We reflect about the last 3 episodes for The Professionals and how the Showpieces were better than most of the other ones. We felt the judging was fair for these episodes as well. Before that though we talk a out bakes! Meredith baked garlic knots. They were pre-made, but hey, there was an oven involved! Alison took on 2 cookie recipes - her standard lemon sugar cookies, and then a blueberry white chocolate chip cookie for her friend's son. She used the best blueberries (Maine) and they...

Lots to talk about at the beginning - Alison has some fantastic bakes in the realm of whoopie pies, but also stooped by a mini donut shop for a gift...and boy she had a fun story for us. Mere had a birthday! Her mom made the ever delicious Texas Sheet Cake so we dive into this delectable treat and what makes it unique. Sheldon tackles carrot cake and a GBBO contestant's "Cadbury Egg" cookies ...which were ok. THEN Sheldon mentions he has a protein "pop tart" he picked up to try - Alison stops...

Mere made hamantaschen and said her triangles were wonky… but it had three sides so by definition - perfect! Alison talks about her “pantry leftovers brownies that looked like they were straight out of a Williams Sonoma cookbook. Sheldon hurt himself, but it wasn’t baking so, who cares? Spoilers for E6 below. Chocolate week! To kick it off the teams were asked to create a sharing dessert that highlighted chocolate, but also black and white sesame. Ok - a little weird - but we rolled with...

Well - something is just simple to us. We just like Group B of the bakers better. We like each team in their own way, but we like them all. We all have a special affection for George and Geanina as well. In terms of our adventures. Meredith makes some killer compote and jams, she shares it with the family and they end up keeping it all! Don’t worry she can make more :-). Alison talks about her amazing M&M cookies and how they barely last a couple of hours at the office. Sheldon makes...

It's chaos Tom!  We discuss the A and B format a bit and the struggle of having to relearn all the teams.  Overall we all agree that this group just seems more put together than Group B. We discuss each team a bit and what we liked about them. We talk about Meredith's amazing lemon meringue pie, Alison's amazing quest to take on macarons... and how she is just rewriting the rules to making them.  Sheldon has a journey of his own of redemption in the form of Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes - ganache...

No Meredith this week so Alison and Sheldon hold down the fort! We get the full update on Alison’s baking marathon last week and …wow… just wow. SIX delicious cookies and wait till you hear where they went … so proud of our friend. Sheldon had no chance to bake but we talk about the intricacies of Naan and how a great one is such a feat! We also get an update on the type of chocolate he used for his ganache… spoiler alert… the ladies were correct in their assessment. Spoilers for E3...

We kick off the episode with baking adventures. Sheldon’s… were not great. Choux buns, pastry cream, and chocolate ganache. The pastry cream - ok. Tasted great, but not as silky as he wanted. The choux pastry, the batter was a bit thicker than he wanted so it was a bit difficult to pipe, but he was able to form buns and out of the gate they seemed to rise nicely. Recipe called for 425F at 20 minutes, and he went to pull them at about 17-18… they were badly overdone. Sigh. Had enough for a...

The full band is back together!  Alison is on the mend, Mere is rockin and rolling, and yup... you still have Sheldon around. And we have started with the "new" series on Netflix in the US - Bake Off - The Professionals.  This is actually season 6 of the series, and this was filmed in 2021... but it's new for us.   We kick off with some catching up with the team. Sheldon took on a classic feared dessert - the Souffle!  He made a chocolate variety and it came out prettttty good! We start...

Well we are missing one of our faithful hosts this week as Alison is down with a bug. We missed her, but Meredith stepped up as the undersecretary of baking excellence and kept Sheldon straight on all things baking this week.  Sheldon actually did bake some bread for the first time this week, but made a rookie mistake... proofed it in a room that was a bit too cold.  Crust was great, crumb was dense though, but it was tasty. Meredith tries Tropical Smoothie Cafe on Alison and Sheldon's...

This week on Scrummy Handshakes we visit the breadbasket of the UK - Kent county. Excited to see what’s in store. Out of the Gate our friend Mere is missing… we trudge on… and then she shows up… eventually… it’s funny, trust me. Alison and Sheldon talk about all of the Scones we made. Me - just getting the basics down and trying a half batch with some bacon and cheese. Not bad! Meredith nailed some traditional scones, complete with clotted cream and fruit compote, and Alison pitched a fast...

The team is back and the feelings are mixed on this episode!  We start off with Alison giving us a rundown of her vegan red velvet cake  - and reports are it was better than a normal one!! She tells us why and what helped. Mere and She had no bakes this week, but Mere talks about the scrummy chocolate bundt cake with cherries her mom made. We also learn here mom has no idea that we do a podcast called Scrummy Handshakes hahahaha! Ok - it was biscuit week in Scotland. Biscuit with an asterisk...

This week on Scrummy Handshakes we kick of our trip in the wayback machine where we start at the very beginning - Season 1, Episode - Cakes. But before that we catch up with Meredith as she is back from an epic Caribbean journey! She brings us a little history and culture lesson as well as reports back on some of the Scrummy delights she had on the trip. Alison and I just hug out in Dullsville - population 2 - for the break. Not much for baking happened these last couple weeks as times were...

