Episode 3 The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice

Week three in the tent, and the bakers battled bread...

Oh, no! I've squashed it!

..clashed with Paul Hollywood...

That's couronne. No, it's a babka.

It's a couronne.

..and braved a mountain of dough.

Some people like dark chocolate, some people like white chocolate,

some people like chocolate dough and some people like white dough.

I don't mind what it is, as long as it's massive!

Time for An Extra Slice.

APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE

Hello, and welcome to the show.

Did everyone enjoy bread week?

AUDIENCE: Yes!

It's always a tough week in the tent.

And an interview with Jane came to an abrupt halt

when her batteries finally ran down.

I did my best, even thinking back, I tried to work the time back,

I tried to make sure it was all proved...

I'm not shh...

LAUGHTER

Given that the bakers had to make plaited bread,

Mel and Sue thought they'd add a twist to proceedings -

they'd be the grown-ups for a change,

while Paul and Mary supplied the double entendre.

Mary was a bit worried about the idea.

We've never done it before.

It's something totally different.

And it's quite difficult to cope with.

LAUGHTER

While Paul took to it like a duck to water.

Pick your balls up and pop them straight into the pan.

LAUGHTER

Finally, in the Technical Challenge,

Benjamina wowed the judges with her invisible plum sauce.

LAUGHTER

I'm joined, as ever,

by a celebrity panel of Bake Off fans,

eager to chew over the events of bread week,

which saw our third baker leave the tent - Michael.

AUDIENCE: Aw!

I'm delighted to say, though, he'll be joining us in a bit.

AUDIENCE: Yay!

And, to put some of his less successful bakes into perspective,

let's have a look at a bake from viewer Helena,

who lives in Fort William.

She thought it might be fun to have a go at this rather cute cupcake.

Sweet, isn't it?

Here's Helena's version.

SINISTER MUSIC

LAUGHTER

More of those in just a bit.

And we'll also be taking a look at the bakes

you've brought along to the studio.

Bread seems to feature heavily, which gives me the chance to shout,

"show us your bloomers!"

CHEERING

The celebrity panel can't wait to taste some of those.

You just have to look at their faces to see how thrilled they are

at the thought of it - let's meet them.

First up, one of Britain's most acclaimed bakers,

who says his motto is, "Show the dough who's boss."

It's Richard Bertinet.

APPLAUSE

Next, a comedian who says she nearly burned her mum's house down

making toast - it's Sara Pascoe.

APPLAUSE

And, finally, it's the king of Countdown,

who says the only thing he's ever baked is a potato -

it's Nick Hewer.

APPLAUSE

So, Richard, how do you show the dough who's boss?

You've got to talk to the dough. Talk to it? Yes.

Understand how the dough works.

I don't knead the dough, I just put a lot of air inside

and a lot of water, so it is nice and fluffy and very light.

It's a bit of a love story with the dough.

And what do you say to it then?

"Be bread, you bastard!"

LAUGHTER

Nick, if you were in the tent,

what would you bake for Paul and Mary?

I would go straight for a nice, moist date cake.

Mmm.

Do you like date cake?

I don't really like dates unless I'm constipated.

LAUGHTER

Sara, is your mum still speaking to you?

She is speaking to me, yes,

it was a long time ago that I nearly burned the house down.

What happened, the week before, the toaster had caught fire.

So I couldn't use that to make breakfast, so I did the toast

on a grill, but then I realised I was late for school, and I left.

Because I left in a rush, I also hadn't shut the front door.

So the neighbours saw that the kitchen was on fire

and called the fire brigade.

So it worked out OK.

LAUGHTER

Now, who wants to see some bakes from the kitchens of Britain?

AUDIENCE: Yay!

Felicity from Herefordshire thought of the perfect birthday cake

for her sister Jo, who keeps bees.

She made a honey cake, of course, and on top of it,

crafted a large queen bee, which, if I'm honest,

is slightly larger than I was expecting.

LAUGHTER

I know, it's huge, isn't it? It even dwarfs the Aga.

A slightly unfortunate animal cake now from Frances,

who lives in Essex.

She made a delightful Cheshire cat design

from the Alice In Wonderland story.

LAUGHTER

But what's unfortunate about that, I hear you ask?

Well, let's have a look at its paws.

LAUGHTER

No wonder he's smiling.

Last week we had a cake depicting global superstar, Lionel Richie.

And our next cake is of an equally massive entertainment figure.

Katie made it for her brother,

who says this man is his absolute hero.

So, first, here's the real thing -

former Bargain Hunt presenter, Tim Wonnacott.

