Bread Week The Great British Bake Off

Three weeks in, 12 bakers down to ten. They're on a roll. As are we.

And I'm wearing LOAFers.

BOTH: Welcome to The Great British Bake Off.

Last time...

I've messed up massively.

..gingerbread went up and came tumbling down.

VAL GASPS For Louise...

I can't believe this is happening to me. ..it spelt the end.

But Candice's spectacular pub stood firm...

I think it's smashing, well done.

..and the Star Baker crown was hers.

Now they face the wrath of Paul.

I've been worrying all night about it. It's like wallpaper paste.

It's Bread Week... I'm not going to eat it.

..with a sweet signature that could turn sour...

I think it's cooked. If Paul says it isn't...

Answer to me. ..with a technical bake without an oven...

This is just so weird.

..and giant, plaited Showstoppers...

This is the serpent...

..with nowhere to hide. Do you want a little sip of this,

Michael, before I tell you what I think?

But who will be our next Star Baker? I have no idea what I'm looking for.

And whose Bread Week...

You are not alone. ..will be their last?

CANDICE: Oh, no.

I'm just a bit... BENJAMINA SQUEALS

I'm feeling amazing about Star Baker, but new week this week,

slate gets wiped clean.

I'm quite nervous, cos it's bread and it's Paul Hollywood.

He's going to be really, really picky.

At home I've been prodding my bread in the centre,

cos I know that Paul's going to do that.

I tend to do basic bread, rather than faffed-about bread,

so I'm more of a bloomers and baps girl.

It's something I've been doing for years,

so Bread Week is just another week.

Bakers, it's Bread Week.

This is your chance to get your dough prodded by

Paul Hollywood's digits of doom.

Now, for your Signature Challenge,

we would love you to make a chocolate bread.

The bread must contain chocolate in any form -

cocoa powder, molten chocolate, chocolate chips,

the choice is entirely yours.

Shape and design it in any way you see fit.

You have two and a half hours, bakers,

for this Signature Challenge.

On your marks. Get set. BOTH: Bake.

I'm very excited about this chocolate bread challenge.

We've never had one before.

I'm looking for a bread texture with the flavour of chocolate.

Considering they've only got two and a half hours,

that is going to be a tall order.

The last thing I want to see on this challenge is raw dough.

All of the bakers have chosen to make an enriched dough as the base

for their chocolate bread by adding ingredients like milk,

butter, sugar and eggs.

The richer your dough, the more you have in, the slower it is

and it takes a long while for the yeast to react with the flour.

Candice. Good morning. Morning.

Where are you up to with your chocolate bread?

This is my brioche dough with a little bit of cinnamon

and a little bit of brown sugar and some Normandy butter.

Candice's brioche bread will be formed from dozens of dough balls,

filled with salted caramel and chocolate,

topped with shards of pecan brittle.

How much butter have you got in there? 250. Ohh. Really?!

That's almost as enriched as I am.

How many eggs have you got in there? Four.

Are you trying to frighten her? Yeah, he really, really is.

I've done it at home and it's been good and people have liked it.

In two and a half hours? Mm-hm. Good luck. Thank you.

I admire that philosophy.

Bread needs a lot of muscle, so you've really got to get in there.

Got to get in there.

Kneading the dough helps develop the gluten,

creating a good structure for the bread.

I do 500 kneads.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Hi, guys. Morning. Can you tell us about your chocolate bread?

Yeah. I'm making a chocolate, cardamom and hazelnut loaf.

Is that all the dough? This is all the dough, yeah.

It's a pretty small loaf. It is small,

but I'm hoping for a good rise on it.

Rav's chocolate, cardamom and hazelnut bread will be

twisted into a spiral and then baked in a loaf tin.

It's going to be like a babka. Oh, babka. I know what a babka...

What's a babka? It's a twisty bread.

Middle Eastern, what is it? I think it's Middle Eastern. Is it, Paul?

It's Polish and it's normally a cake.

So in no ways is this a babka. Good luck.

Happy babka-ing, wherever it may take you. Thanks.

Rav won't be alone on his travels.

I'm making a chocolate, tahini and almond babka.

And are you spiralling it through

or is it flavouring the whole mixture?

I'm going to roll this out, spread the paste on top, roll it up,

slice it, twist it, stick it in the tin.

That's a couronne.

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

What's your problem with this, you think it's a couronne?

What you do with a couronne, you twist it and then join it.

All they're doing is putting it in a tin

by folding it up and putting it in there.

Yes, but don't be grumpy about it.

It's Benjamina's own... It'll taste good. Exactly. Yeah.

Usually they take a lot longer to bake...

Than two and a half hours. This is an express babka.

Benjamina will be using dark chocolate and toasting her

almonds for the filling of her express babka.

Paul says it wasn't a babka, but I disagree.

Paul's not in the best of moods, he's a bread guy,

so obviously he's going to be a bit picky, but...

BENJAMINA LAUGHS

The bread that I'm making is called a cobbled loaf,

named after my husband's grandmother who I was very close to,

her name was Nanny Cobbled and it looks like cobblestone.

Kate's the only baker making two doughs - cardamom and orange,

chocolate and vanilla - and each

cobble will contain a chunk of dark or white chocolate.

This loaf's meant to keep everybody in my house happy, cos some people like dark

chocolate, some people like white chocolate, some people like chocolate dough, some

people like white dough, so it's a bread for everybody.

I'm just doing something called the windowpane test,

so I just want to see if enough gluten's been formed

to stretch out the dough to be able to see through it

without it breaking, which is the point at which I know

it's ready to prove. Looks like we're there.

I want to get two proves in,

cos I like the texture of the bread better,

it gets smaller bubbles.

It should be about an hour for the first proving.

The second one depends on how long I've got left.

I've just got it in the oven at about 35 degrees.

It's going to be in there for 25 minutes,

cos it wants to chill out and do its thing.

It's starting to move. Today I'm making a chocolate barmbrack.

