This is Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear weekday Afternoon's on the Drive.
She's a bakery expert and professional author. Nancy Birthwhistle has been baking for her whole life, so much so that she was the star of the Great British Bakeoff, and now she's got a whole new mission traveling across the country to help people with their baking problems and the debut of the CW The Big Big Over. Nancy, It's welcome and it's good to have you along.
Hi daily, nice to talk to you.
So the big difference I think between English baking and American baking is just what the hell the difference is between a pound and a stone?
Well, they obviously are in coops and states, and that I find really really strange because we're in metric weight. But you know, there's lots of conversion tables around and we're all doing the same thing when you unpick it. But yeah, obviously I love baking and it's been a fantastic experience to travel around and meet some fantastic bakers in the various businesses and help them because obviously they reached out because they were having problems, and.
Well, I was going to say, what I mean, these are bakers that are not Are they baking everything, whether it's bread or is it all sweets?
There was certainly a mixture, because I think the six bakries that we there's an episode for each one. Each bakery was quite different. So one was specialized just in doughnuts. There was another one that specialized in very very into superbly decorated cookies I call them biscuits. And so each bakery was different, and each one some were trying to do too much, some were maybe not doing diversifying enough. So it was great that the problems were all different.
Did you ever come across a client in your new television show, The Big Bakeover on the CW where you just said, yeah, let's just shut things down and call a demolition crew.
Oh no, no, it wasn't. It's not at all brutal. It's because these people were without a doubt, they could all bake, but where I think they'd lost direction and each one there was a sadness around most of it because each one had a backstory. And I learned that you should never judge anybody's situation until you've understood where they're coming from, and without any doubt at all, that
was the situation with each bakery. So it's a heartwarming series, but it's also heart wrenching when you understand what these people are trying to do.
Nancy Birthwhistle may have seen her on The Great British Bake Off. She's now in America with The Big Bakeover on the CW traveling about the country and trying to help people with their baking problems. Is there one distinguishing characteristic among all of these bakers? You found.
One distinguishing characteristic? I would say lee is the passion each of these bake and being a baker myself, I can understand that they have. Each one has a real pride in their craft and they want to do their absolute best. Only the best will do so, you know, unless something was one hundred percent perfect, they were not prepared to put it on the shelf, and they all wanted to improve and do improve. You know, there's a nice ending to each one.
The Great Big The Big bake Over CWA Journal with Nancy Burtwhistle and what was the biggest challenge you came across in producing this series?
The biggest challenge, I think was I wanted these bakers to you know, I didn't have a great deal of time to get to know them and and understand their problems. And the biggest challenge was I wanted them to be able to trust me. I didn't want them to think that I was going to make them look silly or make them look inadequate. I wanted to improve that business. There surroundings the bakery, you know, the actual physical bakery, and will then grow as bakers really.
Nancy Birth whistles with us the big bake over Fridays at eight o'clock on the CW. That's eight Eastern, by the way. You know, when I go through my local market, down the bakery aisle or down the baked goods of the ingredients aisle where all of the flour and the sugar is, I'm seeing so many more things available to the everyday cook and baker than there were when I was a young lad. Different flowers, different textures. Are we baking better, not just as a country, but as a world.
I think we are. I think we are baking better, and I think people are now more discerning about the ingredients.
You know, We've got people I know when I went round these bakeries, you know, there were customers, because we invite customers in to get their feedback about the bakery before we do anything, to say, you know, what would you like to see as an improvement, and you get the people that want they want vegan, or they want dairy free or you know, so that whereas when I was growing up, that just wasn't a thing, you know,
it just didn't exist. Whereas I think people now are more discerning about their diet and they want that reflected in their baked goods as well.
Fancy birth whistles with us the big bake over, and it is Friday's they eight o'clock on the CW. And what is the most difficult for you ingredient with which to bake?
The most difficult ingredient for me to bake with, I think is probably I mean, egg white can have its moments because if you get any Greece in it in them, so if the bowl isn't clean, or if the whisks are clean and there's still some maybe some residual cake batter on from the last time when you use them, you know, you'll wonder why your egg whites don't flop up because any fat or great in there will inhibit
the the you know, the whisking. So egg whites can be problematic if you don't understand what's maybe going on, and bread can be problematic. Bread was one that was the baking discipline that gave me the run around the most.
I would say, until I started using bottled water or spring water, my baking of bread was and it took me a long time to figure out all the things we put in our central water these days are not good for baking necessarily.
I think you're actually I mean, I would always say people say have said to me, you know, I've tried to activate my east in warm water and it's just not having it. And I do try. I do say try bottled water because you know, we don't always know what's in the tap water and it may be inhibiting the rise of the east. So if anybody struggles with bread, I'd say, have a go with bottled water.
Nancy birth Whistle just one of her many tips and tricks, and she goes over more in the Big Bake Over Fridays at eight on the CW, and we thank you for joining us. Happy baking.
Thank you, Lee only, it's on the app as well. It's on the CW app for free.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation