Great British Bake Off – Recap – Week 3 – Bread

It is bread week or the week when Paul pokes, prods and the Pillsbury doughboy renews his restraining order.

The bakers are down to eleven in number. Cake week saw the demise of Dan. Biscuit week crumbled Jamie’s dreams of baking royalty. (Weeks 1 and 2 Recap)

Signature bake: Filled, yeasted share and tear.

As the bakers begin the weighing of ingredients, we learn that Henry spent four days learning how to bake bread in anticipation of this week. Egads! As Paul tells the camera that the contestants need to keep things simple and not roll the dice with unusual ingredients, we next see Henry measuring charcoal and fretting about getting it onto his clothes. Henry, you spent only four days learning how to bake bread, your apparel is the least of your worries. However, Henry did receive a handshake as Paul joked “it was nice getting to know him” after the young baker told the judges that his parents were not overwhelmingly fond of his share and tear (a chicken and pesto hybrid).

For the remaining bakers, we saw Michelle sticking to her Welsh heritage with a Noson Caws bread, which translates as ‘Cheese Night” filled with two Welsh kinds of cheese. (Amelia told her that she hates cheese and it smells awful. Thanks, pal.)

Michael created a beautiful Indian coconut and chili bake that earned him a genuine Hollywood handshake, the first of the season. Prue declared Rosie’s chili and manchego brioche tear and share “heaven”. I have to mention that I am somewhat perplexed about Rosie’s private life (the vet) as they showed a clip of her baking at home and administering an IV drip to a cake. Look for the new series Cake Hospital coming soon to Channel 4.

Steph’s sundried tomato and pesto bread was deemed dry. Priya’s jalapeno and cheese creation was over-proofed. Cheese loathing Amelia’s chorizo, pepper, and onion bread was erratic in size and her knife cuts on the filling ingredients were too large. Alice’s baklava inspired bake was attractive but dry and David’s cinnamon rolls were doughy. Helena’s frosting covered cinnamon rolls were slightly overbaked (we saw her debating on removing the rolls from the oven earlier but didn’t want Paul’s finger to judge them underbaked). Paul also didn’t appreciate the rolls hiding beneath a heap of frosting.

Technical challenge: Paul’s floury baps with four veggie burgers

Paul, the bread wizard, chose floury baps (buns) for the technical this week. Overall, the bakers were not panicked while creating the baps. The worst of the lot included Amelia whose buns were too small (ironically she debated about adding the 7 grams of dough per bun she had tossed). Phil and Rosie also found themselves at the bottom. The best bun makers were named as Steph in third place, David with his pert buns in second, and Henry in first whose four days of cramming paid off here.

Showstopper challenge: Artistically scored and decorative display with at least two loaves

The bakers, I thought, made some incredible bread offerings. David’s tribal African masks were lovely but suffered some tearing. Henry’s choice of Fougasse proved hard to score and harder yet to remove the baking parchment from. Alice (globes) and Rosie (safari) made beautiful breads each. Priya baked a tropical scene and Steph a handheld bouquet of flowers.

Michael went with Mediterannean flavors and in usual Helena fashion, Helena sculpted a cauldron with snakes, maybe as a voodoo offering to reclaim her voice as she was suffering from laryngitis. Phil created a winner’s wreath in hopes of scoring big. Michelle created a nature scene and Amelia, a caterpillar. How these bakers make such stunning loaves while Noel is batting tomatoes with a baguette or Sandy and Noel both batting each other’s bowl-covered heads is beyond me. I have to clear the first floor when I am baking or cooking. Get out of my kitchen and now!

We sat waiting for the judges’ decision wondering if this was going to be the week of a double-elimination but in the end, Amelia went on her way and Michael was declared this week’s star baker.

What we learned this week: You can gather enough knowledge in four days to keep you in a competition. To score bread – score deep enough but not too deep to avoid ripping and to reduce the risk of deflating the loaves get them in the oven quickly after scoring.

For bread baking here are a few things I recommend:

• A lame. Please don’t hold a razor blade as Amelia did unless you want to look like a Jack the Ripper victim.
• Baker’s dough couche
• Dough whisk
• Baking steel (mine lives in my oven and is used for pizza, bagels, and bread)
• Silpat for baking bread
• Proving basket or a beginner’s set (or this set)
• A great bread baking cookbook: Flour Water Salt & Yeast or Paul Hollywood’s Bread. Of course, there are many great bread books but these are two great ones. I am excited about these upcoming releases: Poilâne: The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery, Bread on the Table, and James Morton (GBBO alumni)’s Super Sourdough as well.