The Great British Bake Off: Bread Week

September 12, 2017 6:35 PM - Season 8, Episode 3

Teacakes, cottage loaves, and multi-color bread sculptures (using only natural food coloring) challenge the bakers this week.
posted by merriment (17 comments total)

Pru/Paul Drag Race indeed! I'm really tickled by their chemistry.

So much fun stuff this week! Julia's sexy snail, the suggestive bread poking, Paul dissolving into silent fits of hysteria on two separate occasions, THAT HANDBAG, and although I did feel sorry for James, his laments over his cottage loaf made me laugh and laugh.
posted by merriment at 6:44 PM on September 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

Alas, poor Flo.

That snail was hilarious.
posted by rewil at 8:36 PM on September 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

I realize it would be difficult to justify giving him star baker - for the third time, in a row, out of 3 episodes - after his teacakes flopped so badly, but Steven's handbag was miles above everything else it's also hard to justify not giving it to him. I wouldn't have been surprised if the thing opened up and was filled with handbag essentials. Seriously, it even had stitching patterns in the bread.

Julia's snail under a mushroom, despite any innuendo, was perfectly acceptable. They enjoyed the flavors, and it had no flaws. But it wasn't a particularly intricate design and the bread work paled in comparison to some of the others.

But she placed 1 spot ahead of him in the technical and had decent teacakes, so I guess consistency across all 3 challenges won the day.
posted by 2ht at 8:02 AM on September 14, 2017

I haven't eaten squid ink bread, but I've had squid ink pasta. It imparted a mild briny taste, but mostly it just tasted like pasta.

The activated charcoal bread sounded vile to me, too. Why would you make a bread black with charcoal when you can just do like Julia did and make a pumpernickel? I mean, it wouldn't be inky black, but at least it would be tasty.
posted by merriment at 8:41 AM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't think anyone actually used activated charcoal. When he saw Flo's black dough, Paul asked if she had used it, but she explained about the squid ink, and the other woman also said she was using squid ink.
posted by briank at 5:56 AM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm fairly certain one of the baker's bread did use activated charcoal, but not the one that Paul had asked about.
posted by 2ht at 9:33 AM on September 15, 2017

Stacey used activated charcoal in the breadstick stems for some of the flowers on her hat. Paul asked her if it was going to taste good, and she said she wasn't going for taste so much as color. Which... Yeah.
posted by merriment at 9:54 AM on September 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I feel like Steven's a plant. Like, in episode 6 we're going to discover he actually dropped out of Le Cordon Bleu two credits shy of graduation or something. I'm sort of actively rooting for him to leave at this point, because he keeps showing everyone up, and it feels a bit less fun to have "oh, of course Steven made everyone else look like kindergarteners." Yan, go turn off his oven!

I really liked Tom's pink and yellow roses though. I thought that was really a pretty piece and something that I would actually enjoy making and serving (and is feasible to eat). Like, that is a reasonable thing to attempt for a special occasion dinner, you know?

Meanwhile: FRIDGEGATE!
posted by sldownard at 5:55 AM on September 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Isn't the thing about activated charcoal that it tastes, essentially, of nothing? I've had it in some juices and while it does make them dark, they taste precisely the same.

When Flo immediately said "it's alright, it's okay" when she was eliminated and then they cut to her talking head interview and she had to take a second to compose herself, it made me very sad.
posted by hepta at 2:09 PM on September 17, 2017 [4 favorites]

The minute they showed Noel in that fridge I thought - People are not going to like that. I'm assuming the complaint is that children will mimic him?

Julia's snail made me guffaw and I honestly don't believe Steven is as amateur as he claims. That Showstopper was beyond professional.
posted by Julnyes at 2:27 PM on September 18, 2017

Yeah, I can't tell if he just reminds me of someone else _super strongly_, or if I've actually seen Steven before on a youtube cooking channel. I'm sure someone would've sleuthed it out already if it was that obvious, but every time he's on screen there's a part of me thinking I've seen this guy before in something, I just can't place it.
posted by Kyol at 6:37 PM on September 18, 2017

Some pics of various illusion cakes from Steven's Instagram. Apparently they're his specialty (and there's a purse there, too).
posted by merriment at 7:56 AM on September 19, 2017

This is my first season watching it in "real time", so to speak, and I'm kind of liking not knowing everything all at once already. I thought I was going to hate the new season, but as long as the competitors are friendly and generally charming, I think I can deal with it. It's not the same, mind you, but it isn't horrible, either.

Now, as for bread week -- those were some interesting bakes. I really loved Tom's roses the best. They were pretty, but not so pretty that I would have felt bad eating them. (I wouldn't have eaten Steven's handbag, it was too pretty to eat!)
posted by PearlRose at 11:22 AM on September 19, 2017

>I'm assuming the complaint is that children will mimic him?

I really don't get this. I'm 55, and my parents had a fridge that latched closed down in the basement, when I was a kid, but since then I don't think I've seen a consumer fridge with a latch; they've all been magnetic gaskets.
posted by chazlarson at 11:31 PM on September 28, 2017

I was so afraid that this season wouldn't have the usual quota of sexual innuendo! Bread week delivered and the world is right again.

How common is the cottage loaf in the UK, exactly? And why did it become a thing -- wouldn't two separate rounds bake faster?
posted by batter_my_heart at 10:16 AM on September 2, 2018

OK a couple of things-why does Julia always look like she's about to cry no matter what? She does well? She's gonna cry. She does poorly? She's gonna cry. It just seems like a ton more crying since last season and I really don't like it.

Also Liam should have gotten kicked instead of Flo.
posted by miss-lapin at 8:37 PM on September 6, 2018

Meanwhile: FRIDGEGATE!

I don't think this shot made it into the US Netflix version. They must have thought better of it.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:58 AM on September 13, 2018