Bread Week, Paul Hollywood’s “home turf,” begins with Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding riffing on music-related bread puns, including “You Knead Me, I Don’t Knead You,” by Bread Sheeran.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Andy, one of the bakers said. “But at the same time. I’m not a professional.”
The Challenges
1. The Signature Challenge: 12 Tasty, Savory Buns
“This is one of the few workplaces where you can compliment someone’s buns,” Hammond said, while introducing the challenge.
The challenge was to make yeasted buns, but the shape and style was up to the individual. But, the bakers only had two hours and 45 minutes to do so. The judges were looking to test the bakers’ basic breadmaking, wanting the buns to have a good structure, with nice stretch and nice flavor. All of the dough needs sufficient kneading to create a strong elastic structure. Once happy with the dough, the dough needed two proofs.
“I do like baking bread,” John, another contestant, said. “But I like baking bread for myself and my friends, not Paul Hollywood.”
Andy, taking inspiration from his daughter, stuffed buns with chopped salami sticks, cheddar cheese, and chives. The buns had a nice flavor and a soft dough. “Do you know? I could just sit here and eat this all afternoon,” Prue Leith, the other judge, said.
Illiyin, taking inspiration from her “mum’s” recipe book, baked Jamaican coco buns with coconut milk, filled with Jamaican brown stew chicken, topped with spiced crispy chicken skin. With a laugh, Illiyin said, “Not exactly good for the waistline but great for joy.” The judges thought her flavors were lovely, she had a good level of spice, and that the crispy skin on top added a good texture.
Dylan filled his buns with gochujang, a Korean fermented chili paste and a confit of garlic throughout. While kneading, he told Fielding that he wanted to be a chef. Fielding responded, “Chefs are always ugly. You’re too handsome to be a chef.” Dylan’s buns turned out really interesting looking, with a good shape and a good crust, and a delicious spice level. Hollywood held out his hand for a handshake and Dylan stood there looking stunned. “Never had anything like it,” Hollywood said. Leith added, “He looked positively staggered.”
John created an oregano pesto, red onion, and feta-filled buns, inspired by his Greek vacations. While wrapping up his buns and putting them in the oven, John said, “It always works at home. Let’s hope it works here. Famous last words in the tent.” John’s buns looked quite nice but unfortunately there was an air pocket. Though the texture was a bit dry, Leith liked the flavor.
Sumayah baked milk bread buns. She shaped her buns into sunflowers, glazed with turmeric. Her buns were filled with Bangladeshi chicken curry. The sunflower shape gave her buns an irregular, interesting look. Despite some dryness and unproved dough, her filling was exceptionally delicious.
Nelly mixed her Slovakian heritage with her husband’s Pakistani heritage: She put her husband’s favorite vegetable curry into Slovakian milk bun dough, The buns were rolled up, cut into triangle, washed with egg, and dusted with sesame seeds. Nelly’s flavorings creating an interesting and not heavy texture.
Mike, using lamb from his family farm, created Bao buns with a clash of Asian spices and classic Sunday roast flavors. His buns held a good shape with delicious lamb. The bread was a bit tight but because of the filling, it worked well.
Gill baked Chelsea buns, filled with black pudding, chorizo, and goats cheese. She topped the buns with “mustard custard.” The judges liked the looks and flavors on Gill’s buns and the mustard added a nice light feel, with a soft texture.
Georgie, also creating Chelsea buns, infused hers with the flavors of Italy: pesto (made with garlic, basil, pine nuts, and parmesan), sun-dried tomatoes, and mozzarella. “But I think compared to Biscuit Week, this is definitely more my week,” she said. Georgie’s bread looked quite appetizing, according to the judges, with a good crumb. The judges said it was delicious, nice and punchy, but Hollywood wanted more parmesan.
Christiaan infused his dough with truffle and porcini mushrooms, truffle oil, pesto with hazelnut and sage. He braided the dough into a muffin tin before putting it in the oven. His buns looked nice and though Leith didn’t think the flavors would go well together, she was pleased with the “decent roll.”
