The Great British Bake Off/Baking Show – Bread Week 3 – 2025

I dread bread week for two reasons. One, there is never enough time to proof the dough. Secondly, I envision Paul as he violates a loaf of bread as the giant finger who would poke the Pillsbury dough boy’s belly back in the day.

Darcie: I share Jenny’s opinion about bread week, but for an additional reason – I have a love/hate relationship with bread. I will bake several great loaves and then end up with a bunch of bricks for no apparent reason.

Signature challenge: A savory monkey bread in 3 hours. We have 145 online recipes for monkey bread in our Library.

The bakers flavor combinations really impressed me. Iain’s three Irish cheeses with fruit sounded great. Tom’s three-variety French-inspired bake featured a croque monsieur filling, a French onion soup, and a steak with peppercorns. Iain, Lesley, Jessika, and Jasmine all received good comments except Paul felt that Jasmine needed to up her olive flavor. Tom, Nadia, Toby, Pui Man and Aaron received some dings for being sweet, doughy, lacking salt and so forth.

Darcie: The bakers focused so much on their flavors that they neglected the basics of their loaves. As Jenny said, the timing in bread week is really pushing it, because yeasted dough works on its own time and does not like to be rushed. Bumping up the temperature of the proving drawer can only make up so much time. With only three hours of time, it’s amazing the amount of flavors the bakers were able to pack into their monkey bread. Aaron’s dough did not rise at all and was all but inedible. I think milk bread was a mistake and resulted in the dings for being overly sweet.

Technical challenge: Paul Hollywood’s Glazed doughnuts – twelve doughnuts – six strawberry glazed and six with a plain glaze in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Seems like most of the bakers were having some difficulty with the doughnut dough – and that always seems the case when there is a rush to fry and glaze in time which prohibits proper proofing time.

Darcie: Doughnuts are fun to make – if you have enough time. The second rise for doughnuts is more important than the first, because frying does not allow for as much “oven spring” because the yeast has much less time to do its thing before being killed by the heat. It isn’t clear what happened to Pui Man’s dough, but she may have killed the yeast by getting the liquid too hot (one of her comments alluded to this). For some, the frying time was far too long and their doughnuts got too brown. Aaron pulled himself up from the bottom with a solid showing.

In last place was Pui Man (over-fried and under-proofed), followed by Lesley (over-fried). In third place was Aaron, Nadia took second and Jasmine came in first.

Showstopper challenge: A celebratory sweet bread with three tiers utilizing an enriched bread dough reflecting something meaningful in their lives in five hours.

I loved that the beautiful Jasmine shared her story: about alopecia as a young woman. She is gorgeous and so talented. Her Swedish midsummer cinnamon and cardamom display was stunning. Her spice levels were nice and her bake was very good. Aaron’s tribute to two friends of his that passed away was breathtaking and perfect. Tom’s tree structure in bread was dramatic and tasted great. Pui Man also received great comments – her structure was lovely and her bread baked well.

Iain made a Samhain inspired bake – the Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year which typically begins at midnight the evening before. My husband and I just started watching Bodkin – which is a mystery involving the disappearance of several young people during a Samhain celebration twenty-five years prior – so I was excited that I knew what his bread bake was all about! Sadly, Iain’s bread was under-baked and under-proofed and his apple filling made everything too moist and claggy.

Darcie: I am glad that they went with a sweet dough for the showstopper, it shakes things up a bit from the usual bread week challenges. The issue with sweet enriched dough is that all of the extra ingredients slow down the rise so timing is crucial. Fillings that are too wet can also be a problem. Aaron used dried fruit which is a great way to add flavor without adding excess moisture. Iain used fresh apples which can be really wet – it would have been better if he had sugared the apples to draw out some of the moisture. Then he could have boiled down the liquid to make a glaze. Jessika received negative comments about all of the flavor coming from the filling, which seemed fair – she needed to put some fruit or spices in the dough. Nadia’s bake had color that wouldn’t wash off, and it made for a funny moment when Paul had to show his tinted tongue after tasting.

Tom’s initial shapes to make his tree looked very poo-like, but he pulled it together in the end. Nataliia’s lace made from cornstarch was gorgeous when she pulled it off the mold but looked rough once assembled, and her dough was claggy. It seemed like she might go home. Lesley received high marks (remember what I said about her being someone to watch?). Aaron redeemed himself and Pui Man seemed to do well enough to avoid going home but didn’t quite get there. I loved the bread roses she used to decorate.

The end results: Surprisingly, Pui Man went home and Jasmine was awarded star baker!