'The Great British Baking Show's "Bread Week" Fries Wheat & Chaff

There is a slight irony to the way “Bread Week” has developed as part of The Great British Baking Show. Both “Cake Week” and “Bread Week” have been staples of the series since the very beginning. Biscuit Week now officially sits between them; however, there were several seasons where baking cookies bounced around the lineup. Cake and Bread have always been opening challenges, as the two basic things every baker should be able to make. They also provided an opportunity to highlight the judges: Mary Berry and her Cakes, and Paul Hollywood and his Bread.

Of course, the move to Channel 4 and Netflix upended what had been a well-balanced apple cart, and though Prue Leith has steadfastly shown up to judge every season of the main show, she never took on Cake Week as her own or chose to declare herself Biscuit Queen. The result has only added to what is already a bizarrely uneven division of judging, where Paul bullies everyone into eliminating the contestants he doesn’t like because he’s the “OG GBBO Judge.” Bread Week has become a strangely sacred experience in the tent, with a common belief that contestants can’t make the final unless they pass Paul’s Judgment of their Bread.

This is the second week running there’s been no cold open (or if there was one on Channel 4, Netflix declined to include it). Let’s stop loafing about and see whose breads rise to the occasion.

For the Season 16 Bread Week Signature Challenge, the requirement is to make a “Savory Monkey Bread.” This is the second time Bread Week has had a Monkey Bread Signature, though we will note that when this challenge turned up back in Season 10, it was referred to as a “Tear and Share Loaf.” For this season’s version, the monkey bread doesn’t just have to feature savory flavors; it also needs to be “visually striking.” 

Noel Fielding’s suggestions for achieving that include “colored, flavored doughs” plus traditional bread decoration of glazes, icing, or some sort of topping. There’s no requirement for the bread to have a filling, but there’s nothing that says the bakers can’t either. As Alison Hammond says, this is a license to “go ape.”

Let’s see which bakers can make a stand-up loaf, and which have trouble rising to the occasion. As always, the Signature is judged on a pass-fail metric.

1. Iain ‘Irish Cheese Board’ (Pass): Iain has been calling himself a bread master, and his monkey bread is pretty close to perfect.
2. Lesley Family Favourite Monkey Bread (Pass): Lesley did a fantastic job using seeds to decorate her different segments, even if Paul made unkind birdcage jokes.
3. Tom ‘French Dègustation’ (Pass): Another really well-decorated loaf, Paul’s only critique is that his dough is a little heavy.
4. Nataliia Family Table Monkey Bread (Pass): Her bread segments are a bit large; it’s also really too sweet for the challenge, but the judges pass her anyway.
5. Jessika ‘Picnic Season’ (Pass): It’s a little dark in spots up today, but it’s fall-apart good, melt-in-your-mouth.
6. Nadia Italian Monkey Bread (Pass): Although it didn’t rise quite right and the segments aren’t sticking together, Paul says the flavors alone are good enough.
7. Toby ‘Tre Scimmie (Three Monkeys)’ (Pass): It looks more like a bundt cake than a monkey bread, which surprisingly impresses Paul. The flavors are uneven, though.
8. Jasmine ‘Mediterranean Mezze’ (Pass): The most traditional-looking monkey bread of the group, it’s a little weak on the olive flavor.
9. Pui Man Festival Basin Monkey Bread (Fail): She forgot to glaze them, and... she under-salted her dough? Lordt.
10. Aaron ‘Not For Everyone’ (Fail): More like not for anyone, it didn’t rise, the balls are raw, Prue asks if it actually went in the oven. Ouch.

Aaron thanks the judges for being kinder than they needed to, considering they told him his flavors were great (just too bad it’s literally inedible). But despite his calamity (and Pui Man continuing to struggle), this was a very successful Signature, with the most passing grades to date.

As always, Paul has set the Bread Week Technical, and this time, it’s fried—one dozen donuts, the classic ring kind, not the filled ones, with plain vanilla glaze. Six should be left as is, just glazed cake, and the other six are to be dipped in strawberry icing on one side with decor on top. Paul warned that planning and timing are key before he left, but the real challenge may be for the bakers to overcome their fear of frying. 

(By the way, Alison, you asked who owns one of those semi-professional fryers, I did. Note the past tense. They’re not exactly the sturdiest of machines. We now stick to the cast-iron Dutch oven.)

I was wondering if the new “Taste & Bake” twist on the Technical would be a “Paul-set Challenges only” event after Prue went back to a normal Technical in Week 2. However, that (blessedly) does not seem to be the case; in fact, with two standard Technicals back-to-back, it looks like the upgraded “Taste & Bake” version is being saved only for special occasions. (Honestly, that is not a bad thing, and the production deserves credit for not overdoing it just because it’s new.)

Let’s see who has this in the bag and who gets fried.

