It's been a little bit since I saw that episode, but I remember one of the judges saying something about American pie being too sweet and the contestants would need to make it more European to be the best. :)

Most pie I've ever had were no sugar in the crust so I don't know unless they are talking about the fillings. But I will say that DH, being half German and lived there as a child, prefers European desserts over American, which he says are too sweet. And that goes for cakes, pies, pastries, whatever.

My comments should've been heavier on the strange pairings. You had to see the episode. The least odd one, won star baker. Key lime pie with ginger added. That actually sounded good. There was one other that I would've tried. "Brendan’s 'elegant' chiffon pie, the raspberries, chantilly cream, and blueberries of which are intended to allude to the colors of the American flag." There was a banana cream pie with butterscotch and salted caramel. Mostly, they sounded completely offputting. Not intriguing as they are often wont to cause. Yep, they actually sweetened their crusts.

I work with an international group. I heard one Asian say to another, Americans. Their food has too much sugar. The other agreed. They both left the room having eaten the food and carried additional out. Meaning? I think it's a snobbery thing. I don't think every dessert is too sugary. There are plenty of us who tone it down and don't care for it overly sweet either. I think a lot are sugary. Merely my observations. We're not the only country with sugar in plain view. I think of the Dutch breakfast sprinkles or how the Germans are second in world sugar consumption off the top of my head. Those aren't even anecdotal notes ;) Those are fact.

Paul's job on that show is snark. Oddly enough originally it was the woman who made the snarky comments but they traded positions early on. Like all reality TV it is semi scripted. You don't get real cooking when there is never enough time to properly prepare most of the challenges. How do you fault a puff pastry which takes a couple of days to make properly and you are given three hours? So when they say American pie they aren't even talking about American style pie. Picking on American tastes would be the point.

When you talk sweet how about traditional British cake with its thick marzipan layer and the thick coating of royal icing? European deserts go from make your teeth hurt to not sweet at all but Asians barely use sugar and you have to wonder why?

Why is caramel always salted these days?

I agree, the snark was through the roof. It's what I mean when I say it's a snobbery thing.

I also hate salt on caramel. I make a point of making my caramel (I use all cream and no milk) and it has NO salt in it.

BTW, I can think of nothing sweeter than English toffee, but perhaps that is really American. I make some pie (or torte) crusts that are sweet, but normally I make regular pie crust with no sugar. My apple pie is no sweeter than apple strudel. When I make tortes, I put tart fruit on them, to cut the sweetness, but they are otherwise fairly sweet. The butter cookies I make are not overly sweet.

I've seen Mary come up with some sickeningly sweet recipes for people to make on that show. Normally I do not eat dessert.

I made a lime-ginger pie after seeing that show. It was good and I'll make variations of it again, but the flavor combo wasn't as amazingly wonderful awesome as I hoped. Paul Hollywood, you let me down! (lol)

“traditional British cake with its thick marzipan layer and the thick coating of royal icing? ”. This is only done for celebrations such as weddings, and is eaten in tiny slivers. I don’t think anyone eats the royal icing, but it seals the cake and keeps it fresh as well as it being perfect for elaborate decorations.

I know Coleen. I lived in England a long time ago. We ordered a birthday cake for my sister and got a similar sort of cake all unawares. I don't suppose anyone has them for birthdays these days. People back then seemed to eat a fair amount of candy. We were impressed with the wonderful sweet shops. I was a big fan of the hard slabs of treacle toffee. Our bus stop was outside of a sweet shop and even early in the morning you had the ladies stopping in for small paper cones of sweets.