Barmbrack is a traditional Irish Halloween loaf.

Andrew's substituting the Barmbrack's customary raisins

for milk chocolate chips.

He's the only baker adding all his ingredients

before proving his dough.

I'm just doing a single prove. A single prove?!

Does it end up looking like that? Yeah.

Yeah, it's because its got no strength, it's trying to grow,

the knocking back is quite an important process.

My justification is it's come from the traditional recipe, but...

That old chestnut. Good luck. Thank you. Cheers, thanks.

I'm not double proving, I'm not knocking it back. Are you not? OK.

Which is unconventional.

How long have we got left?

We've got three, an hour and a half. An hour and a half, that's fine.

It's chill time, relax a little bit.

As they wait for their dough to prove,

the bakers make a start on their fillings.

As a child, chocolate was a rarity, so I'm trying to make up for it now.

To indulge her sweet tooth, Val's using chocolate spread as well

as dark chocolate chips to fill her twisted cinnamon and vanilla loaf.

It's very rich chocolate, you don't need to buy bought chocolate

spread, you can make your own.

My loaf's called Tom's chocolate orange swirl bread, but I'm not

going for huge amounts of chocolate and the chocolate I am using is

very, very dark.

Tom's Aztec-inspired bread will have a spicy swirl of dark chocolate,

ginger, cinnamon and bird's eye chilli running through it.

There's your chilli. Are you finely chopping it?

Yes, with the seeds and the white taken out.

Wow, OK, that's going to be fascinating.

You're great with your flavours a lot of the time.

But when you fail, you catastrophically fail.

My dough has had its first prove.

I'm just knocking the air out of the dough.

Oh, yeah, see, he's happy. (Oh, this has not risen.)

Good dough, well done.

No, it hasn't risen as much as I would like it to.

I'm hoping I'll get the height on the second rise.

OK, bakers, one hour until the silverback of sourdough is unleashed from his pen.

BENJAMINA FAKES CRYING

First prove is done, which I'm quite happy with.

Just going to roll it out now and spread the butter

and the chocolate on it then get it back in for a second prove.

I'm looking at everyone else and I see how much dough they have.

I think that I don't have a lot, but this is how it was at home,

so I'll just stick to my guns.

Right, Michael. Can you tell us what you're up to and what you're making?

I'm making a chilli chocolate and chia seed bread with cinnamon.

Sort of Mexican inspired. That's quite an intense flavour. Yes.

So that paste is going to go on top of that butter. Yeah.

Then I'm going to roll it up, cut it in half,

twist it and make it into a couronne.

Michael is also adding

cayenne pepper to bring even more

heat to his bread, which he'll ice

with a dark chocolate ganache.

You're making a right pig's ear of that.

It wasn't like this when I did it at home.

This is one of the most manually explored breads I've ever seen.

I know, I know.

I'm making chocolate, cinnamon orange bread.

I'm using dark chocolate so, obviously,

when you bake dark chocolate it

goes a bit bitter so the orange gives a bit of a sweet taste.

Selasi's bread will be cut to expose the dark chocolate cinnamon

and orange zest filling, then glazed with an orange syrup.

You don't want too much chocolate because as it melts,

it seeps out, so just enough.

I'm a bit of a rogue baker,

I don't usually stick to recipes.

It looks about right to me.

Hello, Jane. Good morning.

Tell us about that mixture. How did you make it?

Chocolate mixture is melted butter,

dark chocolate with icing sugar and cocoa.

It looks like chocolate spread. I want that.

Jane's adding almond liqueur, poached cranberries and

pecans to her crown-shaped loaf.

Is it helping that we're all watching you?

Never has a couronne been more monitored on this planet.

Once filled, the dough must be shaped before proving for

a second time.

Most of the bakers are choosing to roll and then cut...

I find in practice this works at home, so...disaster.

..and then twist their dough. A lot of twisters...

Jane. Hmm. Have you seen the film Alien?

There's a hint of sort of John Hurt's exploded stomach

to that, isn't there? JANE LAUGHS

It is exploding a bit. King Kong behind you,

let's see what he makes of it. What do you reckon?

I mean, that's bursting in flavour. There's too much filling.

Oh, God, don't listen. I got one of those looks, didn't I? Oh, well.

But Candice and Kate aren't twisting.

All these balls will prove and join together and make one nice loaf.

I'm going to do a third of them with chocolate and caramel,

a third with just caramel and a third with just chocolate.

Just make sure they're amply filled, cos no-one likes a small,

under-filled ball.

While the other bakers shape their dough,

Andrew's waiting for his bread to complete its one and only prove.

There are some quite exotic things going on.

I think mine is potentially the simplest - hopefully it

makes up for that in taste.

By proving for a second time, the bakers are giving the yeast another

chance to grow, which should result in a better-textured loaf.

Leave it ten, 15 minutes for the second prove.

Haven't got a huge amount of time, but that's OK.

We'll hope for the best.

50 minutes to go and Andrew has already decided to stop proving.

Quite flat, but I think that's OK, I'm very tight on time,

so I just need to get it in the oven.

For the rest of the bakers, the longer they continue to prove,

the less time they'll have to bake.

How's yours going? Not good, I'm running out of time.

I need that rise, man.

See, I'm going for better to have something under-proved and

baked than serve him something raw.

I fudged my timings hard, I don't understand.

Another four minutes and it's got to go in the oven.

BENJAMINA SIGHS

These are not as proved as I would like them to be,

but I haven't got time to wait any longer.

It's more important that I get it baked now.

Now quite tight for time - just need to make sure

it's cooked in the middle.

Sometimes this takes 30 minutes, sometimes it takes 40 minutes.

If it takes 40 minutes, I haven't got time to bake it.

It's in, there's nothing more I can do about it, it's just

whether it cooks.

Couronne, let's be having ya!

You've got 10 minutes left. SQUEALS: No!

SHE SIGHS Oh, I don't know.

How do you know with bread that it's cooked on the inside?

