One thing that I noticed is how interesting Nigella describes the flavor or texture of the bakes (or how they should be?). Somehow I feel like I’m reading a book with a nice prose when I hear her talk about food in the show. I watch the show with my wife, and it has become an inside joke for us to say ”Nigella, Queen of Vocab” as we have both learned new words from her (my fave is ebullience).

The flatbread technical last week was painful to watch. When so many bakers struggle with the same challenge, I find it hard not to question the recipe and time limit rather than their ability.

I'm actually looking forward to Dessert Week especially the retro dessert trolley showstopper. Those old-school puddings feel much more in the spirit of Bake Off to me, where the challenge should be getting the basics right and adding your own personality.

The self-saucing pudding signature sounds deceptively simple, though. Getting the sauce and sponge right at the same time is one of those things that can go wrong very quickly. I'd love to see a challenge where the bakers are judged on flavour as much as presentation this week.

My husband and I both noticed that the contestants had big white proving boxes for their dough instead of just putting them in a drawer like in previous years. Is it because the producers were trying to merch a trendy new gadget?

Did anyone else notice?

With a theme like Dessert Week, flavour is only half the battle. If a retro trolley looks like a messy buffet at a dodgy pub, Paul is going to tear it to shreds, regardless of how good the pudding tastes.

To add yet another thread about this, sorry guys 🤷 (not sorry 😁).

There's been a fair few comments, and several posts on IG about the flatbreads, with people claiming it was a stitch-up, etc. because Paul's original recipe in his 'How to Bake' book, published in 2012, proves the dough for an hour or more, and doesn't have them as thin.

Cut to 2021 and Paul released a video on his youtube channel, HERE, where he shows how to make the basic flatbread used in this technical. In it, he makes them being very thin.

Cut to 2026, we have bread week of GBBO S17, ep.4, and the technical turns into a disaster. Cue complaints about the recipe, and detective work fitting evidence to a theory that it's all a stitch-up and they've been done dirty.

All good fun for sure, except, there's the more obvious explanation. He's refined the technique simply through making them frequently. It's what we all do, don't we, when we consistently make a particular bake. We find ways of refining it, tweaking things to improve it and make it more time efficient, as we become more experienced with it.

Despite this, I do believe the contestants should have had 75-mins, not 60.

I made a baked cheesecake - raspberry and white chocolate! And a biscoff base mmm

Super sweet but super tasty ✨

I first heard of the challenge before watching the episode and baked before watching. I decided to make these before watching. I timed myself, gave myself the benefit of the recipe (but not method), gave myself time to find all ingredients, and stopped the timer when unloading/ the dishwasher (sprung open when baking and didnt want a steam sauna in the kitchen). Total time, 58:44.

I used 80% rouge de bordeaux and 20% sonora flour since I wanted to bring some to my whole grain baking club today. I also used some clearance costco blue cheese and grapes (note: use strongly favored ingredients).

I used a comal (flat, easy to flip on) on a gas stove. If I had to do this on the dinky GBBO stove in two nonstick pans, that would be a serious handicap. Also, I used a very heavy marble rolling pin which made it exceedingly easy to roll these out. If I had Yannis' fondant pin, it'd be another handicap.

For the grapes, I washed them, chucked them onto a parchmented pan with oil and honey on air roast default (17min, 230F, fan). When out, I let cool while working the dough and ran a pair of scissors through them because they were too big and bursty. Seeing the contestants slowly slice the grapes drove me insane!!! You're under a time crunch.

Some things: grapes would rupture when rolling, so had to scrape the bench before each roll out. The flavors were greatly overshadowed by the flour, the cheese was mild and the grapes were just sort of wet. Better half said they needed butter.

I'm not sure I'd make these again, but they weren't that hard. But I understand how people were struggling so hard since I'd be struggling sans comal, marble Comal, and air roast function.

Just watched Sandi interview food historians about streamed puddings. Is there a video channel or way to watch only these separately?

the skill ceiling is on the floor this season. Producers/casting missed the mark and the magic of the show is suffering because of it.

Hands down, hardest season to watch to date.

If I make or more likely buy flatbreads, I prefer a thicker, fluffy or flaky bread with or without generous stuffing, eg chunky paratha, börek, pide, pita, Claire Saffitz's cheese filled zaatar flatbreads, genovese style focaccia stuffed with pesto, gözleme, scallion pancakes, or a nice hotteok. A flatbread *can* be an inch or two thick, and I will die on this delicious, carb loaded hill of bread shape positivity. I can only recommend opening your hearts, and gullets, to Northern portions and voluptuous dough.

Tldr: The clue was the extremely short time limit, not the name. Not everything needs to be tortilla thin to classify.

Okay, bit of a long post. Given the wide discussion on this week's technical, including my own posts/comments, I put my money where my mouth is and had a go at Paul's Grape and Cheese Flatbreads. [I did make a separate post showing an image of my attempt, but it's currently sat in the ether awaiting Mod approval because I included an image I guess]

I've never made flatbreads before, but had some experience making basic Farmhouse loaves years ago.

I didn't follow the instructions the contestants were given, instead using the recipe on the Bake Off website.