And here he is in cake form.

LAUGHTER

Katie's even got the gap in his teeth,

and his ears are uncannily accurate,

I think that's brilliant.

Now, when I said former Bargain Hunt presenter,

you may have been disappointed not to see David Dickinson in cake form.

But don't worry because, courtesy of Jonathan in Newcastle,

here he is as a coffee cake with walnut finish.

And for fans of Doctor Who, what better birthday cake could

you wish for than one featuring the much-loved time-travelling TARDIS?

Matt got to work on his cake replica for his wife Megan's 30th birthday.

Imagine her delight when he unveiled it.

LAUGHTER

Stunningly accurate - or it would be if Doctor Who travelled through

time and space in a lopsided police box held together by kebabs skewers.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their photos.

And do keep them coming, details below.

Back now to the tent, and the bakers had plenty to PROVE.

Week three, and bread week rolled into the tent.

The bakers felt the heat in the chocolate bread Signature...

Cool, cool.

That's not burning, is it?

..and so did the judges.

Where's the cherry? And now it is hitting me.

Is it hitting you? Yep.

Hoo!

The dampfnudel Technical was a Bake Off first.

I've no idea what a dampfnudel is!

Steamed bread, served with two sauces.

They don't look particularly appetising.

And it was a first for Val, too, who came top.

The judges were looking for perfect plaits in the Showstopper.

Just trying to remember how to plait now.

And the bakers felt the raw terror of Paul Hollywood's wrath.

The top one's a mess, when it comes to flavour, dough development,

plaiting, proving, baking - I mean, all of it.

Michael left the tent,

and Tom's winning flavours saw him crowned Star Baker.

APPLAUSE

Why did the bakers find bread week so difficult, Richard, do you think?

I think it was a tough challenge, because you used sweet dough,

and when you use sweet dough, you put sugar, butter,

it can be very complicated.

And they were panicking a bit. The timing was a bit out of sync.

The first proof, second proof, resting...

Bit of confusion, I think.

Yeah. Tough challenge.

Great creativity, hard work and the rest of it -

but if you don't get the time right,

what you end up with is a complete failure, and that's what happened.

Michael left the tent with his Cypriot-flag-based Showstopper

flying at half-mast.

He did blatantly try to get Paul sloshed

by accompanying his savoury plait with a little glass

of 99% zivania, as we can see here.

Yamas, by the way.

LAUGHTER

Surely, for that reason alone, he deserved to stay, Sara?

Do you think so? I think something happens,

and it does seem to be a coincidence,

when people are a bit unconfident with their bakes,

they accompany it with some booze, don't they?

It's going to get the point where someone's going to be like,

"It's bread week, I've made a pina colada with croutons."

Enjoy!

The boy is 19 or 20 years old. I think he's fantastic.

Give him a little bit of time...

APPLAUSE

He'll come on.

I'm 72, and I'm not altogether sure whether we're on gas or electricity.

And he's doing these wonderful things.

He was right, but he'll be terrific in a little while.

Let's talk about Candice.

She cried in cake week, won Star Baker in biscuit week,

but was crying again over bread.

Did you feel for her, Sarah?

I did. I wonder if she's got a very short menstrual cycle.

LAUGHTER

Because... Is that OK to say? Yes, of course!

APPLAUSE

Because we've all been there.

You get a little bit oversensitive and thin-skinned. I love it.

That's why she makes fantastic television.

I really adore her as a character and a baker.

So when she cries, I cry with her.

Candice had a stressful moment

when she was trying to get her brioche out of the tin.

But several bakers rushed to her assistance.

CASUALTY THEME PLAYS

I hate oven gloves.

Oh, no! It's all right, don't panic.

I've squashed it! Don't panic.

APPLAUSE

Richard, what advice would you have given to Candice

about baking under pressure?

Stop faffing. Stop faffing.

Too much faffing.

Too much panicking.

Being organised is a key of baking.

Weigh everything, do it,

and then bake it and do whatever you need to do.

She's too many thoughts going through.

She needs to calm down a bit. Yeah.

She's very lucky to still be there, I think. OK.

Candice used an unusual type of flour, kamut.

In this bit of unseen footage,

Mel asks Paul about this unusual grain.

The challah is a kamut flour.

I think it's quite like spelt?

It's a bit like spelt, it's one of the grandfather grains.

Around in Egyptian times. Egyptians used to use it.

How is kamut spelt? K-A-M-U-T.

No, how is it SPELT? As in flour?

Do you know what? Do you know what, Mel?

Today you've been so out of order.