Can you do the needle? I'll use a thermometer. Aiming for 85 degrees.

82. Not cooked.

It's definitely spreading, hopefully I've got enough time to drizzle

a bit of melted chocolate and caramel over it.

The temperature is all right, but I feel like it could do with

a little bit longer.

It doesn't feel done.

Oh, Jane's is out of the oven.

Do you think it's cooked? I think it's cooked.

If Paul says it isn't... Answer to me.

Oh, it's large. It just want to check the bottom. Yeah, that'll do.

OK, bakers, that's five minutes.

Please be cooked, I beg you. It'll be what it will be.

It's got to come out.

Hopefully this hasn't stuck to the sides of the tin.

That's not burning, is it? Just...sorry, sorry, sorry.

Glaze, glaze, glaze.

We've got, like, two minutes - is that right?

Right, my bread-ren, you have one minute left.

The question is, is it done?

It's going to have to come out.

I'm happy with how it looks.

I've got to get it out of the tin, though.

Cool, cool.

I need to turn it, so...put that on top.

Yeah, that's it. What can we do, Candice? Nothing.

I hate oven gloves.

Oh, no! It's all right, don't panic. I've squashed it!

Don't panic. It's going to have to stay like that.

Bready or not, here we come. Time is up!

MEL: Move your breads to the end of your stations, please.

It looks horrendous.

Candice, step away from the couronne!

I think the overall colour looks nice...

Look at that. Oh.

There's good distribution of your chocolate. It's pretty even.

I love that.

The flavour is excellent and it is baked well and I think the choice

of proving it once was probably the right way. Well done.

Phew. Really, very good.

It is exceptionally heavy... Is it? ..which worries me a little bit.

When you choose a flavour to go in a bread,

you must choose something that imparts flavour but not weight -

unless you've got plenty of time to make it.

That's not cooked even on the top. Yeah.

Is that wallpaper paste? No!

Oh, no.

It's spent a little bit too long in the oven, I think.

See, I just hope you baked it all the way through.

The orange flavour can trick you into thinking that it is burnt.

I don't think it is burnt at all.

I'm definitely getting an overcooked crust.

I'd just like to have seen stronger flavours coming through.

I think the colour of the loaf is good, but one of the things

I can see is down at the bottom...

Not quite done. Yeah, it's not quite done.

..it is quite raw. Yeah.

The chocolate is good but it's not done.

What I would've done is put less chocolate in

and had less curls in there.

Nice colour, nice shape.

And a little surprise in the middle of each one. Yeah.

Going by what's on the knife, it's still melted.

Oh, still melted in the middle. Yeah. Ooh, look. You're fine.

Oh, no. Here we go. I can see it's a bit under-baked.

I can tell you straightaway.

As soon as you add liquid, you haven't got the time for this.

No. You were probably about five minutes away.

I knew I was close. I could kick myself. I knew I was close.

I think it looks great. Oh, thank you. Love the colour.

Let's have a quick look inside.

Mmm.

You're going to tell me it's not baked, aren't you?

That's exactly what I'm going to say.

You see how light it is there in texture? Yep.

And there how dense it is?

Absolutely delicious, but you had masses of filling.

I did, yes. I did. A mountain of pecans.

It's so big it's going to take a long time to cook. Yeah.

It has collapsed, which makes it look a mess.

Mm-hm. But it is down to the eat on this.

It's such a shame it's not done. It really... Oh.

Oh, Paul, do you have to do that?

You can see the dough is still raw inside.

With all the love in the world, I'm not going to eat it.

It's so big.

To try and get that done in the two and half hours

is quite difficult. I'm really embarrassed. I'm really sorry.

There's nothing to be embarrassed about.

What it is is you tend to fly out there

with lots of things going inside.

Rein it in a little bit.. Rein it in.

..and then slowly get your baking absolutely spot on. Yeah.

All right? Yeah. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Onwards and upwards.

Onwards and upwards. Don't overanalyze. OK. Move on.

That was mortifying.

He wouldn't taste.

You start off, you think, "Where's the chilli?"

And now it is hitting me. Is it hitting you?

Yeah. Ooh! PAUL COUGHS

The chocolate flavour is good.

The chilli is far too much. It's destroying the chocolate flavour.

I think you slightly under-baked it, as well.

Is it a loaf? I think it's a load of Chelsea buns glued together.

That's what you've got.

It's a nice idea, though. It's a very clever way of doing it.

Really wise to choose something that's shallow

because it's got time to cook through and have a rise.

There's a hint of chilli there. It is not knocking me out.

It's a very good bread.

The chocolate is there, the hazelnut is there. Excellent.

Thank you. Well done, Tom. Thank you.

And breathe. HE EXHALES

Happy with that? I hope so.

Love it.

Really? Yeah. Chocolate is strong all the way through.

Cardamom is beautiful in that dough.

It is a lovely flavour.

The fact that Rav made a slightly smaller loaf

than some of the other bakers... That helps. ..that helps, yeah.

Thank you very much. You're blushing.

Paul said he loved my bread - I was stunned into silence.

Oh, my God.

When he went, "I'm not sure I'd call this a loaf,"

I was like, "Oh, but please do.

"Please come to the conclusion it is."

I knew when Paul raised his eyebrows when he saw me filling my bread

that there might be an issue.

It was slightly... I wouldn't say burnt, but I like it crispy.

Well, that was a fall from grace, hey?

THUNDER RUMBLES

Bread Week isn't about to get any easier.

Bakers, for our Technical Challenge today,

we turned to the bread expert.

But sadly, she wasn't available,

so we asked Paul instead if he'd like to contribute a recipe.

Paul, do you have any wise words?

We've never done anything like this on Bake Off before.

It's notoriously difficult.

More scaremongering than anything else.

If you'd like to both go back to your enclosures.

Goodbye, Mary and Paul. Take care. Or should I say auf Wiedersehen?

Because Paul and Mary would like you to make Dampfnudel.

