The BEST episodes of The Great British Bake Off
Every episode of The Great British Bake Off ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Great British Bake Off!
Britain's best amateur bakers compete in the iconic white tent - all united in their aim to prove their baking skills and impress judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
#1 - Biscuits
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/6/2011
For the signature bake, the bakers were give 1+1⁄2 hours to make 12 biscuits of their choice; the biscuits should not be too soft, too hard or too crumbly. The technical challenge gave the bakers 1+1⁄2 hours to bake 24 brandy snaps. For the showstopper, the bakers were asked to produce a macaron display, consisting of 120 macarons in 3 different flavors; they had 5 hours to complete it.
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#3 - The Final
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/8/2014
The three finalists face a Signature Challenge in which they have just three hours to prove they have mastered a pastry technique that usually takes a whole day. They then have to tackle a Technical Challenge without the aid of a recipe, before rustling up a Showstopper that turns sponge, caramel, choux pastry and petits fours into a winning combination.
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#4 - Bread
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/19/2015
The ten remaining bakers tackle quick breads, baguettes and 3D bread sculptures. Starting with the signature challenge, the bakers must tackle a Bake Off first and make quick breads - with no proving necessary, the bakers have an hour and a half to get creative with their flavours. Ranging from sweet chocolate loaves to manchego and prosciutto stuffed bread, the finished loaves are a delight, and one even earns a handshake from Paul. In another Bake Off first, Paul sets baguettes as the technical challenge. A seemingly simple recipe, everyone knows what a baguette looks like... or do they? The pressure of the tent gets to a few of the bakers, and the finished baguettes result in one of Paul's most brutal judgings. For their show-stopper, the bakers must make edible 3-D bread sculptures. As one baker says, 'it's doughverload', with another making enough bread to start up his own bakery. Mary and Paul have to work their way through a bicycle, a snake, an array of flowers, a lion and even the Brighton Pavilion, all made of bread. The results are impressive - so much so that one baker renders Paul speechless by making the best bread sculpture he's ever seen.
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#6 - The Final
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/7/2015
Only three of the original twelve bakers remain. They've made it to the final. Over 27 challenges, they've worked their way through every baking discipline Mary and Paul have thrown at them - from cakes to bread, pastry to puddings, and biscuits to chocolate. Along the way they have tackled recipes from the 70s and 80s, they've gone back to the Victorian era, they've made gluten-free bread, strange meringue concoctions, incredible constructions out of biscuits, bread and choux... They have all survived, and now they face their last three challenges. The signature challenge sees the finalists tackle enriched dough to create delicious filled iced buns. The technical requires them to conquer something they have all struggled with, and finally, for their last ever showstopper, they must make a classic British cake. Mary and Paul expect nothing short of perfection. So who will hold their nerve? Who will be crowned winner of The Great British Bake Off 2015? On your marks, get set... bake!
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#9 - Desserts
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/26/2015
For the nine bakers left, it's time to tackle the sweet ending to every meal - desserts. The signature challenge comes in the form of a French classic - creme brulees. The bakers need to achieve the perfect wobble of the creme and an audible crack of the brulee. It's not easy though, as they have to brulee under the grill, not with a blow torch. While some will reach perfection, others will serve up scrambled egg and custard soup. Mary picks the technical challenge, and it's a European medley - the spanische windtorte from Austria, with a nod to Spain and some Swiss and French meringue thrown in. It maybe only be meringue, cream and soft fruit, but it's tricky to construct and needs to be decorated with delicate fondant violets - if only the bakers knew what a violet looked like! Not one, not two, but three baked cheesecakes make up the show-stopper. Mary and Paul are looking for faultless baked cheesecakes, beautifully flavoured and stacked in a show-stopping way - easy? The bakers don't disappoint with their inventive ingredient combinations, but not all of the tiered cheesecakes are structurally sound.
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#11 - Alternative Ingredients
Season 6 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/2/2015
The remaining bakers have to try and bake without sugar, gluten or dairy this week. The signature challenge sees the bakers having to create a variety of sugar-free cakes, from an upside-down pineapple cake to carrot cakes. The technical challenge features gluten-free pittas. For their showstopper, the bakers have to make dairy-free ice cream rolls.
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#12 - Cake
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/5/2015
The 12 new bakers don their aprons and head for the iconic tent for cake week. Starting with cake week, the bakers' first signature challenge is to make a madeira cake. It's a well-loved cake, but which of our bakers will try to impress by reinventing this classic, and who will play safe in a bid to get perfect madeira with its traditional crack? With one challenge out the way, the bakers face their first technical - Mary's frosted walnut cake, a pre-war classic that is as British as they come. Light sponge sandwiched with buttercream and covered with sweet meringue, this technically challenging cake is one of Mary's favourites, and no-one wants to disappoint the queen of baking. Day Two, and the bakers have to go all out to impress with their first show-stopper, the black forest gateau. This retro classic from the 70s has it all - chocolate, cherries and cream. It's ripe for a reinvention, and these 12 bakers are ready and willing. 12 new bakers, 30 new challenges. On your marks, get set... bake!
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#13 - Patisserie
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/1/2014
It's Patisserie Week, and the remaining four bakers will need to demonstrate that they have skills worthy enough to see them through to this year's final. The bakers are challenged to make a signature baklava - two types of any flavour they like, before the technical challenge demands they knock up a German Schichttorte, a cake cooked in stages under the grill to create 20 layers of different coloured sponge. Finally, the showstopper sees the semi-finalists baking non-stop to create two entremets in which they should demonstrate as many personal skills and techniques as they can.
