One baker having a disaster is understandable. Two or three having a bad day is hardly unusual. But when so many contestants are handing in undercooked flatbreads, it starts to make you question the whole challenge. Was the timing unrealistic, were the instructions unclear, or did the bakers simply underestimate it?

I will preface by saying I am a trained baker and chocolatier, and have had previous workplaces approached for Professionals, so I am very critical of normal bake off. That being said, I don't feel that all this year's contestants are as capable as previous years. Kinda feels like the producers have gone more for the personality-hire vibes of the contestants than their actual baking ability, but perhaps that is just the editing and filming choices. But when I look back at previous winners and contestants, I don't feel that they were all fighting for the 'quirky' or 'unique' contestant role, like how I feel this year's are.

Maybe the fact that most contestants over the past 5-ish years have gone on to a book deal, social media side hustle, if not career/influencer status, etc might have something to do with it.

I am not saying the bakers are untalented, or that Bake Off is easy; it must be extremely nerve-racking, BUT I am having a hard time believing that this round of contestants were the best 12 bakers of all applicants, based on baking talent alone.

How have we made it 12 seasons and still have people dumping in extract with impunity?
Paul susses it out every single time.
Every time he tells them to use fresh flavors and not to overwhelm with extract.
I know they watch past seasons, so maybe jot that down?

In your opinion, does it feel like this season the contestants just don't seem as invested as precious seasons?

I remember past seasons the bakers saying "after my bad critique i stayed up all night practicing XYZ". And this week we had bakers literally saying " I dont know what I'm doing" or joking "yeah I watched a tiktok and thought yup that's good enough". I'm definitely not expecting them to be any more than AMATEUR bakers, but SO many not knowing what a flatbread is, bakes being raw, and it just felt overall like noone knew what they were doing even with their own recipes! One or two people falling flat is expected ((noone will know EVERYTHING)) but the whole tent felt off this week to me.

Do you feel this too? I mean yes its amateur bakers but it IS A COMPETITION! You should at least WANT to be there and put in the effort that comes with it. Otherwise why take a spot of someone else who would.

Harsh critique or reasonable expectation?

Was this the absolute worst baking week of any year? None of them did good in any of the rounds. Making the flats was the worst. How can you think something that has the thickness of an English Muffin would pass as a "flat bread" How can every one of them under cooked them.

How pleased I am for Bake Off to finally have two judges who are treated equally. I only wish there was this level of respect for sweet Prue when she was on the show. I always felt she faded into the background and was treated as secondary to Paul despite having years more experience. I remember one instance on season 16 when the final 3 contestants were being judged and Allison commented “put them all together and they’d be the perfect baker, they’d be Paul Hollywood!” and I saw Prue’s face drop as she was sat right next to him - his equal, completely overlooked!

It is such a breath of fresh beautiful air to have the fabulous Nigella come in and be honoured the same way as Paul. I love the way she doesn’t pander to him, unafraid to disagree and even challenge his opinions. And she uplifts the bakers and appears to really connect with them. It’s easy to dislike Paul because of his rudeness and holier than thou demeanour but I must remember the show wouldn’t be entertaining without his harsher critiques and bad cop role. Still, I always thought his ego could do with being taken down a few pegs.

I love you Nigella and I love you Prue and I love talented beautiful women on telly! Go on girls

I love flatbread, so was really excited about the technical. But being allergic to blue cheese, I thought l'd combine it with the signature and do a garlic bread filling. The filling was sauteed, minced garlic, Parmesan cheese, a little softened butter, and a pinch of salt.

As someone who has made flatbread many times, and baking in the comfort of my own home, as well as knowing what| was supposed to be making, it took me exactly 1hr start to finish. used half the time to make the dough (and filling while it rested), and left the last half hour for filling/rolling/cooking. You really do need to fill and roll one, then do the next one while the first one cooks. I can't speak for baking in the tent having never made one before, but cannot imagine not rolling them extremely thin. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The result: They turned out amazing! The bread is soft and chewy, the flavors of the filling came through nicely. There were little crispy bits and air pockets. Simply delicious. I totally recommend making the recipe - even if you don't fill it with anything! It'd be great on its own slathered with butter.

Okay, I've seen a lot of comments on posts criticising this week's technical recipe, including it being "vague", "bad", "a failure", "badly written", etc.

I'll say it, the failures this week weren't the fault of the recipe or Paul. The contestants were solely to blame. I do partly agree that the grape and stilton addition was unexpected (though it sounds delicious if the stilton was replaced with cheddar or red Leicester). But that's part of the challenge.