Dampfnudel? Yes.

Paul would like you to make 12 Dampfnudel,

and just to give you a little clue,

the word Dampf in German means steam.

Paul would like this served with two sauces.

You've got two hours for this, so on your marks... Get set.

BOTH: Bake.

Oh!

I was thinking crumpet, a bit of toast, be fine, hey?

Dampfnudel.

I have no idea what a Dampfnudel is.

This is going to be purely based on intuition.

This is just so weird.

What do you think of them, Mary? Bit different, isn't it?

Dampfnudel. They're a sort of dumpling.

Why did you choose this?

We've never actually steamed bread before on the Bake Off,

so it's the first time that any of the bakers

would've hit anything like this in their lives, probably.

One of the problems with this is once the rolls are actually

on the heat and beginning to steam,

they may be tempted lift the lid off to have a quick look.

The moment that they lift that lid off, they'll begin to drop.

I'm intrigued to know what the underneath is like.

Now, you can see the caramelisation underneath from the sugar,

so it's browned underneath.

I'm going to give you a little bit of plum sauce there

and the custard, or the creme anglaise.

So, what we're actually testing them on is knowing

when dough is actually cooked through -

in this case, steamed through.

Just like an iced bun without the icing.

That's exactly what it is.

These are completely alien to me.

I've never seen them, never heard of them.

First instruction is, "Make a Dampfnudel dough."

And that's all it says.

It says to use warm milk,

which should just get the yeast going

with the melted butter in there,

and then I'm going to knead it into a dough.

It's didn't say anything about kneading it,

but I'm going to give it a bit of a knead.

I think it's going to be like a sweet dumpling.

I've made dumplings loads of times.

I'm going to knead until it's springy to the touch,

and then I hope that it's correct.

Selasi, you're very dramatic with that kneading. Unnecessary.

Trying to intimidate the other bakers.

LAUGHTER

It says, "Prove," but it doesn't say how long to prove it for.

I'm going to prove it till it's doubled in size.

I might do it for an hour, so let's see how that goes.

Boom.

I've gone for a conservative 50 minutes.

So, I'm going to save up 30 minutes

and then I'm going to take a look at that point.

Making Dampfnudel for Paul and Mary might be nerve-racking,

but there was a time when these steamed buns

were a matter of life or death.

The Dampfnudel first came to prominence in the 17th century

during one of the longest conflicts in European history -

the Thirty Years' War.

Unpaid and hungry,

Swedish soldiers were ravaging Germany,

looting towns as they went,

until they reached the gates of Freckenfeld.

Imagine the scene -

a starving, angry army all set to pillage the village

when up pops local baker Johannes Muck,

who offers to feed them all himself.

Brave bloke.

All he has to do is knock up several hundred batches of Dampfnudel -

by this afternoon, please - or the village gets it.

He, his wife and one of his apprentices

made 1,286 Dampfnudeln.

That's a lot of Dampfnudeln.

Yes, never before had so much Dampfnudeln been made in one day.

A peace treaty through dumplings.

It's the way forward, surely.

To mark Johannes' yeast-laden heroism,

his grandson built a monumental gate catchily known as das Dampfnudeltor.

He made stone buns,

the same quantity as they made in Dampfnudeln.

1,286. 86.

400 years later, the Dampfnudel still holds a special place

in the hearts of the Freckenfeld townsfolk.

It's celebrated in an annual festival,

and even features on their coat of arms.

And if that wasn't enough...

the Germans have also written a song about the Dampfnudel.

Coldplay, watch your back. Take it away, lads.

THEY SING IN GERMAN

One hour remaining to make 12 Dampfnudel.

A voyage of discovery.

And as their dough proves,

Paul's recipe demands they begin preparing the first of two sauces.

And all it says is make a smooth plum sauce.

Great.

I've never made a plum sauce before.

I'm just thinking this is how you would do it.

Like, soften your plums with the juice,

add in the sugar and then just cook it down.

I think you want the colour from the skin to get any sort

of colour and flavour out of that,

and then just sieve it once it's done.

It said smooth plum sauce, so smooth is what they'll get.

It's quite thick. This is more like a puree.

It's been in for about 40 minutes.

I'm going to weigh it...

It is 900.

Now, I'm going to divide it into 12 bowls.

I'm just working out what that will be,

so I've got to try to do some maths.

What's 900 divided by 12?

900 divided by 12...

50...

Sort of... Eight... 80 something?

Let's do it. Four, eight, 12, 16...

900. 90... 75. Oh, I had 80, just over...

The most painful, painful hour of television you will ever watch.

Between us, we've got it. Thanks.

Is there a way to roll it? Is there? I don't know.

Kate. How are your balls? I'm just pinching their bottoms.

Very, very good. No-one wants the seam showing.

What is that? That's poaching liquid.

Do they sit in that?

It says, "Off the heat, add the dough balls to the poaching liquid,

"and leave for a second prove." You're quite calm.

I don't know what I'm doing, so if I get it horribly wrong,

it doesn't really matter because... Well, no, that's right.

Because these will always be the best Dampfnudel I've ever made.

That is for sure.

I have no idea how long the second prove will be.

It's a juggle between longer to prove, and then less time to cook.

I'm just going to put them back in for the second prove.

GERMAN ACCENT: OK, my darlings.

News just in, you have 30 minutes to complete your lovely Dampfnudel.

You'll need to be steaming those buns and let them puff up

like the golden balls of magic that they are.

NORMAL ACCENT: I've never eaten one.

I'm beginning to think I probably ought to get them cooking.

Time to steam.

I think I might give them a 15-minute cook?

It doesn't say how long you're supposed to be steaming them for,

so it's just going by eye.

Step seven is steam the dough balls,

and step eight is make a vanilla custard.

I feel like making the custard is a hint as to how long

to steam them for, so basically when the custard's done,

I'm going to take the lid off.

Even if they think they know

what a cooked Dampfnudel should look like...

Turn that up ever so slightly.