LAUGHTER

Has anyone ever spelt the word "spelt"

out of the letters on Countdown, Nick?

LAUGHTER

I wouldn't have thought they'd have bothered, to be quite honest.

It would be amusing, though.

Although, obviously, not as amusing as when someone apparently

recently spelt the word BUMHOLE.

Is that right?

If it's in the dictionary...

LAUGHTER

Let's move on to Val's Showstopper centrepiece.

Here she is describing it to Paul.

It's going to be a Noah's Ark.

So two by two? No, it says,

"They all went into the ark, for to get out of the rain."

It's a hymn.

As a plait?

Yes, it's plaited.

So it's a plaited Ark hymn?

Yes.

LAUGHTER

That's right, Paul - a plaited Ark hymn.

Pretty clear, I'd have thought.

In this bit of unseen footage,

we can see that Mary was much more enthusiastic about Val's idea.

My plaited centrepiece is

a celebration of bread-making with children.

It's a Noah's Ark.

Right.

LAUGHTER

Val had some explaining to do when it came to the end result.

But she rose to the occasion magnificently.

There'll be an elephant.

One elephant?

Or two? The whole point...

They've argued.

Two giraffes. Of course.

And there'll be a dove.

A dove? A dove. Two...? Two doves?

Well, one's flown away.

Sara, Val has an answer for everything, doesn't she?

I love her so much. She's like a really, really old toddler.

LAUGHTER

Her whole energy towards everything, her ideas and, actually,

also how it looked at the end...

She used to be a primary school teacher,

and I think that's it, she's been used to being around children,

you just think of an answer on the spot, the story behind everything.

I think, with Val, I think she's the only one

who hasn't practised it at home before.

I think she's done a sketch on the bus.

"This is going to be...amazing."

It's fair enough - one dove did fly away,

came back with the olive brunch, all that stuff.

But they also went in two by two.

It is the whole two by two thing which is very central to it.

I mean, imagine if Val was let loose on the rest of the Bible?

Here's Moses and the Seven Commandments.

Jesus turning five loaves and two fishes into a fish finger sandwich.

And here it's Goliath - no David, unfortunately,

as he got called into a meeting.

Tom's Showstopper was inspired by Norse mythology.

And I felt a little bit like Mary did earlier -

it's an ale and seaweed Thor's hammer, Mary.

Right.

LAUGHTER

Have you had that before?

Yes, I make some. I use seaweed in bread.

Do you? Yes, it's nice.

In Brittany, where I come from, we use the seaweed from the beach,

you clean it well, and you chop it like olive.

And then you put in your rye bread.

You serve it with some salted butter with seafood. Fantastic.

Do you think Tom deserved to be Star Baker, Nick?

I like this bloke. He's very creative.

I mean, last week, he had some disaster,

falling off a mountain made of gingerbread, or whatever it wants.

This time, he's been sticking his nose into Norse mythology.

Who'd have thought it possible?

I think he's a tour de force, this chap. OK.

Time to take a look at some of the bakes brought in

by our audience, and, possibly...

Yes! Taste one or two of them as well.

So strap yourselves in, panel. Dotty and Sarah, where are you?

Here. Hello. Hello.

You've been inspired by bread week to make cakes? Yeah.

So, Victoria sponge sandwiches.

Oh, they look amazing, don't they?

So that is actually a cake? Yeah.

So, we've got cheese and pickle, which is made of grated

yellow fondant and crushed chocolate raspberries and raisins.

And then egg and cucumber sandwiches, which are made

of white chocolate, butter cream and fondant green cucumber.

Well, here's a question I haven't been able to ask yet this series -

is your fondant shop-bought?

It may just be, yeah.

Oh, Dotty and Sarah...!

RICHARD: You should have lied! But the rest of the cake is organic.

LAUGHTER

Well, they still look amazing. Thank you. Well done, brilliant.

APPLAUSE

Now, where's Carrie?

Carrie, hello. You're a dentist? I am.

And your bake is appropriate to your job, I believe?

It's a bread in the shape of a smile.

Oh, that's interesting.

LAUGHTER

The teeth are white bread, is that right? Yes.

And then the outside is beetroot.

That looks brilliant, thank you very much, Carrie, that's great.

APPLAUSE

OK, brace yourselves, guys,

because we're going to taste one or two.

Sarah, you're a vegan. Yes.

Right, you can't eat the first one, apparently, as it's not vegan.

Sagar and Maya, where are you?

OK, what have you got there? I've got boozy bread.

Ooh!

Nick, which you be kind enough to go and fetch that, please?