I switched out the Olive oil for Sunflower, as I had a bottle of the latter at home. I also changed the Blue Cheese to Feta (Tesco's Greek), as I'm not a big fan of blue. I also used Allison's Strong White Bread Flour and their Fast Action Yeast.

My experience.

In total this took me 1-hour 40-minutes to complete. That includes weighing the ingredients, plus some washing and tidying up along the way.

I pre-heated the oven, then roasted the grapes as instructed, before making the dough. The dough came together nicely in my Salter Stand Mixer using the dough hook. It also proved really well in the 15-mintues given. In my small kitchen, the warmth of the oven will have helped the rise I guess.

Grapes roasted beautifully. They don't get crispy, but soften nicely.

• Side note: roasted honey coated grapes are delicious.

Dividing the dough was easy. Each ball (8 total) weighed approx. 100g.

Now, rolling out is where it didn't follow Paul's version. In the show the contestants were told at judging they should have been 25cm/10". On the webpage it states 23cm/9". I struggled to roll them out to more than 17cm/7". The dough was nicely elastic, but it didn't want to roll out to the size 0 model Paul wanted. However, they all rolled out in a nice consistent way

• Side note: I do wonder if the 25cm/10" size was too much to expect.

Pan frying was straight-forward. If you've ever made Welsh Cakes (a staple of mine) it's a similar process. Just make sure the pan is nice and hot, and keep it hot. Each flatbread is cooked for 90-sec each side. I rolled out my first, put it in the pan, and while it cooked, filled and rolled out the next, and so on until all 8 were cooked.

Once cooked, mine were about 1-1.5cm thick, so definitely not as thin as Paul shows in his IG post.

My thoughts on this bake:

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy these are to make. As my first time, I did expect it to take longer than an hour. Without the faffing of tidying up along the way, and if I'd pre-weighed the ingredients then timed it, I estimate it would have taken me an hour-thirty, maybe an hour-twenty-five.

Much like my experience with Welsh Cakes, with time and practise I'll definitely see that time decrease. Would I hit the hour mark? Potentially, given enough practise.

As for the flatbreads themselves, they cooked really well and are beautifully textured. You'll get some scorching from the water and sugar in the grapes where they touch the pan, but it's not bad.

Would I change anything? Yes. The honeyed grape is an interesting addition. I'd reduce the amount used. I feel 250g of grapes is too much, but that's just my preference. Also, I'd increase the amount of cheese. Now, this could be due to using feta instead of blue, but I think 120g wasn't enough. I'll have to try some blues to see if there is one I don't mind, however, this recipe is suited to whatever crumbly or hard cheese you like in my opinion.

Now, the size. Paul's IG post shows them being quite large. If I'd been more aggressive with them, I might have been able to roll them out to the size asked for. However, I do like that mine were all a consistent size and were cooked through.

So there you have it. Nothing definitive, just my experience making them. I really enjoyed making these and will be doing so again. It's also inspired me to look into making other breads.

Have I made it up that they will be baking old school cake?

Not sure if I’ve dreamed this or not, newborn baby brain! Is there anyway to find out what they are baking? We are having friends round to watch along and I want to bake something to match

I tend to make the same bakes over and over: Welsh Cakes, Shortbread, classic Victoria Sponge and variants on it, Cherry Cake, Scones, Millionaires Shortbread, Brownies.

I'd like to branch out a bit and would like suggestions for others I could try. I'm particularly keen to make some more regional bakes. For example, in the past I've made Eccles Cakes and Chorley Cakes which I quite enjoy.

I saw someone mention on another post, Bara Brith. This sounds quite interesting to make. As a country we have quite a rich and wide variety of regional bakes, so would like some ideas of things I could try. I'm particularly interested in loaf cakes, traybakes, and now I've tried flatbreads, I'd been interested in making more bread.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

But for some reason I’m still getting pies, scones, and cakes….

I’m from the US and have followed along for a long time and am a bit of an admitted Anglophile. I’m constantly amazed by how much I feel like I don’t know when it comes to “classic British bakes” for instance the iced gems this season was new. And Colin the caterpillar was definitely a cake I picked up last time I visited.

So now I’m on a mission to make these VERY classic British bakes from the show that I have not had. Any suggestions for what I should make besides the above mentioned and a cherry Bakewell?

I’m a little behind and I’m watching the ‘wearable bakes’ episode. Mo’s angel wings were so effective, but it was his face when he got praise from Paul, he gulped and his smile was lovely and he looked so chuffed. He really melted my heart!

bread week so i made the dastardly grape and blue cheese flatbreads. i have to be honest i found this pretty easy to make - although a bit sticky to get off the surface when rolled out. only downside was me doing all this and realising just how much i hate blue cheese and grapes 😮‍💨

recipe is loopywhisk flatbreads and then i used the honey roasted grapes/ blue cheese as suggested in the bake off recipe

Did anyone else notice the teddy bear? None of the judges mentioned that it had nipples. What was going on!?

She shovels the bites in and I LOVE that about her!!! How do you get a good sample without cramming it all in?

Need some inspo!

Does anyone know why they had proving boxes in the most recent episode? I noticed only a few used the drawers during the show stopper. What is the difference in using the drawers vs boxes?

Sincerely,
A confused baker