..steaming makes it almost impossible to see.

I have no idea what I'm looking for.

You're not alone, you're not alone.

I've estimated it at about 15 minutes.

So, I've got about six minutes left.

And I don't want to lift the lid before then,

cos they're meant to be really humid, I think.

Like dumplings.

It's looking good. I should stop opening it, actually.

Definitely on the move.

Yeah.

Three... Two... One.

They're quite big.

They've gone huge!

They've been in 15 minutes.

I'm amazed. I think they're wonderful.

It says, "Cook until they're crisp."

I'm not really going to know when they're crisp.

Apart from stopping it before I smell a burning smell.

I'm kind of touching them, they're dry on the top.

So now we're just reducing this down

and hopefully getting golden, crispy bottoms.

But there's a lot of liquid still in here.

Hopefully there's enough time to do it.

You have got five minutes before the noodles of doom

need to hit Paul's mouth.

I'm struggling. They're cooking at different speeds.

Just trying to make sure that I don't burn some bits

and leave other bits raw.

Might turn it down to number one.

I can smell... Yeah. Going to turn it down a bit.

It's definitely now starting to crispen it up.

You can start to smell it.

Is that coming from mine?

There's a bit of smoke coming... Little bit of smoke, Selasi.

It's like, the kind of burn that you like. Let's call it caramelised.

That's it. Yeah. As long as you believe that, Selasi. Yeah.

They're definitely not crisp underneath. I hate them.

I absolutely hate them.

That's horrible, isn't it?

That one is certainly brown on the bottom. They're springing back.

That's all I got to go on, currently.

One of them looks a bit underdone.

But the others are cooked, and are burning on the bottom.

I don't know why I'm shaking them. Should they be separate?

I don't know.

They don't look particularly appetising.

Please be good. Please.

OK, bakers. That's it, your time is up.

Rising fear in the tent.

Also rising dampf.

Please bring up the Dampfnudeln.

Paul and Mary will have no idea whose Dampfnudel are whose.

What we're looking for is 12 equal steamed buns,

cooked all the way through, with a brown base.

So we'll start from this side.

It's got a bit bounce of to it,

which means that they feel as though they're actually cooked there.

They've overcooked it slightly.

But it's actually cooked all the way through.

The plum sauce looks beautifully clear, just the right consistency.

That's pretty good.

What makes those wrinkly, all on top?

Could have brought them off too early, so they've shrunk back down.

That is black. Oh, it is.

It is black. It is.

Now, that one is raw. Difficult to eat.

I mean, you've got raw dough.

Now, this looks smooth.

They have that nice dome, which they should have. Yes.

It is cooked. The plum sauce is good.

And, actually, the Dampfnudel's got a great taste to it.

These are...

raw pieces of dough.

So, you're going to have the dough on the top...

Oh, there you go, dough underneath, too.

So what you can actually do with this one,

is turn it back into a dough.

Massively under-proved.

Well cooked through. But they're just minute.

Let's have a quick look. Good colour underneath. Brown on the bottom.

We have got that.

It's very close-textured, and when I squeeze it, it stays down. Mm-hm.

But it tastes great. And the sauces are pretty good, too.

Now, these feel like they're cooked through.

Undercooked at the top.

Which means they may have opened the lid a little bit too early.

This is really rather thick, this sauce.

Do you want a hacksaw, Mary, to get it...? There it is.

No, no, it's just a little bit overboiled.

Now, this looks quite well-domed. And actually well cooked, as well.

It's slightly underdone, this one.

Oh, they were minutes away.

Bit overcooked on the bottom. Yes. Massively overcooked on the bottom.

The texture's not that bad. It is cooked through.

Plum sauce is a little bit too thick.

Custard is pretty good.

Next one. We have a little bit of raw dough on the top.

Nice colour underneath, though. Needed longer in the steamer.

And you can see it straightaway.

So, the top quarter is raw, but right down the bottom is OK.

Last one. We have raw dough again.

(Oh, no.)

Good colour underneath. Lot of dough.

It is cooked down at the bottom, though.

Sauce consistency is fine.

Good flavour.

OK.

Paul and Mary will now rank the Dampfnudel

from the worst to the best.

In 10th place, who's this?

That's me.

They're not done.

In ninth place is this one. Whose was this?

Oh, that's me.

The size was good, but it was pretty inedible.

Kate is eighth. Michael seventh.

Benjamina sixth. Selasi fifth.

And Tom is fourth.

In third place is this one.

Pretty good. Overall, the sauces were good.

And it was edible.

And in second place...

Properly cooked through, and two nice sauces.

And in first place.

APPLAUSE

Overall, it was the one I thought was closest to mine.

Still a million miles away...

LAUGHTER

But closest to mine. I aspire, I aspire.

Well done, Barb. Thank you. Well done.

I'm absolutely amazed.

It's pure luck that I'm older than everybody else,

and maybe I've just made more dumplings than anybody else.

It's nice to end the day on a high, for a change.

I'm feeling better. I am feeling a lot better.

The idea was that I'd get better as these two days progress,

but actually I've got worse.

The worst thing for me was when the dough was so raw

that he formed it into a ball.

I thought he was going to throw it at someone!

So, the bakers had a bit of a mixed day yesterday.

There seemed to be quite a lot of raw dough.

There's a large group that are in trouble.

Unusually, Jane.

Oh, she was Star Baker in week one! What is Jane doing down there? Kate.

Kate! She did so well last week.

Michael. Benjamina, she's beginning to stumble a little bit.

Andrew has fared really well.

Would you see him in contention for Star Baker, Mary? He could be.

As is Tom. Val seems to have done much better in the technical.

Rav and Candice, they're both in the middle there. Yeah.

So, if they have a good day today, it could save them,

or could actually catapult them down again. You've gone from saying,

"There's quite a large group of people in trouble,"

to, "Everyone's in trouble." Pretty much.

And a lot of it is resting on how they perform today.

