Oven lights turned off on The Great South African Bake Off on Wednesday night (11 October) when Season 4 ended with a win by designer Mia Steenekamp who's been a showstopper
since the start.
The finale turned out to be an all femme affair as Mia went up against investment analyst Chiko Chiobvu and homemaker Mariza Mundow.
Mia won the acclaim, a bursary for a six month course at the Pru Leith Culinary Institute and an all expenses paid trip to Paris to do a chocolate course at Valrhona.
What now?
The Caribbean: Billionaires' Paradise premieres in the timeslot next week until the new season of Come Dine with Me South Africa which starts on 15 November.
But first... here's a companion pack for The Bake Off 4 featuring each of the recipes the contestants baked in their Technical Bakes.
Starting with Episode 1, followed by links to Episodes 2 to 10 underneath.
They get more challenging as the episodes progress so either grab your apron and try them at home, or browse and drool, or do both:
Chocolate & Citrus Biscotti
JUDGE SIBA'S TIPS
- These must be an oval shape and not a square.
- They're twice baked biscuits.
- Dropping the oven temperature (as outlined in the recipe) is important.
INGREDIENTS
125g Flour
125g Sugar
35g Butter
30g Dark Chocolate Chips
40g Citrus Peel
1 Egg
½ tsp. Vanilla Paste
½ tsp. Baking powder
¼ tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Lemon Zest
Sugar to roll
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Combine the Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, Sugar, Chocolate and Citrus Peel.
Beat the Egg, Vanilla Paste, Lemon Zest and the melted butter until combined.
Add the Egg mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring until you get a firm dough.
Form the dough into a cylinder, roughly 25 cm in length and 4cm thick.
Roll the dough through the extra sugar to create a sugary crust.
Place onto a lined baking tray, ensuring that the cylinder has enough room to spread out.
Bake for around 30 minutes, or until lightly golden, then allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 160ºC.
Slice, using a serrated knife, into rounds at an angle, roughly 1½ cm thick.
Place on the tray, cut side up, then bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until crisp and dry.
Flip the Biscotti over halfway through baking to crisp both sides.
Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
NOTES
• The dough needs to be brought together quickly - over kneading / mixing will result in a tough dough.
• Testing the dough: ensure that you are checking a section of dough without any chocolate.
• After the first bake, the dough needs to rest for 10 minutes - if the dough cools too long, it will become hard and will be difficult to cut.
• Cutting the dough when too hot, the biscuit will crumble.
• Serrated knife is recommended.
• Halfway through the second bake - flip the biscotti to ensure even drying and crisping.