2. The Technical Challenge: 7-Strand, Plaited Wreath
Alongside a relatively vague recipe, Hollywood gave a demonstration of how to plait the dough.
“If the dough is too soft, then you lose all definition in the plait,” Hollywood explained. Added that the hole in the middle was important. The strands need to be long enough to create that hole in the middle but the bakers spend much of the time guessing. Their wreaths were judged on clearly defined plaits, a hole in the center, a smooth glazed crust, and beautifully even crumb.
The results came down to this:
- Nelly
- Sumayah
- Andy
- Illiyin
- Gill
- Mike
- Georgie
- Christiaan
- John
- Dylan
So far, Paul was pleasantly surprised with the skill displayed, but “you can’t have a weak week. And if not, you could go,” the judges added.
3. The Showstopper Challenge: Cornucopia Display, Filled With At Least 2 Breads
The showstopper challenge for the week: a horn of plenty filled with an abundance of breads, sweet or savory, to show off bread-making skills. The judges were looking for an amazing look, fantastic flavors, and a display of workmanship.
Gill, taking inspiration from Devonshire holidays, baked a seaside-themed cornucopia with onion and bacon plaits, beer bread mini loaves, Devonshire splits filled with strawberries and cream. Some of the breads needed more proofing but some of them were very good. Though she kept it pretty safe, the judges decided it worked.
Andy, recreating a memorable holiday in New York City, created a red, white, and blue cornucopia, filled with pizza-style buns, cinnamon-roll pretzels, and focaccia muffins. Unfortunately, his horn of plenty had some structural issues, the pretzels needed to be more solid but were like cinnamon rolls, the pizza dough was a bit bland, and the focaccia was just not right.
John, celebrating pride, created a rainbow cornucopia, filled with rainbow lemon and ginger buns, and cinnamon raisin bagels. Unfortunately, his bagels sank while he was boiling them and his dough did not turn into bagels — he told the judges to not even bother eating them. His buns weren’t right either.
Sumayah baked recipes passed down by friends and family. She created cinnamon and star anise Mexican concha bread, Middle Eastern Fatayer bread filled with feta, dill, parsley, and a spiced cornucopia with sumac, paprika, and cayenne. She had good flavors and it looked very pretty but the judges felt it was a bit boring.
Mike plaited his cornucopia and filled it with olive and cheddar twists, cheese, tomato, and bacon twists, and rosemary fougasse. Leith loved the tastes but the fougasse was not the right texture.
Georgie baked a massive rosemary horn with pumpkin and pecan buns, chocolate and hazelnut babka, and tahini swirls. The horn was decorated with leaves and mice. The pieces of her cornucopia has a good shape and color, the babka was nice, soft, sweet, and luxurious, the pumpkin had good spice, although it needed a bit more proving.
Dylan created his horn to look like his cats. He filled the horn with amaretto crème brûlée donuts, maple, bacon, and cinnamon knots, with whipped bone marrow country loaf. The judges decided his bread looked very good and very neat. The donuts and the knots “look expensive,” according to Hollywood. He also told Dylan he was a “decent bread baker.”
Nelly crafted a potato and onion bread horn with poppy seed and orange samosas, walnut wreaths, and sweet cream cheese buns. The horn was amazing, with good detail and color, nice and sweet.
Illiyin decided her cornucopia would be about family and coming together. Her breads were feta, parsley, and Harissa wreaths, jalapeño and sun-dried tomato babka, and halloumi, coriander, and olive knotted buns. The buns looked good, the tomato was delicious, and her pieces were really well done.
Christiaan wanted his bread to look like wildflowers, with garlic and stilton orchids, rose-shaped sweet buns filled with strawberry and cardamom jams. Her cornucopia was infused with earl-grey. Though the roses looked great, the orchids were not very good looking. There was also too much filling in the sugar bread, but the flavor was very good.
Despite racing against time, the projects showed the bakers’ talent.
Dylan was crowned star baker at the end of the episode. Unfortunately, John was sent home. In spite of being sad, he said that his tears were “tears of pride.”
Hollywood said that this was “the best Bread Week [he’s] been involved with.”
The bakers are looking forward to caramel week.
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