Well, it's all a huge surprise, what's happened up until now.

Welcome to Showstopper Day.

Now, Mary and Paul would love you to make

a savoury plaited centrepiece.

It can be any shape or size.

It should have three flours within it.

You have four hours to complete this challenge.

On your marks, get set... Bake!

This bake really needs to go really, really well.

What am I going to do first?

MARY: The Showstopper has to be spectacular.

And it's got to be a whopping loaf.

Imagine using three flours -

if they're twisted together they rise at a different time.

When you're doing your plait, you've got to make sure each of the strands

are exactly the same shape and width.

What you want is a beautiful, uniform plait,

and that is quite tricky to do.

The Star Baker of Bread Week

has always gone on to the final of Bake Off. Watch this space.

Good morning. Morning, Kate. Hello. Tell us all about your savoury loaf.

I've combined two traditions that we have in the family.

One's making corn dolls, and one's making the harvest loaf.

What plaits are you doing? These are four-string plaits...

They're four, yeah. And this is like an eight-string herringbone.

Gracious me.

Kate's ambitious corn maiden

contains goat's cheese and onion focaccia,

beer-flavoured rye plaits,

and spelt ears of corn filled with Cheddar.

Well, have you got a corn doll?

I have, it's one my children made, so... Let's have a look.

MEL: Isn't that a fertility symbol, Kate? I think it may be.

This is very fertile, this, isn't it? Yeah.

Do you want to have more children, Kate? Absolutely not.

I love the ones I've got. Yes. But... You're not planning on any...

No, no more, no.

Michael's savoury plaited centrepiece is also a family affair.

I'm making Cypriot-inspired plaited loaf bread.

Drawing on my inspiration of my grandma,

and baking at home with her, and stuff like that.

So it definitely is like a traditional Cypriot

flavour combination.

If it goes down well with Paul, it would be good.

I know he knows the flavours quite well.

Michael will celebrate the year his family's homeland

became independent by recreating the Cypriot flag

with plaited breads flavoured with olives,

coriander and sun-dried tomatoes.

I heard, as well, that there's family alcohol. Yeah.

Are you talking about zivania? Yeah. Zivania?

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

This one... This one probably is.

It's from one of my aunts' villages. Wow. It's pretty strong. Oh.

You'll be fine, Mary. Yeah.

Just have it after your other breads, so can actually taste them.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Good luck.

Today, I'm making two types of rye and one kamut bread.

The only thing I can liken it to is like a spelt-type flour.

It's quite natty.

Candice's plaited kamut will be filled with mozzarella and olives.

It'll sit on top of

a light and dark rye twist.

So I do the knead three times over, knead it for ten seconds,

leave it for ten minutes, knead it for ten seconds...

Two... Three...

It worked really nicely at home.

Kneading is now more crucial than ever.

The plaited centrepieces will only hold their shape

if the bakers have built up enough gluten in the dough.

So, the key thing is both managing time and making sure I get

the right bits thick enough that it supports the loaf.

Andrew's large woven rye basket will need to be strong enough

to support a wholemeal pesto-filled rim

and a giant handle flavoured with orange and cardamom.

If it's not thick enough, it will lean.

I don't want a Leaning Tower of Basket.

But Andrew's centrepiece may not be the biggest.

I'm doing a two-piece centrepiece.

One is good to be a serpent, which is Jormungandr... Sorry?

Jormungandr. And Mjolnir, which is Thor's hammer.

The dark rye and spelt snake,

filled with cranberries and walnuts, will feel the might of

Thor's rye and spelt hammer,

flavoured with ale and seaweed.

What seaweed are you using? I'm using laver.

Lava? Laver, yeah. As in a volcano?

As in colour. It's a slightly out-there flavour.

But one I thought was interesting to try.

May the power of Thor be with you now. Indeed!

But even Tom might not have the largest Showstopper.

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

So, Two By Two?

No, it's As 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.

A white and wholemeal bread ark,

topped with a tomato and basil flavoured roof, will rescue

an assortment of spelt bread animals.

There'll be an elephant. One elephant? Or...?

The whole point is...

They've argued.

Two giraffes. Of course.

And there'll be a dove.

A dove? A dove.

Don't they need two? Need two doves?

Well, one's flown away.

I normally bake with very simple flours,

nothing too complicated.

I've never actually baked with spelt flour.

Selasi's spelt tear-and-share loaf will be filled with dry-cured beef

and sun-dried tomatoes.

It will sit beneath a multi-seeded tree,

and a star-shaped loaf topped with chillies.

We seem to have a tree,

and then a tear-and-share ball, but they're not actually related?

On a trip to Egypt, we went to a Bedouin tent,

and then we all sat under a tree

and just ate together and it was just, like... Us sharing.

That's the whole piece. It's a lovely story. Yeah. It is.

It is a lovely story. Yeah - Jackanory.

Proving multiple doughs requires careful planning.

The variety of flours used will mean each batch

will rise at a different rate.

I will not be serving anyone raw dough today.

I really want to prove it until it's doubled in size,

but I will compromise the proving to make sure that my bread is

baked right through. And if multiple proving wasn't hard enough...

That going to fit? ..at the same time...

..some bakers have set themselves the extra task of making fillings.

This time I've gone a lot more conservative than I did yesterday.

It was pretty hot.

So normally pesto is with pine nuts,

but I'm using walnuts and pistachios.

Benjamina is pinning her hopes on her pesto and feta filled

spelt spirals which will top her onion and tomato rye loaf.

How are you feeling? Oh, this has got to be good. Do you feel that?

I'm just a bit... I just want it to bake. It's just got to bake.

Because the first one was raw. It would be good, wouldn't it?

It would be good if it was cooked.

I'm using ingredients that you won't necessarily find in pesto.

Garlic, it's got ginger, coriander...

It's got some chillies in it and it tastes good.

Rav's spiced pesto will fill the bottom tier of his Diwali

centrepiece.

