The One Thing Great British Bake Off's Jane Beedle Will Never Bake Again - Exclusive
Just as many chefs have a signature dish — say, Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington or Jamie Oliver's Steak Sarnie — many also have that dish they would just as soon never ever prepare again. That's certainly the case for Jane Beedle, runner-up on Season 7 of "The Great British Bake Off" (and winner of the "Bake Off" Christmas special two years later).
During an exclusive interview with Mashed, Beedle initially claimed that she's happy to bake it all. She soon relented and admitted a special loathing for one foodstuff in particular. Or for the creation of it, anyway.
"Well, after being in the [Bake Off] tent, I would never make dampfnudel again. Do you know what dampfnudel is? Do look it up. It's German, needless to say, and I failed spectacularly with it," she said.
Adding a bit of salt to the proverbial wound is the fact that "Bake Off" judge Paul Hollywood has a recipe for the German steamed buns (via The Great British Bake Off), one of his own personal favorites. But beyond dampfnudel, Beedle is an equal opportunity baker: "I can't think of anything else that I wouldn't bake. I think one of the things about being a baker, and being fortunate enough to be a reasonably popular baker, is that it spurs me on to try new things and share those new things with people. So I've yet to find anything that I wouldn't bake again, apart from those wretched dampfnudel."
Jane Beedle's favorite things to bake
So, ideally, Jane Beedle will never be asked to make dampfnudel, but when asked about her absolute favorite thing to bake, she offered a glowing smile and an exuberant answer: "Oh bread — I love bread!" Beedle gushed, adding: "I think you can only eat so much sweet stuff. I'm not great at sourdough, I keep killing my starter, so I tend to not do so much sourdough, but bread — it's the sort of thing we eat every day in our house. And you can't beat it for the smell, and [for the] variety. So you can make it a sweet bread or chocolate bread or a lovely savory bread or a seedy bread. So bread is my absolute favorite."
While bread might be her favorite thing to make now as an adult, growing up, Beedle preferred something sweeter: hot cross buns produced by her family's own bakeries. "I do remember, I don't know whether you guys get it over there, but we have hot cross buns, which are basically fruit buns with, for lack of a better word, a pastry cross on the top," she explained. "And it used to be the bun that you had on Good Friday ... Now we get them over here in the shops as soon as Christmas is finished, but it used to be a thing: You could only buy them on Good Friday and Easter. ... And I remember my dad working all night, but he would then come home and bring us hot cross bun men. And I just remember these hot cross bun men as being the most delicious things. And of course, they were fresh out of the oven and it was all very exciting."
"And I make a mean hot cross buns myself, I have to say," Beedle added.
Fans of "The Great British Bake Off" are in for a treat with an all-new season premiering now on Netflix. To follow along with Jane Beedle's latest baking projects, check her out on Instagram.