amarpressi’ biscuits are inspired by the memory of espresso and amaretti in Rome. It seems a curiously solitary ‘romance’. Tom is coincidentally crafting coffee and amaretto kisses. I hope for some baking flirtation between the two boys but alas… there is only a little mutual hand piping.
Wobbling for all they’re worth, Paul looks at Julia’s biscuits and anxiously protects his lap in case of the dreaded filling spillage. Fortunately, Julia says the jelly only ‘dances’; unfortunately, the competing flavours are never going to be Strictly winners. However, James’ rhubarb and custard Viennese whirls are judged to be ‘fantastic quality’.
In what’s described as a ‘very rich, bitter chocolate biscuit’, Prue thinks the whisky filling is too much – ‘it’s got the concentration of a chocolate truffle’. This seems to me somewhat generalising of the mental stamina of chocolate truffles – I know some that are admittedly forgetful – always misplacing their keys and specs, but other truffles like nothing better than a bumper book of Sudoku.
Sophie’s limoncino sandwich biscuits are impeccably neat and ‘beautifully tart’.‘What’s not to like?’ says Prue. Fearful of the glitter on Stacey’s chocolate and marshmallow fluff cookies, Paul claims ‘I’m not sure I want that metallic flavour in my mouth’. Frankly, the seasoned smoker has probably had worse things in his mouth. Munching on the sparkly bakes he has to admit that they’ve ‘ticked all the boxes’.
Liam says he’s aiming for a ‘soft snap’ with his coffee buttercream-filled pecan and malt shortbreads. Though admittedly tasty, sadly he only achieves ‘squishy’ and ‘too chunky’.
Kate, who is certainly good value on the story front, tells us the tale of the shell-shaped coconut biscuits once served on the Titanic. Her rum, cream and pineapple-filled bakes are tenuously inspired by the tenacity of a relative who worked in the ship’s engine room and thankfully survived the sinking. Sadly some ‘dodgy icing’ can’t rescue her dough. Paul says it’s so tough he thinks it’s picking a fight with him.
The coffee and amorous amaretti boys are far more successful. Despite a slightly irregular finish Steven’s flavours are deemed to be ‘perfect’ and Tom’s bake is declared ‘a triumph’.