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Jun 20, 2023

Summer Baking Championship season 1 episode 4: Fruit

Host Jesse Palmer, portrait, as seen on Spring Baking Championship, Season 9.

Host Jesse Palmer, portrait, as seen on Spring Baking Championship, Season 9.

Summer Baking Championship returned to The Food Network with episode four and this week, it was all about fruit! Mangoes and blueberries and watermelon, oh my! And really, what says summer more than fresh fruit?

The show started off with the Pre-Heat. The bakers had to make either a cobbler, a crumble, or a clafouti. But which one they had to make and the fruit they had to use was completely up to chance.

So who got what? Anrika got cherry clafouti, Carlos received peach cobbler, Ally got blackberry crumble, Yohann received raspberry crumble, Alyssa got blackberry cobbler, Zoe got plum clafouti, and John got mango clafouti.

But whose fruity dessert was the judges’ favorite? That was Ally with her blackberry crumble! It looked delicious!

On to the Main Heat! For this challenge, the bakers had to make a watermelon dessert and make it look like a watermelon as well. The bakers also randomly got an accent flavor they had to include and in a cruel twist, they had to incorporate feta into their dessert as well. It was wild!

The side flavors they had to pick from included curry, lime, lemon, balsamic, ginger, honey, and chile powder. Some of these flavors were definitely easier than others. And some desserts looked more like watermelon than others.

For this round, Zoe made a watermelon lemon entremet, Ally made a watermelon lime pavlova, John created a watermelon financier with balsamic mousse, Yohann made watermelon and honey macarons, Alyssa created a watermelon mousse dome with curry sable, Carlos made a watermelon chile powder cake, and Anrika created a watermelon curd tart with ginger jam and ginger sable.

Some of the desserts had issues with flavor and texture while others were just kind of a mess.

But who won? That was Alyssa! Considering she got curry and wasn't sure what to do with it, she did outstanding!

Unfortunately, the bottom two were Yohann and Ally and despite winning the Pre-Heat, Ally was the one to go home this week. The judges are not playing games, but as a Yohann fan, I was relieved he stayed.

Next week, the remaining bakers will have to make beach drink trifles (yum!) and summer cream pies.

What did you think of this week's episode of Summer Baking Championship? How did your fave baker do? Let us know in the comments below!