'Bake Off' pastry week drama: Hardest-ever technical, pie disasters, Hollywood handshakes and who went home

The Great British Bake Off has seen its most dramatic episode of the series as the contestants took on the show's hardest-ever technical and endured pie disasters that were "like watching open heart surgery".

It also proved the undoing of Amanda, who became the sixth baker to leave the competition after a spectacular pie collapse in the showstopper.

Read more: Bake Off stars call for a return to realistic challenges

Week six was pastry week in the tent and as the competition headed into its second half, the tension ramped up with apocalyptic weather as a fitting backdrop.

Deafening rain poured down the sides of the tent as the remaining bakers struggled through a showstopper of collapsing pies, but first up was a technical dubbed by judge Prue Leith as "the hardest I've ever seen".

After a first challenge to make choux nuts, the group were asked to assemble a large baklava each, which involved making their own filo pastry.

Leith told fellow judge Paul Hollywood: "Paul, I think this must be the most difficult technical I've ever seen."

Despite contestants Amanda and George having Greek heritage, they both admitted to not having any more idea than their rivals on how to approach it.

Amanda said: "I've never attempted filo, or baklava. I really wish I'd spent more time in the kitchen with my Greek grandmother. You've thought, we've got two Greeks in the tent, they're bound to know how to make it."

It was German baker Jürgen who triumphed in the technical, as he said: "What a day. Incredible. Jurgenator seems to be back."

Just as the bakers were recovering from the tricky technical, they were asked to create savoury terrine pies during a downpour that seemed to reflect the tense mood in the competition.

As Crystelle assembled her curry-filled pie, she asked: "Good god, why is this so bloody tense?"

But the real drama was still to come, as Amanda and George both got their pies into the oven too late – meaning there wasn't enough time to cool them and they both collapsed.

Amanda's was the more spectacular collapse, with the whole pie lid detaching from its base and Chigs having to step in to make a heroic attempt at holding it together in the final minutes of the challenge.

Even the Bake Off hosts found it tough to observe, with Noel Fielding saying "I can't watch," as Matt Lucas agreed: "I know, it's too stressful."

Baker Lizzie told Giuseppe: "It's like watching open heart surgery."

Even once the pies had been presented for judging, stress levels continued to rise - particularly for George, who had left his sausage filling in the freezer for too long and was worried about giving Hollywood and Leith food poisoning.

Hollywood said: "That sausage, I question whether it's cooked."

George argued: "I probed it three times, Paul. 92."

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Meanwhile, Crystelle's curry pie triumphed, with Hollywood offering her a Hollywood Handshake for her efforts that left her fighting back tears and secured her pastry week's Star Baker title.

She said: "I was convinced something was going to be wrong. Then out came his hand and I just died. I literally died. So maybe I'm a ghost and that's why I feel weird."

Meanwhile, Amanda said of her time in the tent: "I came here to have a good time. It is a little bit stressful here, but it's a kind of fun stress.

"Perhaps if I didn't talk so much, I might have got a bit further, but I enjoyed it so I'm glad I did what I did."

Watch: Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith decide who is more intimidating