10. Pui Man: Too dense, too dark, underproofed, and overfried.
9. Lesley: They’re inconsistent in size and decoration
8. Nataliia: Way too much glaze, her plain donuts are literally white.
7. Jessika: Some of her rings are fat at one end and thin at the other.
6. Iain: They’re well-baked, but uneven, and the icing is messy.
5. Tom: Underproofed, and the icing is messy.
4. Toby: The icing glaze is too thin, but the crumb is correct.
3. Aaron: They’re lightly iced, but they’re consistent. 
2. Nadia: Practically perfect, the judges have nothing bad to say.
1. Jasmine: She didn’t do the decor the way they asked, but they’re so good she didn’t have to.

Aaron is lucky; making the Top Three in the Technical will balance out his failure in the Signature. As for Pui Man, the judges have been lenient, but she’s literally made donuts regularly before, and couldn’t handle doing it in the tent under the lights. It’s really time for her to go.

This season’s Bread Showstopper is a “Celebratory Tiered Sweet Bread.” What that ridiculous phrase means is that Paul and Prue want a wedding cake-like creation, but made of bread instead of cake. The requirements include a three-tiered, highly decorated stack of brioches with various bread-based flavors and fillings (think cinnamon, raisins, apples, etc). Though there is no requirement for each tier to be a different flavor, it is clear that the judges expect at least two different breads to be part of this creation.

Poor Noel has been losing his voice all episode, and the second day’s challenge is rougher than the first; he’s barely able to raise his voice for the time calls, and the bakers take turns cheering him on to get through the challenge as much as he normally cheerleads them.

Let’s see whose breads stack up, and whose sweet breads go sour.

Jasmine’s ‘Midsummer Flower Crown’: Her decor is beautiful, her icing is delicate, and her breads are perfection in their cinnamon swirl. If Paul hadn’t favored her before, he sure does now.

Toby’s ‘The Bread That Stolle Christmas’: The leaning tower of Christmas breads, the holiday kitsch decor is nice. However, the bread is underbaked, and a bit stodgy from all the liquids added.

Tom’s ‘Cinnamon Tower’: I don’t think it’s supposed to be a Game of Thrones tribute, but that topper on his cinnamon roll stack looks very Westerosi Heart Tree. Paul is super into his bread, which is practically perfect in every way.

Jessika’s ‘Rain, Dance, Celebration’: She made a stack of milk bread with creme pate layers, of course, the whole thing looks like it’s going to melt at any minute. Prue says it’s clumsy-looking, but Paul’s upset because the flavor is all in the cream and not in the bread.

Lesley’s ‘Korovai Sweet Bread’: One of two who went the Korovai route (three guesses who the other one is, and the first two don’t count), it’s slightly tilted, but she covered it nicely, and her flavors are solid. 

Nataliia’s ‘Three Generations Korovai Sweet Bread’: The show delivers the Korovais back-to-back. Nataliia’s unfortunately comes off as the lesser of the two because she tried to add too much to it, and her decor wound up messy.

Nadia’s ‘Gâteaux De Marriage De Rêve’: Nadia smartly made an actual wedding bread, and her decor work is basically flawless. She nailed that “cake-like bread structure” Paul really wanted the contestants to hit.

Pui Man’s ‘Coconut Cocktail Wedding’: I’ll give Pui Man this, she really does deliver on the Showstopper round, every week, even if she’s a complete disaster the rest of the time. 

Iain’s ‘It’s A Samhain-derful Time Of Year’: Poor Iain so very obviously wanted this to be his week. Prue calls it “unappetizing looking” and claggy. Paul says it’s underbaked and underproofed. Ouch.

Aaron’s ‘Flowers in Paradise’: If there was any doubt Aaron hadn’t saved himself in the Technical, he sure did with his Showstopper. Paul loves his choice of making a couronne. Prue calls the finished product “astonishing.”

Iain was so determined to impress Paul this week, talking up his bread skills since the premiere, but sadly, he did not deliver. His Signature wasn’t good enough for a handshake; he was mid-grade in the Technical, and now his Showstopper didn’t work the way it did when he practiced. His odds of making the final just collapsed as severely as his bread topper, and he's trying not to cry. Meanwhile, Jasmine probably just signed her ticket to go directly to the Top Three without passing Go or collecting 200 of anything. Naturally, she is Star Baker.

Pui Man once again managed to pull out a Showstopper, and if there was someone clearly also heading to the bottom along with her this week, she’d probably survive. However, the obvious candidates, Nataliia and Aaron, aren’t going anywhere. Nataliia is in no danger due to her backstory, and Aaron’s Showstopper was the standout among the bunch. Pui Man’s ability to pull it out on Day Two isn’t enough to save her. However, this is now three in a row where the correct contestant went home, so we’ll keep hoping this train stays on the tracks as we head into the middle rounds and Dairy Week.

The Great British Baking Show Season 16 continues with new episodes every Tuesday on Channel 4 and Fridays on Netflix. Seasons 1 through 7 are available on Roku, while Seasons 8 through 15 (still incorrectly listed as “Collections 5 through 12”) are accessible on Netflix outside the U.K.