His other layers will be filled with a fragrant coconut and masala

chutney. What's your favourite? I think that's my favourite. That.

That? That is the coconut chutney. Shut your eyes.

No, I've played Guess The Smell with you before and come a cropper.

Can I say, this is a terribly difficult game.

Let's play Melanie's Guess The Smell. Right, Guess The Smell.

Tell me when the smell is present,

cos I'm just getting you at the moment and it's really unpleasant.

Is it there? Yep.

That's nothing, that's metal.

LAUGHTER

Smell The Timer, that's my new game!

I want to slowly cook down the chorizo to release

all that lovely...aroma.

Oh, it smells so good.

Jane's chorizo and chilli

will fill the plaited ring of her centrepiece.

The middle will be stuffed with

pecan, Parmesan and pesto.

Showstopper day. Don't, I've been worrying all night about it.

Did you sleep? Up until about four o'clock.

Listen, there's a lot riding on this day for many people in this tent.

There is. There really is.

You're not alone in that.

Well, I'm going to take advice from yesterday - turn the oven down,

cook it for a bit longer.

Long and low.

Bye-bye, Jane. Bye-bye.

All right, my arty Vincent van Doughs, you've got two hours left.

I need to...

turn this into a basket.

The bakers now need to act fast.

That's looking all right.

They need to fill, plait and shape their loaves for a second prove...

..but be careful to leave enough time for baking.

Paul said yesterday about being careful not to overladen

your bread with ingredients.

I would at home probably shove all that in,

but I'm going to be good, so I don't overstuff it.

Adding my olives to my kamut.

It's really important to be precise so that all the braids are

the same size, so the braids look uniform.

Just trying to remember how to plait, now. This one goes under...

I won't say my plaiting skills are the best.

Anything above three strands, I can't do.

You've got to give it enough room to expand,

otherwise it just gets into one big glob.

Right over...

Still not right! NERVOUS LAUGH

Nope.

This is the most concentrated I can ever be.

It needs to have a flat base and a flat top. I haven't plaited a lot.

I was busy playing football and watching the girls!

You take the string on the left under the middle two strings,

back over the last one.

I don't think the four-string plaits are too difficult.

I used to do this with my pony's tail.

This is the serpent. It's a six-strand plait.

Just poking in some mozzarella before it goes for its second prove.

All the careful plaiting could be undone in the second prove.

I'm going to leave it to prove for...40 minutes.

The bakers need to ensure it doesn't expand too much and lose its shape,

while at the same time continuing to plait their remaining elements.

The shape that you've created here...

It's very male, isn't it?

Yes, it's a hammer, strong,

it's also a T.

T for Thor, T for Tom.

I'm not being led. My mum's going to watch this!

She's coming out, but I've got about six minutes before she needs to

go in the oven, so I'm going to just start popping these on her.

She will get as many plaits as I've made.

Everyone apart from Kate has at least two loaves to bake...

I've really got to crack on. I'm going to get that one in the oven.

..and only one oven.

That's it, the serpent in the oven.

CUT GLASS ACCENT: Bakers, half an hour left on this challenge.

Well BREAD(!)

I don't know why I made such ruddy large loaves.

Could really do with another oven!

(You can do it.) She's in.

So now the Jormungandr cools,

and we'll bake the hammer.

And we've got about 30 minutes left.

These take about 25 minutes,

so we're cutting it quite fine.

It's a trade-off between having that one cooked

or having this one cooked!

Cos I think that could use another 5 minutes.

Is it? Isn't it? It should be...

85 to 90 degrees C in the middle.

It should be cooked.

Every time I've made it before, when it's been hollow, it's been cooked,

but with all the raw dough that's been flying around, I'm just...

hyper paranoid.

I'm quite happy with that.

I've got a bit of time for it to cool down.

Not cooked.

It's the problem when you've got a big lump of dough for an elephant,

it does take a long while to cook.

Yesterday Paul said my loaf was minutes off being cooked.

So...I'm giving it the minutes.

Bakers, you've got five minutes to get your plaits out.

I'm going to go until we have one minute spare.

Come on - cook. Cook!

Come on, now.

Be cooked.

Is it an elephant or a tortoise, Val? And these are...

Slugs? No...

Giraffes! Oh, blast!

Quick, Val - bandage it up, bandage it up, old girl. There we go.

Val, health and safety, Val. Hold it. Look, I've got a big old split.

HOLLOW THUDDING

METALLIC CRASH Sh!

It's coming out.

This is the Cypriot flag. It's got to come out...

..cooked or not.

Bakers, let's put this challenge to BREAD.

Time is up, move your bakes to the end of your work stations,

thank you. Well done.

(I'm worried about it. Don't be worried.)

Jane, would you like to bring up your savoury plaited centrepiece?

It is a beautiful colour. Thank you.

The definition on the outside is there,

but there's a lot of breaks in this. It is baked beautifully.

This is the one with the chorizo in it.

The paprika in there is lovely.

The whole flavours on the outside are delicious and the texture

is very good, as well. Oh, thank you.

And this one is the pesto one. Yes.

I like it. Oh, thank you. Mm!

Nice bit of spring on there, lots of flavour, good plaiting.

I think it's absolutely beautiful. Well done. Oh, thank you so much.

What a splendid loaf to start with!

I can't really see which is Noah's Ark and which is the animals.

Is that a chicken? It's a giraffe, Paul. Ah.

It's a bit...

It's not a mess, it's informal.

This is raw.

The smell is amazing, though. Lovely flavour.

Now, our elephant here also looks underbaked.

Yeah, this one is raw.

Getting to the ark, it's a bit doughy. Yep.

Ooh, bit salty, as well.

That was the idea of it. Good one, Val. Like the sea? Yep.

Right, OK.

You can do design.

The idea is fantastic,

but I don't think it was executed to a high standard.

Your proving is very good cos it's very bold,

it's round, it's shiny, it's equal.

The plaiting is excellent.

I think you've done a very good job from the outside.

