The Great British Bake Off: Bread Week

September 28, 2022 11:30 AM - Season 13, Episode 3

It's Bread Week, and the bakers put their stamp on a classic pizza in the Signature and get in a twist with a classic pastry in the Technical. Finally, the bakers tackle a showstopping Smörgåstårta, a decorative Danish sandwich cake.
posted by ellieBOA (31 comments total)

Forgot about these great recaps!
posted by ellieBOA at 11:39 AM on September 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

Finally, a bread week that wasn't basically loaves and artistically designed loaves, so that was nice.
posted by Kyol at 6:02 PM on September 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

As soon as Dawn said what kind of beef she was using, I knew her pizza was doomed. And so many pizzas with beans on them whyyyyyy.

Those Smörgåstårta were utterly insane, conceptually, but a surprising number of them looked quite beautiful. I can’t imagine eating most of them, though. Very weird format for a meal.

Syabira Star Baker when?
posted by merriment at 4:51 PM on September 29, 2022 [5 favorites]

Actually, wossisname's fish and chips smorgastarta, with rye? Yeah, I'd have some, thanks, I think? Maybe? On the other hand, if it was cold meat, possibly Syabira's chicken, since I've had stuff that's at least conceptually adjacent to cold chicken curry.
posted by Kyol at 6:21 PM on September 29, 2022

As soon as Dawn said what kind of beef she was using, I knew her pizza was doomed.

Yes, fully expected that beef to come out tough.

Also what's with Paul's insistence on coriander in Greek food? I would not consider that a must-have Greek herb.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:36 PM on September 29, 2022 [4 favorites]

Actually, wossisname's fish and chips smorgastarta, with rye?

Janusz! In England he’s from Brighton like me (he’s Polish), and when Matt asked him if he’d been to some nightclub I’ve forgotten the name of, he replied no but I’ve been to Legends and I bet you have too, I laughed so hard as I know that gay club!
posted by ellieBOA at 11:29 PM on September 29, 2022 [6 favorites]

I liked the challenge of the smorgastarta but as a person who doesn't enjoy what I call 'damp bread', I cannot imagine eating one of them.

I do think the technical was a pastry, not a bread! I wonder if this means no pastry week...
posted by In Your Shell Like at 2:35 PM on September 30, 2022 [4 favorites]

Those sandwich cake monstrosities were gorgeous but you could not pay me enough to eat them. Eeech.

It is hard to begrudge Janusz another win, but justice for Syabira! She is so inventive and her showstopper was aces again this week.

Kevin really grew on me this week. His dry narration of his failing technical challenge and then his charming fisherman with the chive as a fishing line, great stuff. And his pizza combo is one I might actually try a riff on at home.

I am glad no one went home; wouldn't be fair with 2 bakers out. I reject the premise that they need to eliminate 2 bakers later though; there is no reason they can't have a 4 person final.
posted by the primroses were over at 7:23 PM on September 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

I do think the technical was a pastry, not a bread!

But it's got the word for "bread" right there in the name!
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:45 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I found Pru's scornful 'that looks like American pizza' comment just baffling. Does she really think pizza culture in America is that one-dimensional?
posted by DowBits at 8:42 AM on October 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

The winner of season one has a Substack and wrote a nice newsletter about his season.
posted by ellieBOA at 9:04 AM on October 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

And so many pizzas with beans on them whyyyyyy.

Because Baked Bean pizzas are A Thing here in the UK. As is the English Breakfast pizza, not forgetting this place (part of a franchise) not far from me, where you can get Tandoori chicken pizza, Chinese chicken pizza, and Bombay beef Indiano pizza - or a special which contains all three toppings. Oh, and this was in my local supermarket this week. So the roast dinner, fish & chips, full English breakfast pizzas the contestants made were no surprise at all, as it's what we're used to seeing.

Thankfully, in recent years 'proper' pizza has become much more widely available, but these abominations still prevail in many supermarkets and takeaways.

Those sandwich cakes looked disgusting. What a weird invention.
posted by essexjan at 1:58 PM on October 1, 2022

I found Pru's scornful 'that looks like American pizza' comment just baffling. Does she really think pizza culture in America is that one-dimensional?

Yeah that made no sense, considering that there are around a dozen regional pizza styles in the US.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:17 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

I understood it, but only because I've come to learn that across much of Europe a style of pizza called "American" has emerged that has thick, bready crust and weird toppings. It has as much connection to the actual USA as Hawaiian pizza does to Hawaii. I've never seen "American" pizza in America.
posted by traveler_ at 3:00 PM on October 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Was I entertained by this episode? Absolutely. Was I inspired by it? Absolutely not.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:01 PM on October 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

across much of Europe a style of pizza called "American" has emerged

Yep. In the UK we haven't generally had much exposure to different regional styles of American pizza. But we can get a Pizza Express American Pizza or a Chicago Town Newyorker or a Tesco American Chilli 'N' Cheese Pizza or a Papa Johns American Hot Pizza.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:50 AM on October 2, 2022

Chicago Town New Yorker

dogs and cats, living together...
posted by DowBits at 12:16 PM on October 2, 2022 [9 favorites]

This show has always had a bizarre take on American anything. I was just rewatching season 3 (I found that Roku Channel has the earlier series in legit order, plus the actual first two series, which have never been available before unless you torrented them) and the "American pie" showstopper and it was just...really awful. Everyone kept commenting in this derogatory way about how sweet America's versions of pie were, and I was just like, sure, okay, land of sticky toffee and banoffee everything , go off. Dani was going on about how "dizzgusting" pumpkin pie was but she turned around and made a butternut squash version, which is...::hands:: Some of the desserts they've made left me feeling queasy simply looking at them, like those brownie disasters a while back. I guess I'm not surprised to learn the UK (and apparently Europe) has decided to call weird pizza "American," but maybe they should step off, considering the really wacky takes they have on things of their own.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:24 PM on October 2, 2022 [8 favorites]

I can't be the only one who knew from the jump that nobody was going home this week.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:33 PM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Put me down as another one who wouldn't have wanted to eat any of those smörgåstårta. Yikes.

Bit of a weird week here, where I'm not entirely sure bread-baking was on display. Is pizza bread? To an extent. But there wasn't a ton of dough discussion. Pain aux raisins for sure isn't bread; sorry, Paul. And the smörgåstårta ... I mean once you sog the bread up with all that stuff, who can tell if it's any good?
posted by uncleozzy at 5:11 AM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Bit of a weird week here, where I'm not entirely sure bread-baking was on display.

Agreed, the technical was a pastry and the other things relied as much or more on the non-bread ingredients.

I looked up smörgåstårta afterward and it seems that the heavy towering things we saw on GBBO were outliers- most of the ones I found were smaller and flatter and looked much more appetizing. Fifteen layers of... stuff in barbecue sauce alternated with bread is not my idea of a good time.

I understood it, but only because I've come to learn that across much of Europe a style of pizza called "American" has emerged that has thick, bready crust and weird toppings. It has as much connection to the actual USA as Hawaiian pizza does to Hawaii. I've never seen "American" pizza in America.

Interesting, thanks. Is now the time to say I don't have much hope for people coming correct in Mexican Week?
posted by oneirodynia at 1:24 PM on October 3, 2022 [4 favorites]

Oh god, there's going to be a Mexican Week? DOOOM.
posted by suelac at 4:57 PM on October 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

Yikes, I am not sure I have a strong enough constitution for whatever Brits consider Mexican baking to be.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:07 PM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

The most horrifying food experience I’ve ever had was when my friends, thinking they were treating me to something wonderful, took me to a “Mexican” restaurant in Norfolk.

I’m shuddering just thinking about it.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 7:10 PM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

tbf one of the hottest salsas I have ever eaten in my life was from a taqueria in London. I just don't trust Paul or Prue to know anything about it and to make some weird generalizations when judging.

I do hope the technical is ten perfect corn tortillas.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:27 PM on October 3, 2022 [5 favorites]

Probably the worst meal I ever had in England was a Tex-Mex restaurant in the Theater District in London. (Granted, that was nearly 20 years ago: things may have changed?). Still, I'm not optimistic...
posted by suelac at 10:46 PM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

There are a few more authentically Mexican restaurants in London now. Not that I’m qualified to judge Mexican authenticity or quality, but there’s a newer wave of restaurants that’s certainly attempting to do real Mexican food, as opposed to the generic euro-tex-mex filth that used to be the only option here. People travel more, we have the internet now, food culture is a little less insular than it used to be.

How that will end up once it’s been passed through the lens of GBBO is another question.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 3:23 AM on October 4, 2022

It'll be interesting to see if they'll be taking on any of the typical pan dulces you find at a panaderia. They tend to be way less sweet you'd guess from their appearance.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:25 AM on October 4, 2022

The Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off Conquers Bread Week: The third week of the 13th season of The Great British Bake Off aired last week. It was Bread Week, which would’ve presented a stiff test under all circumstances, but was made all the more challenging when judge Paul Hollywood chose Pain aux raisins—a pastry—as the technical challenge. What the fuck.
posted by the primroses were over at 6:53 AM on October 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also what's with Paul's insistence on coriander in Greek food? I would not consider that a must-have Greek herb.

Paul (like so many tv celebrity chefs/cooks/bakers) quite often falls into a very rigid “if you make X, it must be exactly like this” mindsets.

This was a pretty unappealing episode. At points, it almost feels like they’ve run out of ideas. And, yeah, that technical was a pastry, I don’t care how Paul wants you to “think about it.”
posted by Thorzdad at 12:39 PM on October 6, 2022

At points, it almost feels like they’ve run out of ideas.

Brace yourself for Mexican week!
posted by ellieBOA at 12:23 AM on October 7, 2022