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#14 - The Final
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/16/2012
After weeks of pastries, cakes and bread, three bakers have made it to the final. They now must face the most demanding of challenges yet as every aspect of their baking skill is scrutinised. To prove themselves to judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, they must create pastry perfection with a signature pithivier. Then on to one of the most intricate technical challenges ever devised - fondant fancies. Finally, it all comes down to their last ever showstopper, creating a masterpiece with a notoriously difficult chiffon sponge. After two days of baking, only one of the finalists can claim the title, winner of The Great British Bake Off.
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#15 - Cake
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/6/2014
The Bake Off is back for another year, welcoming the tent's youngest-ever baker and the oldest. All 12 bakers will be challenged on their baking skills from every angle by judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, all the while helped - or hindered - by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. But their first hurdle is cake. As they enter the tent for the very first time, their first Signature Challenge is to make a swiss roll. But with such a seemingly simple challenge comes a risk - who will have the tightest roll? Whose roll will split? Should the bakers go for the classic or push the boat out to impress? Recovering from their first challenge, they face their first ever Technical Challenge. It's cake week... it's a Mary recipe... it's a classic cherry cake. But will the bakers be able to suspend the cherries and ice their cakes to the exacting standard of Ms Berry? As the next day dawns so does the Showstopper. The bakers must make classic British cakes... in perfect miniature... all 36 of them... 30 challenges, 12 brand-new bakers, two judges and two presenters, but there can only be one winner. On your marks, get set... bake!
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#16 - Desserts
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/27/2014
It's week four in the tent and the baking is getting serious. Having seen the bakers make cake, biscuits and bread, Mary and Paul up the ante - for the first time, we see how the bakers cope with multi-tasking across several baking skills at once. For their signature challenge the bakers must bake saucy puds - delicate sponges hiding a gooey saucy filling or a saucy surprise at the bottom. If baked for just a fraction too long the sauce won't ooze upon cutting, but they won't know if it has worked until they are judged. Sue explores the origins of the Paignton pudding - a pudding larger than a cow that caused a riot in Paignton in the 19th century. For the technical challenge, Mary sets the bakers her tiramisu cake. It's a new kind of tiramisu requiring the bakers to temper chocolate, bake beautifully thin coffee-soaked sponges and assemble to create perfect layers of sponge, cream and chocolate... but only if they read the recipe properly. For their final flourish the bakers are challenged to bake incredible showstopping baked alaskas made up of cake, meringue and ice cream... on the hottest day of the year so far. In the centre of a field in the middle of the English countryside the bakers have the odds stacked against them, as temperatures soar and tempers fray. There is still everything to bake for... on your marks... get set... bake!
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#17 - The Final
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/4/2011
For their final signature bake, the finalists were asked to bake 12 mille-feuille in 2+1⁄2 hours. For the technical challenge, the bakers were asked to bake a sachertorte in 2 hours and 40 minutes. For their final showstopper, the bakers were asked to bake 3 different types of petits fours: meringue, sweet pastry, and sponge-based, on the theme of British Summertime, within 4 hours.
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#18 - Desserts
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/4/2012
The bakers face three challenges, all designed for a sweet tooth. Starting off with a tempting array of decadently rich tortes, the bakers then face the technical challenge. This time it is a mainstay of French baking, the crème caramel, and for some there is more wobble than expected. Proceedings are rounded off with a mammoth six-hour challenge to produce a mighty showstopping layered meringue. But who will claim the accolade of Star Baker and who will hang up their apron for the last time?
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#19 - Biscuits
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/12/2015
With cake week over, the remaining bakers must prove themselves with biscuits. The signature challenge is to create 24 biscotti. Twice baked, these Italian specialities have to be crammed with flavour and have a crisp crunch. It's a delicate balance between underbaked and bendy, or overbaked and rock hard. Paul chooses the technical challenge, arlettes, a labour-intensive reverse puff pastry biscuit from south west France. Wafer-thin, flaky and swirled with cinnamon, delicious to eat but devilishly difficult to make. And finally, the show-stopper is to create and build an edible biscuit box filled with 36 biscuits of a different flavour. Judges Mary and Paul want to see the bakers exercise their creative muscles with clever construction and beautiful decoration, while not forgetting that flavour is king. The pressure is on, and the clock is ticking. Who will claim Star Baker, and who will be leaving the Bake Off tent?
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#20 - Tea Party
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/21/2010
In the final, one of the three finalists was eliminated after the first bake, and only two bakers competed in the final day. For the first challenge, they were asked to bake 24 professional-quality tea cakes in 2+1⁄2 hours. For the final challenge, the 2 finalists were given 5 hours to bake 24 miniature tarts, 24 scones, 24 choux buns, and 24 brown and white bread finger sandwiches for afternoon tea on the garden lawn for 40 guests (including all the bakers from earlier rounds).
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#21 - Advanced Dough
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/24/2014
The nation's favourite baking contest is about to get a whole lot hotter in the kitchen, as it reaches the quarter-final stage, and just five amateur bakers remain. They've all impressed to various extents during Bread Week - at least sufficiently to make it through - but now their skills are thoroughly tested as they take on enriched doughs. They have a signature bake in which they must work with soft dough to create artful works, a technical that sees them recreate an Eastern European cross between bread and pastry, and a showstopper involving doughnuts.
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#24 - Patisserie
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/9/2012
There are only four bakers left vying for a place in the much sought-after final of the Great British Bake off. The weight of the occasion is getting to the most unflappable of the bakers as they frantically work against the clock to deliver petits fours to Paul and Mary's exacting standards. The hardest technical bake ever seen on Bake Off finds two of the bakers left wanting as their fraisier cakes collapse. It's possible to hear a pin drop in the kitchen as the bakers pull out the stops for their showstopping choux gateaus. Paul and Mary think they have seen it all until they are presented with a tribute to the Tour de France..
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