When you put some cranberries in there, walnuts in there,

you expect to have at least that in every single bite and you're

just not getting that.

The texture is spot-on and the bake is very, very good, too.

This has got stout... And seaweed, as well.

The bake and texture on this is spot-on.

I've never had seaweed in bread before.

I like it.

It certainly does look a centrepiece,

which is what we've asked for. And it has a beautifully defined plait.

It is a weave rather than a joined up... You have big gaps, there.

These are too big.

The flavour of the cardamom and orange is beautiful.

Perfect balance between the two.

But the flavour of all three are very, very good. OK.

Well done, Andrew. Very good, well done.

A pith helmet of bread. Just adorned...

with our love.

The design looks great. Bold, big beautiful. And a glorious colour.

That's a lovely flavour. Very good.

Feta and the herbs combination is stunning.

Onions give it a good flavour.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

Quite hot. It's got a bit of heat in there, hasn't it?

Let's move onto the next one.

It tastes lovely. You could have put more flavour in there, though.

This was wholemeal? Yes.

The filling is delicious,

but the actual bread itself just doesn't have the spring.

So this is the tree. Yes.

And this is to represent...

That was meant to be a star.

I can't see a visible plait, it's all over the place.

Very close texture.

It's not strong enough on the flavour.

You can toast some of the seeds to bring out the flavour.

That looks good. It looks tempting, I want to eat it.

When you get that bresaola,

it's delicious, cos the texture is spot-on

and the flavours are coming through beautifully.

But you haven't driven it together as one centrepiece -

what you've got is three loaves and sort of come up with a story,

that, yeah, it comes together as a centrepiece.

Which doesn't really wash with me!

How do you think it went? Yiamas, by the way. Thank you.

Um, it went all right, I think.

LAUGHTER

Brace, brace(!)

Are you bribing the judges? No! I'll have it after.

Do you want a little sip of this, before I tell you what I think?

LAUGHTER Oh! Oh!

It is a mess.

They are sort of folded over,

but not properly plaited.

Olive, coriander and onion is a classic. Yeah.

But you've mixed it with other flours and diluted it and

you need more coriander in there. OK.

It's rather sad you didn't glaze it, we didn't get the rise and we

haven't got the definition of the plaiting.

You've done really well to keep the plaiting so well contained.

The overall effect on it is superb, it is very, very good.

The textures and flavours in each of the layers are absolutely gorgeous.

Especially in the focaccia with the onion in it, it's beautiful.

The goat's cheese works exceptionally well in there.

That is a fantastic loaf.

I think you should be congratulated

and I want to come on your next picnic! You're welcome!

We asked for plaits in both, we've got a plait in your lower loaf,

but the one above, it's all gone into one. Yes.

You can look at the dark rye, how much it's broken up,

and the light rye, too.

Just work those doughs a little bit more.

It's quite close textured. Yes.

I can't SEE the green olives, I can't TASTE the green olives,

I can't SMELL the green olives and mozzarella,

I haven't hit any of them.

The twist on the bottom is very good and it tastes lovely. Thank you.

Really good. The top one is a mess, though,

and when it comes to flavour,

dough development, plaiting, proving, baking.

I mean, all of it.

Ta-dah, everybody(!)

MEL: So who's going to be crowned Star Baker, Paul and Mary?

If it was just today's performance, it would have been Kate.

It certainly could be Tom.

And it could be Andrew.

The people who are a little bit in trouble is Val... No!

Although she did come first in Technical,

she was poor in the Signature and today wasn't good.

I think Michael is in a little bit of trouble as well and Candice,

as well. Last week's Star Baker. The curse of the Star Baker.

Keep talking about it as if it's a real thing.

(The curse of the Star Baker.) The curse of the Star Baker. Ooh!

BIRDSONG

Bakers, I get the great job.

I get to announce who's this week's Star Baker.

There were many great bakes in the Showstopper round,

but this was the stuff of legend.

A sight for Thor eyes.

Yes, it's Hammertime.

Congratulations, Tom.

You're Star Baker! Well done, Tom!

On this racecourse of bakery,

you are all thorough-breads.

But I'm so sorry, you know how this works...

So I'm afraid the person...

(Oh, it's going to be me.) ..who will not be joining us next time

on Bake Off is...

..Michael.

I'm really sorry, Michael. So sorry to say goodbye.

You're such a good 'un.

The bake I went on is a bake that meant a lot to me,

so, yeah, it is quite sad that I went based on that. So sorry.

Going to be letting my mum know first.

She's been the one with me right from the start.

She'll still be proud of me.

Happy I've got this far,

but obviously I just wasn't sort of up to the standard.

I'd like to see Michael carry on doing what he's doing.

He is a great baker, actually, he's a nice lad as well.

I'm sorry, my friend.

I said I'll keep in touch with him.

We'll meet in Cyprus and have a beer. Certainly not a zivania!

I'm one very lucky lady again.

Next week I need to have a little sort of rethink and really

learn, because I don't want to feel like this again.

I think you were a bit shocked about that! I was REALLY shocked!

Tom has been consistently in the middle or slightly above, but

he pulled out the stops this week and I was very pleased to see it.

I did not expect that. At all. In any way.

I was looking around thinking,

"Did they make a pun about Thor's Hammer?"

(Star Baker!)

Obviously, it would have been nice to get Star Baker,

but to be fair, thoroughly deserved by Tom today.

My corn doll lucky charm is coming back next week, actually!

I think she might become my baking mascot!

I'm hanging in by the skin of my teeth.

I've got to work on timing, consistency,

and the challenge next week -

my goodness, it is a challenge.

Next time...

For the first time in the history of Bake Off... Hot oil...

It's batter week. All the colour has drained from you.

But who can make identical Yorkshire puddings?

They're not going to allow me into Yorkshire ever again. And fill them?

Unbelievable. Who can flip a technically perfect pancake?

Yeah!

And who can produce a Showstopper... I am done.

..without an oven?

Hopefully!