Horrified US viewers accuse Great British Baking Show of ‘ruining’ classic treat: ‘They hate American food’
It seems that fans of The great British pastry fair are once again mad at the bakery fair for ruining another classic: s’mores.
This week in the series, the remaining seven contestants competed in three spooky challenges for Halloween week. For the Technical Challenge, judge Paul Hollywood tasked the bakers with creating s’mores – a popular camping treat in the United States and Canada – from scratch. However, things didn’t seem to be going as planned.
For the challenge, bakers had to make eight s’mores, each filled with goo marshmallow and dark chocolate ganache. Instead of graham crackers, bakers were told to make digestives biscuits. While Scottish semi-sweet biscuits have been used as a replacement for graham crackers, the biscuits are not quite the same.
At the start of the challenge, it soon became clear that British bakers were struggling to make this quintessentially American delicacy, which is usually roasted over a campfire rather than in a kitchen (or tent). Some bakers forgot to add gelatin to their syrup, which could make their marshmallows too soft. Others went a little too over the torch to pop their golden s’mores.
In the end, Abdul’s s’mores came in last place, while Maxy came in sixth because neither of them could get the perfect marshmallow consistency. Meanwhile, Syabira came in first place for her identical s’mores and hearty chocolate ganache.
While making s’mores from scratch proved to be a challenge for some, viewers who criticized The great British pastry fair for “ruining” a beloved American treat.
“Let the Great British Baking Show spoil the S’mores too,” one person tweeted.
Some viewers explained that the art of making s’mores is not baking your own marshmallow in an oven, but roasting them over a campfire. Perhaps the best part of a s’more is when it’s as gooey and burnt as it gets.
“As an American, Brits trying to turn S’mores into a technical baking challenge is the funniest thing ever,” one fan wrote. βIt’s super technical but it should never be done in a kitchen. Slow roast on a tree branch over a campfire until crispy and golden on the outside, gooey on the inside.
“How can you make s’mores as a baking challenge that defeats the purpose of toasting the marshmallow yourself and melting the hershey bar in the heat,” someone said else.
“GBBO comes back with an episode where they have to make s’mores and hardly anyone knows what it is,” wrote a third user. “They’re all freaking out about burning their marshmallows and I guarantee every American looking at them is screaming ‘IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE BURNED?!?!?'”
One user pointed out that using a digestive buscuit instead of a graham cracker for a s’more ruins the whole treat, writing, “Great British Bake Off continues its horrors trying to make s’mores with digestive crackers instead of graham crackers. A funny chocolate paste. They just hate American food.β
But the criticisms don’t stop there. Some people even called out co-judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith for splitting the s’more with a fork, rather than grabbing it with their hands. “For the past three weeks #GBBO has made me watch a woman peel an avocado like a potato and Paul and Prue eat s’mores with a goddamn spoon,” one viewer said.
The great British pastry fair found himself in hot water earlier this month when the reality series marked its final “Mexican Week” episode, in which the contestants tried their hand at making dishes inspired by Mexican cuisine. However, viewers criticized the episode for its “offensive” portrayal of Mexican cuisine and culture β stereotypical placement of sombreros and maracas, mispronunciation of Spanish words, and its “sticky” jokes.
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