People, the technicals are meant to be challenging. The contestants have always been given the bare minimum of instructions on technicals, on occasion just one or two lines. The instructions are sparse because the whole point is it's a test of their knowledge, experience, skill, and problem solving in baking. This week most were shown to be severely lacking, and I find it quite shocking given how there's always been a bread week.

am i the only one who watches this show despite not having a sweet tooth? i do know how to bake and occasionally do at home but i don’t really seek out sweets and never crave anything they’re making. do you guys find the show more enjoyable when you watch your favorite desserts being baked?

Given the exchanges and comments on my other post about this, I went back and rewatched the technical. There is a shot at around 21:22 to 21:26, of the instructions for the flatbreads.

So, I'm making this post for two reasons. One, if anyone wishes to have a go here's the recipe as given to the contestants (it can also be found with full instructions on the GBBO website). Two, to hopefully show people that it really isn't that different to any previous technicals.

In fact, I think it's actually quite generous compared to other technicals, and It seems people might be reaching to excuse the contestant's lack of ability on this one.

They were given two sheets of A4 paper. One an ingredients list:

Paul's Blue Cheese & Grape FlatbeadsPlease do not confer with any other bakers

Ingredients

For the filling

• 2 tbsp runny honey
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Red grapes, roasted and sliced
• Blue cheese, crumbled

For the dough

• 500g Strong white flour
• 10g Salt
• 7g Fast action yeast
• 1 tbsp Olive oil (plus extra for frying)
• 320ml Water

The second sheet,

Method:

Circotherm 200C, reduce to 100C

1. Make the dough
2. Rest
3. Shape the flatbreads into rounds, filling with blue cheese and roasted grapes.
4. Fry

What are you all making to eat while you watch it?

Yes, I know it’s ages away but I’m excited.
Anyway - maybe a trifle or a chocolate mousse, I’m thinking. But would love some ideas!

First post in this sub and apologies if this question has already been asked, I did a quick scan and couldn’t see it but I’m happy to be redirected if so.

Also… How good is this year’s series? Nigella is just wonderful.

Was just watching an old one where Mary and Paul went through and did all the technical challenges in a season (6 maybe), and enjoyed it so much. Then i remembered they would also do holiday bakes. I can't remember if Paul and Prue did any but i would love to see Paul and Nigella work together

I love this change and I wonder if it was brought in by Nigella. Usually Paul would cut just one slice of the bake and put it on one plate. It always felt that Mary or Prue were awkwardly extending their arm to get a bite of the shared bake. In this season, each judge gets their own slice on their own plate in front of them. So much better!

I thought this quote by Nigella Lawson deserved to be celebrated, so I baked a banana cake with cream cheese icing about it. I’ve been loving her contributions to GBBO this season, and I can’t think of someone more deserving or capable of filling Prue’s (brightly-colored) shoes.

This time with hail it was even more dramatic haha

I'm a US viewer, so I have to wait until Friday to see the episode.

Post titles like "this is the worse bread week" or "why don't bakers understand what a flatbread is" are absolutely spoilers.

I want to stay subscribed and see what people have to say after I watch the episode, but the spoilers in the title mean I can't simply stay subscribed anymore.

Mods, I'm surprised you're allowing these posts. I don't want to be spoiled and have other people's opinions thrust on me before watching it for myself.

Edit: flatbed => flatbread

Noel was 110% right. I hope you're finding all the friends you'll ever deserve! Sending love and support for Bake-off's most adorable odd-ball!

She's seriously the first person I've seen that reminds me of myself, I feel very represented by her. 😂

Now that we've seen different technicals this season with some having a new approach, what do you think is generally better: having a recipe to follow without a clear picture of how the end result should look like, or having just a picture/bake(end result) without any recipe to follow?

When I saw that Gabe was introduced as one of the members of a three-person relationship in Week 1, I was overjoyed at the representation of alternate relationships. Gabe seems like such fun, and meeting Ellis, one of his partners in Week 3 (another part of "boyband") made for such delightful watching. We need more of this out in the world!! Healthy, fun-loving representation of non-monogamous relationships was not on my GBBO Bingo Card but oh so very welcome!

Nikki go. I'm glad they put the reason at the end of the episode with her mum. It was nice that Alison could take her first bake up still, she must have had to leave suddenly.

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t dislike Nigella. But. I’ve noticed a distinct shift in the dynamic between the judges this season, and I’ve been struggling to put my finger on exactly why it feels so different.

With Mary and Prue, Paul always seemed to be the more dominant personality, while they provided a natural counterbalance. With Nigella, though, it feels as if both judges are vying to be the dominant voice, rather than complementing one another.

I don’t necessarily think either of them is doing anything wrong, but the dynamic feels less natural to me, almost as though they’re competing for the same role rather than settling into their own.

Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me?

I am having a very hard time keeping track of who is baking what. Does anyone have any favorite bakes out of what has been made so far? I am excited to see more of Kami’s bakes personally as she has some interesting Sudanese flavors. Slavomira is very technically skilled. Justine makes some serious feel good Prairie bakes — very indulgent!