Boozy bread?

Boozy bread, with whisky and candied oranges.

Is this working along the lines of putting quite

a lot of alcohol in to fool someone...?

It's to kill your taste buds. OK, great.

That looks nice. Oh, my gosh.

NICK: There's alcohol here. Yeah.

You have to have the food as well. LAUGHTER

HEAVY THUD

AUDIENCE GROANS

I'm not saying anything.

Come in!

Is this something you've made before, or is it...?

No, first time. First time. OK.

So you haven't even tasted this? No.

LAUGHTER

Nick, what do you think? Got a problem with the crust.

You've got a problem with the crust? I have to lubricate.

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

It's nice. A bit dense, but a good idea.

How much whisky had you put in the bread? Quite a bit.

You can't taste it in there. You can't at all.

So you need to make a hole in there - bit like this one -

put the whisky in there, shake it hard.

Then drink it.

Well done, and thank you very much, that's lovely.

APPLAUSE

Our next audience baker, Louise, where are...? Ah, Louise.

You decided to mark the fact that it's early September

by making some edible Christmas baubles, is that right?

Yeah, there's only 15 weeks to go, so...

LAUGHTER

Nick, could you grab Louise's baubles for us, please? Happily!

What are they made of?

I wanted to make stollen, then I thought,

to make it more interesting,

I'd make it into the shape of baubles.

And you can eat this, I think, probably.

Yes, I'm vegan, so they're vegan.

But if they're terrible, I apologise for misrepresenting vegan baking.

You won't, they'll be incredible. Have you tried them?

I have had one at home, but I'm not fussy,

so I thought they're OK.

LAUGHTER

Choose your balls first. I'm going to have the cherry one.

It's got chickpea water in it?

Yeah, it's a vegan thing, aquafaba.

So the one you've picked... Aqua-what?

Sorry, aquafaba.

Aquafaba?

If you take the water out of a tin of chickpea,

you can use that water to then replace the egg white

in the royal icing - which is the one Sara's got.

That's the royal icing one. Is it? I've never had it before,

I've only heard about it on the internet on forums. Yeah, exactly. LAUGHTER

I can't imagine how much fun you can have on a vegan forum.

Is it...? Is it...?

But I bet it's even better than Mumsnet, isn't it?

I'm joining that tonight.

This is so delicious. Is it nice? LOUISE: Thank you.

So delicious.

The dough is a bit dry but...

I like it stodgy.

Bit more stodge in there would be better.

No, it's a great idea. Good concept.

Actually, its taste belies its incredible weight.

It's very good. LOUISE: Oh, thank you.

That's what people say about me.

Up now to the tent and this year's youngest baker

wowed the judges with his beer biscuits but sadly,

bread week proved the better of him and it was time to leave.

Will you please give a warm welcome to Michael?

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Hi, Michael.

Welcome to An Extra Slice. It's lovely to have you with us.

Now, how would you sum up your time in the tent?

It is a dream come true for me,

just to be there in the first place to, like, bake for Paul and Mary,

to have it seen by millions of people was incredible

so I was just ecstatic that I was able to do that, to be honest.

Aw. Tell me how you were feeling as you went into bread week.

It's the week everyone, like, waits for on the show, everyone's like,

"Oh, when's bread week coming up? "What's Paul going to be like?"

So that week, more than the previous two weeks,

I put a lot more pressure on myself in that.

Now, you made a chocolate and chilli swirl for your Signature. Yeah.

And, as we saw earlier,

Mary and Paul found the heat a little intense. Yeah.

Did you agree when you tasted it or are you just a lot harder than Paul?

Er, it was a bit spicy,

I probably should've tasted the chilli before I put it in

cos I thought it would taste the same how it was at home

but clearly... It was... ..chilli's different, apparently,

from the one I have at home so apparently it was spicier, so...

Oh, OK. Yeah. I liked it. I liked the taste, so...

So, balls to them, in a way.

So the Technical was dampfnudel. Yeah. You came seventh.

Yeah. Let's just have a look at why that was.

PAUL: The top quarter is raw but right down the bottom is OK.

Well, on the plus side, it was three-quarters cooked. Yeah.

Erm... Enough to pass an exam. Yeah, absolutely!

You should've told him that. APPLAUSE

And also you brought a little taste of Cyprus to the tent. Yeah.

With your olive, coriander and onion savoury platter

and you based your design on the Cypriot flag... Yep.

..which is a great idea.

Now, the judges said that it wasn't properly plaited,

do you accept that?

I probably disagree with that a bit.

