Holiday Baking Championship recap Season 5 episode 5: Favorite flavors combined

In Holiday Baking Championship recap Season 5 episode 5, the bakers needed to incorporate some flavor innovations in classic holiday treats.

Holiday Baking Championship recap Season 5 episode 5 brought some favorite flavors to the kitchen. While a few desserts featured the judges’ favorite flavors, the bakers needed to find ways to innovate yet still have those flavors shine. In this week’s challenges, some of the top bakers seemed to have had a bad day in the kitchen.

As this week’s episode opens, the bakers are presented with a classic Jewish pastry, rugelach. This pastry dough is often made with sour cream. The crescent shaped pastry is often filled with raisins, walnuts and fruit preserves. While a very old school pastry, many bakers don’t make this dessert.

As the pre-heat challenge was explained to the bakers, the look on their faces showed that these bakers had no clue about rugelach. Some bakers had never made it, and the resulting pastries definitely showed that the bakers weren’t confident in this challenge.

Of course, the pre-heat challenge wouldn’t be to just make rugelach. The bakers had to incorporate a trending flavor and decorate the pastry in the flavor of the season. The flavors included chai, guava paste, grapefruit, cardamom and peanut butter. While some of these flavors work well with the classic pastry, other flavors needed to be left on the shelf.

Instead of the flavors becoming such an issue, the bakers had bigger technical problems. Dan’s pastries had too much fat and were quite flat. Lerone’s colorful pastry looked more burnt that a pretty decorative piece. Overall, the bakers really struggled with this challenge.

Winning the pre-heat challenge was Sarah. Her cardamom and pistachio rugelach was flaky and light. Plus, the flavors really shined. She clearly won the pre-heat challenge.

After a less than stellar pre-heat, it would curious to see how the bakers handle the main challenge. For this challenge, the theme was to lighten up a classic tiramisu with two particular flavors. The required flavors were two favorite flavors by the judges. Some of the flavors worked well together and others were a little more tricky.

For winning the pre-heat, Sarah was able to choose any flavors in the main heat challenge. While she didn’t know one of her flavors, speculoos. Still, she stuck with the speculoos and dates for her flavors.

Looking at the main heat, the bakers seemed a little less inspired this week. It wasn’t clear if the challenge wasn’t inspiring or they were just off their game. This challenge seemed to miss the mark overall.

Also, the challenge’s twist was a little odd. Every dessert had to include maple syrup. While maple is a trending flavor, it can be hard to incorporate into this type of dessert. With too much sweetness, the dessert will be cloying. Without enough flavor, the judges won’t be able to taste maple. The bakers definitely had a challenge with this twist.

One item was a little strange. All the desserts were served in a trifle bowl. While a tiramisu is a layered dessert, I usually don’t serve it in a trifle bowl. Granted there are always different ways of serving desserts, this idea was a little strange, for me.

The most disappointing dessert came from Douglas. His tiramisu featuring matcha and vanilla was very subpar for him. Usually his desserts are spot on for flavor and design. This week’s dessert was strange.

First, the dessert was small. It didn’t fill the trifle bowl. Plus, the green color was a little off-putting. While I understand that matcha is green, this shade wasn’t the right green. Although the wreath was holiday-ish, the whole dessert was off.

Douglas was definitely in the bottom. From the small dessert to the panna cotta like pastry cream, this dessert wasn’t a lighter version of a tiramisu. This dessert fail was definitely an off day for the baker who is usually on top.

Lerone probably had one of the funniest desserts. His gingerbread men (or upside down reindeer or maybe leprechauns) were funny. Those cookies were like a Rorschach test. What shape do you see in the cookie?

Still, Lerone’s flavors were on point. The combination of coffee and ginger in a tiramisu was lovely. Truthfully, his use of the maple syrup gelee was very innovative. That dessert component received a lot of praise from the judges.

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The other top dessert was Sarah’s speculoos and date tiramisu. Personally, dates are a great way to add natural sweetness to any dessert. This ingredient really can be used in so many ways. I would have liked to see a little more creativity with the dates. But, her speculoos crème was superb. That component definitely gave her an edge.

The most creative decoration goes to Chantal. Her apple roses were unique and pretty. Plus, the decoration complimented her ingredients of apple butter and bourbon. How could this dessert go wrong when one ingredient was bourbon? Everything is better with bourbon.

Lastly, Dan struggled, again. Poor Dan seemed to be a little overwhelmed in the kitchen. While I’m sure that he shines in his home kitchen, this competition hasn’t seen his best work. This week’s dessert wasn’t his best.

His nuts were more burnt than caramelized. While the idea had merit, the execution was off. It was like several challenges. He has great ideas, but the execution was lacking. At least last week he won a challenge, which gave him some positive memories from Holiday Baking Championship.

Unfortunately, Dan was sent home. It was his time to leave the kitchen. He was very gracious but this competition may have been too much for him. At the same time, his dessert are a great example to home bakers. Just because you have a bad day, don’t give up on something that you enjoy. Mistakes in the kitchen happen, but you need to learn from them.

Another Holiday Baking Championship recap Season 5 episode 5 has come to a close. With only a few more episodes remaining in Season 5, do you think that there is a frontrunner yet? Any guesses on the baker who will earn the title?