Spring Baking Championship Season 3 Episode 4 Dessert Remodels

As the competition heats up, bakers are tested with dessert remodels on Spring Baking Championship Season 3, Episode 4.

Springtime is often a time for change. As the winter thaws and the flowers bloom, the spring months bring a new, fresh take. On this week’s Spring Baking Championship, the bakers were challenged with some dessert remodels.

Sometimes a favorite dessert could use a little improvement. It isn’t that the tried and true doesn’t taste wonderful. Maybe, the dessert itself has become a little tired, stale or bland. The pre-heat challenge in this week’s Spring Baking Championship takes on a classic, the brownie. Everyone loves a gooey, dense brownie, but a lighter version can be quite delicious too.

Spring Baking Championship Dessert Remodel, photo from Food Network

In the dessert remodel theme of this week’s episode, the pre-heat had bakers give a remodel to the classic brownie. Although the bakers had to keep the chocolate flavor (no blondies), they had to reimagine the dessert in a lighter way. The biggest theme in this challenge was fruit.

Many of the bakers used fruit, specifically berries, to add some springtime, bright flavors to the typically heavy chocolate brownies. From strawberry swirls to raspberry sorbet, the bakers hoped the berries’ tart and sweet qualities balanced the dark, chocolatey brownies.

Unfortunately, several of the bakers’ brownie remodels were shabby remakes. Courtney’s strawberry cheesecake brownies sound scrumptious but looked like a disaster. Having to scoop the brownies out of the pan, her pre-heat submission looking like a pile of brownie goo. Daniela also fails at presentation with her brownie flowers. While one judge sees a pretty floral bouquet, judge Lorraine Pascale gets a bunch of brownie globs.

Adam is the only baker to excel at the pre-heat brownie dessert remodel. His skinny brownie was a quite elegant remake of the dense chocolate dessert. The skinny brownie offered layers of mousse in between the chocolate and was accompanied with a chocolate mousse filled strawberry.

Most impressive was Adam’s presentation. According judge Nancy Fuller, Adam’s dessert was “cover worthy.” Even topped with a gold leaf fleck, the dessert was as beautiful as it was delicious. Adam won the pre heat challenge and gained an advantage in the main heat.

Classic French dessert, the Napoleon, gets a dessert remodel.

The main heat proved to be challenging for all the bakers. The remaining bakers were tasked with a Napoleon challenge. A Napoleon is a classic French dessert, which has layers of flaky puff pastry with usually a pastry or Bavarian cream filling. With such a limited timed challenge, the puff pastry was all bakers ruin.

Making a flaky, buttery puff pastry takes quite a skill. Folding the pastry dough over and over creates the buttery, flakey layers. Usually this process takes hours. Unfortunately, Spring Baking Championship bakers had only a fraction of the time. The result was less than perfect puff pastry.

Spring Baking Championship, main bake advantage, photo from Food Network

For the home bakers, like Fausto, some of them had never made puff pastry from scratch. Many home bakers opt for store bought pastry dough from the frozen food section. On Spring Baking Championship, shortcuts are not allowed.

During the main bake, not a single baker created a 100% successful puff pastry. A few bakers, like Adam and Daniela created an acceptable pastry. Although both bakers’ desserts had pastry flaws.

The biggest puff pastry fails came from Fausto and Jordan. Even the professionally, French trained baker, Jordan turned in raw pastry dough. The judges scolded his failure and questioned what would his culinary instructors say. Fausto, the home baker, had unsuccessful pastry and instead created pita bread. His air pocket filled dough rounds were a definite fail.

Besides the pastry dough proving troublesome, the bakers had to incorporate a flavored liqueur into their Napoleon. Since he won the pre-heat, Adam was able to assign liqueurs to each of the bakers. Each of the liqueurs have a fruit forward flavor to add to the dessert. Some flavors blend easily while others are not so successful. Adam’s cherry liqueur embellishes the cherries and goat cheese in his Napoleon. Unfortunately, some of the desserts fail to accent the dish.

Spring Baking Championship, main bake winner, photo from Food Network

In the end, not a single baker submits a perfect Napoleon. Between muddled flavors and sad puff pastry, the bad outweighed the good. Still Daniela and Adam baked the most successful desserts of the bunch. Adam presented an elevated cherry, goat cheese with lemon curd Napoleon. Daniela offered a tropical Napoleon with beautiful spring colors. The pale pinks and greens won over the judges and had Daniela named the winner of this episode.

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Unfortunately, Jordan and Fausto were on the bottom of this week’s competition. Jordan’s raw pastry dough and Fausto’s pitas were quite disappointing. In the end, Fausto’s pastry disaster had him sent home. While the school principal was disappointed in his final dessert, he was proud of his overall accomplishments as a home baker.

Next up for the remaining bakers is a momcentric dessert for episode 5. Will those desserts make mom proud? Tune into the Food Network on Sunday night at 9 p.m. E.T. to find out.