It's the semi-finals, when one baker, at the end of this week's three challenges, will learn what for many would be the most heartbreaking news of the competition in not making it past this final hurdle into the finale. This week is all about finesse and precision in it being Patisseries Week. For the signature, each baker is to make eight religieuses, stacked choux bun confectioneries so named for their supposed resemblance to nuns. While nuns are the traditional shape, the bakers are free to use their artistic vision to create any other stacked choux bun shape they like. While patisserie is generally considered synonymous with the French, Bruno throws the bakers for a loops in issuing for the technical a Uruguayan cake, the chajá, which is characterized by an extremely aerated sponge, a generous cream filling, and the white exterior decorated with poached fruit and meringue. And for the showstopper, the bakers each not only have to make an entremet, but rather two dozen entremet apiece of two different varieties, presented in some structural manner.
—Huggo