We kick things off talking about the holiday aftermath!  Meredith is on vacation and she is sending all kinds of fun pics of the scrummy delights.   Alison and Sheldon talk about the many bakes they undertook from pop tarts to pies, fudge to frostings.  We also talk about the fun stuff we got as holiday gifts with Alison capitalizing with her gift card to acquire some yummy concoctions like Ugandan Vanilla!  Sheldon gets some really great kitchen additions including a fantastic pan from...

Kicking things off with our baking plans!  Mincemeat tartlets, pop tarts, Christmas cookies, fudge, and blueberry muffins... need we say more? Well, we will.  Little article on Matt leaving... some are happy, we are not.  Then we get into a brand new era of Bake Off - the AMERICAN Bake Off!  Paul and Prue are the constants here, two NEW American hosts.  Actress Ellie Kemper (The Office, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Zach Cherry (of Apple TV's Severance) are your new hosts for this show...

It's that time of year where we all frantically try to figure out what to get for friends and family as gifts during the holidays.  If they are a baker (or want to be) then this episode is for you!   We start off by talking about our baking plans for the season and toss in some ideas for what we might want to bake if we have time as well.  Have you ever heard of a Needham?  It's a Maine thing... We also realize we all had a similar holiday candy growing up that we all called by a different...

On this episode we cover the “GBBO Festive Episode” that first aired at the very beginning of 2022 (we get them later here in the U.S.) where they bring back contestants from other seasons. First though, we talked about our scrummy baking! Alison spent most of the day making cookies and she discusses how she tackled Neapolitan sugar cookies. This takes three flavors and brings them all together (but separate looking). She then used a technique that made them looked like “scooped ice cream”!...

The team is SO excited that the holiday episodes are here!  First we kick off talking about the scrummy adventures of the week.  Meredith was under the weather so most of her week was "soup based" but she had some delicious ones.  Alison has a "sus" encounter with a bake sale purchase.  Sheldon and Alison are also obsessed with a national chain's Gingerbread smoothie. We discussed a couple of articles that were interesting. Sabirya discusses how proud it made her to showcase the flavors of...

The full squad is back and we are talking finals.  But first - Meredith gives us a full rundown on her scrummy cruise!  A couple of articles to discuss - one highlights how the GBBO judges make their decisions (article from yahoo.com) and there were a couple of surprises in this .... one of which may have come into play in the final, perhaps?  The second article from People lets us know about something Janusz did that was heartwarming for all of us. Warning:  potential spoilers below Then...

As we mentioned last week - we are going to be discussing the final NEXT week so today we have a special episode where Alison and Sheldon talk about what they would have done for the Signature Challenges for each episode (Meredith is enjoying a much deserved vacation this week!) We kick things off recapping Alison's trip where she visited Sheldon and participated in the Richmond Half-Marathon... on the hottest day on record for the event.  Then, lots of scrummy delights were enjoyed...

Alison visiting Sheldon.  meredith gearing up for a trip.  Sheldon accidentally uses the wrong mic... sigh.  It's ok - we salvaged it but Sheldon may sound a little different this week hahaha.  For scrummy delights, well, Mere battled a little stomach bug so laid it low, but Sheldon took Alison on a Pizza tour of Richmond and it didn't disappoint.   It was the much feared patisserie week!  Fancy desserts designed to be pretty and Paul and Prue expected excellence.   First though - first...

Scrummy delights this week include Meredith's delightful cauliflower soup and an almost forgotten oatmeal cream pie that Alison enjoyed.  We rapped a while about halloween and how the world is cruel to Alison and Sheldon by stealing the few foods that they enjoy on the reg.   Note:  Episode spoilers below! Pastry week is something they do every year, so everyone should be well prepared.  Well... so much for that idea.  They kick off with Vol-au-vents.  Normally a savory pie, the judges...

This week Alison joins us from on the road!she tells us about what may have been a top all time dinner for her involving an unsuspecting dipping sauce.  Meredith talks apple cake and custard tarts - one fantastic, the other with a ratio that needs some work.  Sheldon takes a turn at trying shortbread and delivering on a staple cookie.  We also discuss the impact of butter in cookies and how maybe some more mixer time could solve an issue.  Note:  The below will contain details from this...

It's Halloween Week!  Something they haven't done before and we were excited!  We kick off the episode talking about some halloween traditions we have and we learn about Alison's "dark side" of the neighborhood.  Everyone will be heading to Meredith's for full size bars!!   Note:  the below will contain episode spoilers. The costumes this week were stellar.  Noel with his awesome shirts and jumper, Prue crushing with the Jacket, Maxy's awesome hair, and Janusz rocking the eyeliner applied...

Welcome to the week that confuses Sheldon every year - Dessert Week - which are puddings... which in the UK are kinda like cake.. wet cake.   Started off talking about the scrummy delights our week as brought us. Sheldon hit up New Orleans for beignets and his mother in-law whipped up a special Chex Mix.  Meredith tackles her grandma's carrot cake and learns what oleo is.  Alison takes on a 4-proof bun challenge and the results are delicious!   To make things more fun for the finale, we...

We open with our scrummy delights - Mexican wedding cookies, (American biscuits), and caramelitas were all attempted by the crew with ... some mixed results (spoiler... Sheldon's were the mixed results).   We have a little chat about the articles and "controversy" of Mexican week and the use of cultural symbolism, clothing, recipes et al.  Always open to thoughts and opinions on this subject - we recognize our position is one of "outside" looking in so take our thoughts with that being...