I mean, I did the plaiting technique,

I did the hand motion technique with the three plaits

so I feel it was plaited but just wasn't as plaited

as they wanted it to be, to be honest.

One aspect of your bake did almost go to plan,

your tactic of rendering Paul unconscious with a shot of alcohol.

Yeah! That could've gone to plan quite well.

Well, as we can see, you definitely bonded over the subject.

Here we are.

Are you talking about zivania? Yeah. Zivania?

It's about 99% proof, could strip paint off a car.

This one probably is.

It's from one of my aunt's villages. Wow.

Now, how many villages does your aunt own, then?

She's like a leader of many villages in Cyprus.

I'd like to meet her, she sounds great.

Now, a real high point for you was the iced biscuit signature

in biscuit week. Yeah. Have a look at this.

Now, that's crispy.

Getting chocolate in there as well and you can see

the consistency inside, it's... BISCUIT CLINKS

You can hear it, solid. Well done.

And was that a good moment for you?

Yeah. That was probably one of my best moments in the tent, like,

when both Paul and Mary said it tasted good

and they both liked it, it was sort of a sigh of relief

that it'd come off how it had at home and it wasn't a bendy biscuit,

how Paul was going round... No, no, absolutely.

..keeping an eye on everyone. Yeah.

Because you had a memorable gingerbread Showstopper that week.

Not entirely for the right reasons.

Now, what was going through your mind

as you stood in front of the judges' table

with what you called, yourself, Santa's workshop from hell?

LAUGHTER

Yeah. What was going through your mind?

It did look like Santa's workshop from hell.

I was, like, "I'm glad I've finished this."

Like, four hours... If you think about four hours as,

you've got plenty of time to do something in four hours,

but when you're doing it, the time flies,

and just being able to do it and just say, "Here..."

"Here it is." "Have a look at this, just see..."

Yeah. But, yeah, it looked terrible.

Aww! Yeah.

But your gingerbread story had a happy ending. Yeah.

Let's have a look.

Crispy.

It's a very good flavour. It's nice and spicy.

The ginger's coming through.

That's the best gingerbread so far.

That is absolutely gorgeous. Mm. Thank you.

That must have felt good. Yeah. That...

From taking it up and it looking horrendous

to then being told that it tastes good,

and Paul really liked the gingerbread,

was definitely sort of a sigh of relief after that.

I was more, like... I was more confident after that,

cos it wasn't completely ripped to shreds.

At least one aspect of it they liked - the taste.

The most important aspect. Exactly, the most important part.

If you close your eyes, don't look at it, just taste it...

That's what you should do with most bakes,

just close your eyes and taste it instead.

You don't need to look at how good it looks. No, you're so right.

Now, when you were in the tent,

you said you hoped you'd made your mum proud.

Well, she's with us in the studio.

Did he, Sophia? Extremely.

Yeah, he was... He was pretty amazing.

I mean, he just went there, tried his best.

Couldn't ask for more. No, absolutely.

What a nice mum.

Now, Michael, here on Extra Slice,

we like to give you the chance to have another go at a bake

that didn't go quite to plan in the tent.

So, what have you brought with you?

I've brought the chocolate, cinnamon and chilli bread I made.

Oh, okey dokey. All right.

Shall we have that up and pass it over?

Do you want to just cut a little bit?

And then I'll give you some forks to pass it round. Thank you.

Have you put less chilli in this one?

Yeah. A lot less chilli.

Mm. I mean, I'm no expert. Richard, what do you think?

I think it's marvellous.

Not enough chilli!

LAUGHTER

Mm!

No, just right. Just come out now.

I could go a few of them.

I think it's great.

We all really like it. Thank you. That's great, well done.

We're very sorry to see you go, because we thought

you were just such an interesting baker to watch in the tent,

and we've made you one of our special cakes,

brought on by an old friend of yours.

So sweet!

The real one! Thank you very much, Santa. OK...

There you go. That's you with your beer biscuits. Oh, thank you.

APPLAUSE So...

Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.

Please give a great British send-off to Michael.

CHEERING Thanks, that's brilliant.

OK. Thank you.

CHEERING

So, after two long days in the tent, bread week was finally over,

and as this unseen moment reveals,

Paul could at last be deflated and carefully put away until next time.

HE PUFFS OUT

That's it for this week.

A big thank you to Michael, to all of our studio bakers,

and to our celebrity panel.

Richard Bertinet. Thank you.

CHEERING

Sara Pascoe.

CHEERING

And Nick Hewer.

CHEERING

Next week, it's a Bake Off first - batter.

See you Friday at 9.30. Goodbye.