What a dough-lightful episode that was. The bakers kneaded their way through the bread challenges, but did they rise to the occasion?

Keep reading to find out what happened during Bread Week!

Signature Bake – Cottage Loaf

We’re kicking off with cottage loaf. Some bakers were nervous as bread is Paul’s speciality, however we got to see a range of beautiful bakes with delicious flavours. Saku graced our screens with an orange and cinnamon loaf, which looked fantastic and was described as “almost perfection”! And rosemary and garlic were quite popular this challenge.

Dana chose to add a spicy kick to her cottage loaf and named it Bread-ley Cooper, haha! Her glass bowl exploded and smashed into tiny little pieces – yeah, there was a lot going on at her station. Abbi’s bread fell flat, and Nicky’s had too much salt. Rowan’s bake was described as “monstrous” by Paul – it was huge! Tasha’s bread was a hit, and Prue even said she wishes she had made that herself!

As expected, there were plenty of innuendos with dough ball sizes and creating holes in the dough with fingers.

Winners: Tasha and Josh

Could do better: Rowan and Abbi

Technical Challenge – Devonshire Splits

Bakers were asked to bake yummy Devonshire splits. We did see a few blunders – forgetting to add caster sugar and icing sugar, underproved bakes, and under-mixed dough. It seems as though the time wasn’t enough for them! Nevertheless, the Devonshire splits looked amazing, especially with that scrumptious strawberry jam on top.

Winners: Saku was in 1st place, followed by Tasha in 2nd place, and Dana in 3rd place.

Could do better: Dan came in last, followed by Rowan and Abbi.

Showstopper – Plaited Centrepiece Loaf 

Bakers were asked to create a visually stunning bread plaited centrepiece loaf – let’s see how they got on.

Rowan, Abbi and Dan went all in to redeem themselves from the previous challenges. Rowan’s bake is massive and was called “hideous”. Abbi’s design was rendered as “rudimentary” by Paul, her dough was dense, but they enjoyed her flavours. Dan created a stuffed crust pizza, which looked incredible – unfortunately it was underbaked and Prue even said, “we all know you can do a hell of a lot better than that”. Oh no!

We had some animal-themed showstoppers! Nicky baked a Highland cow named Angus which didn’t quite hit the spot with flavours, Saku baked a peacock which judges described as under-proved and dry, and Josh baked a tiger which the judges thought was amazing! Paul turned Dana’s bake upside down as he felt her decorations were unnecessary, but her flavours were highly praised.

Tasha created a Medusa-themed showstopper, and the feedback was phenomenal. Prue said she is “one hell of a break baker”, followed by Paul expressing to her “you understand bread, and I like that” – wow! Honestly, she should have got a handshake this week.

Winners: Tasha and Josh

Could do better: Saku, Rowan and Dan

Star Baker

Drumroll please… Tasha is this week’s Star Baker, again! She knocked it out the park in every challenge this week. Her roast garlic and rosemary cottage loaf looked divine, she was 2nd in the technical and her showstopper was truly a work of art!

Highlights

It was nice to see more of the bakers’ personality coming out this week. It seems that Alison helps some of them to come out of their shells! Even though Rowan didn’t have a great week, he was still entertaining, and he was trying his best. Hopefully next week will be much better for him!

During the Signature Challenge, Alison and Saku bonded over their love of cricket – then Saku accidentally threw an orange directly into Alison’s crotch!

This goes without saying, but Tasha’s bakes were definitely a highlight this week.

Going home

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Abbi. She had plenty of potential, impressive flavours, and added a warm presence to the tent, however this just wasn’t her week.

We hope you enjoyed our review for Week Three of The Great British Bake Off! Leave a comment below to let us know what you thought of the episode.

While you wait for next week’s episode, why not get yourself down to one of our Mecca clubs and unwind with a bingo session? You can also play any of our online games!