Welcome back to Clonabreany House.
This is an Irish summer,
so don't forget your sunglasses and your raincoat.
We have ten bakers remaining.
The pre-heat is on and the bakers will be rolling in dough.
I'm not talking about the lottery.
This week's challenges are all about bread.
This is the Great Irish Bake Off!
Last week the technical challenge was Paul Kelly's award-winning Bakewell recipe...
Oh, God. That's not the way it should look.
...followed by the first showstopper challenge.
You've create a very interesting tart.
Oonagh was crowned Star Baker. I'm really pleased.
It's a little bit bland for me.
But for Daire, it proved to be his final bake.
This week they face two new challenges
all to do with baking bread.
Yours are in? No, they're not! You should put yours in the oven!
With the signature bake and another technical challenge facing them,
they need to impress the judges -
five-star pastry chef and award winner Paul Kelly.
We're really expecting a lot more from the bakers.
They have to be more creative and take on board what we say to them.
...and the woman who wrote the bible on Irish baking,
Biddy White Lennon.
They have to up their game.
There is no way they can all belong at the level they came in,
or they'd be out as quick as a flash, and they know it.
The bakers will have to measure up...
Oh, that's beautiful.
Yes!
...or leave the Bake Off kitchen.
The person who is leaving the Great Irish Bake Off is...
It's week 3 in the search for Ireland's best amateur baker.
To stay in the bake off,
these bakers now need to turn their skills to baking bread.
It's bread week, so I'm pretty happy, I think. That could jinx it!
I love doing breads, so this will hopefully go quite well for me.
I'm not uber confident with the bread today.
It's not going to be my strongest round at all.
It wouldn't be something that I would enjoy making as much as cakes.
Bakers, today you are all competing on a leavened playing field!
You're going to have to be brave enough to take on board
something that strikes fear into the heart of even the most experienced baker - the dreaded yeast.
This signature challenge is your opportunity
to put your own spin on the much loved Irish bread basket.
By the end of the show we'll have our Star Baker,
but one or more of you will have to say goodbye.
On this windy day in Clonabreany House,
you have two and a half hours.
On your marks, get set, bake!
This week is really going to test their knowledge.
If they're using yeast and baking powder,
you've got be so careful.
Quite a few of them are not very experienced at making bread,
so it'll be an interesting challenge for them to see if they can hack it.
This signature challenge requires three very specific breads.
Firstly, soda bread.
Traditionally made from flour, salt, buttermilk and baking soda,
but the bakers can add whatever twist they want.
My soda bread is very simple, so you have to do it well, I guess.
The second loaf must be a tea bread,
a famous companion to our favourite drink.
This bread typically contains fruit
and can be made with or without yeast.
Figs, raisins... I have caramelised my one,
peel and...
Yours is way more adventurous than mine. I wish.
That's the malt extract. This is the key ingredient - the stout.
Finally a non-yeasted bread that brings out the best in Irish flavours and ingredients.
I'm really looking forward to what comes back,
the ideas, the flavours they have in mind for the soda bread, the tea bread and the non-yeast bread.
The flavours I'm really interested to see...
Will they be creative in how they use flavourings in their bread?
I'm just putting some plums, apricots and dates in my tea bread.
And I've got a tea bag in there.
Bridget is an occupational therapist
working in mental health in Dublin.
She bakes every day
and says she's as competitive in baking as she is in Scrabble.
For her signature breads, Bridget has chosen two soda breads,
one plain wholemeal and the other with potato, onion and cheese.
Her tea cake is plum, apricot and date loaf,
glazed with honey and lemon.
Can I say how pretty you look today in your beautiful ballerina outfit?
It's an unfulfilled ambition
that I represent through my clothes.
You look so pretty. Thank you.
Because I haven't done brilliantly the last couple of weeks,
you're always vulnerable.
I'm a bit more optimistic about breads.
I quite like making bread, so I'm hoping the challenge will be something I can do well in.
Graters have not been the best to me.
I've got a couple of wounds still from them,
so I'm going very careful with this.
Burnt? Not too bad. Mine are.
Can you peel them? No. It's too hot.
I'm just making the nutty loaf. My treacle has solidified at the bottom of the jug,
so I have to try and loosen it up a bit.
Tom finds it hard to spend any time in his kitchen
without baking something, whether for his colleagues at work
or just at home.
His love of it all started with his mother.
As a child he loved getting creative
with her leftover pastry.
His breads are a trio of nutty black treacle spelt bread,
rosemary and spring onion wholemeal soda
and Earl Grey tea bread with a hint of lavender.
Tom. Hi, guys.
There's a beautiful smell of rosemary.
Yes. That's for the wholemeal soda bread.
That's an interesting addition.
I love rosemary in bread.
It's my mum's recipe that she would use quite a lot,
and I like that strength of onion and rosemary.
So are they scallions? Yeah, yeah.
My main worry with the bread is the soda bread, the brown soda bread,
to get it to have a good rise.
It hasn't risen whenever I've practised it.
Goodbye, little loaves. Rise your best.
I just think soda breads are a really practical thing.
You mix it up, throw it in the oven and cook it.
It's not a delicate process. No.
I'm just waiting for the oven to get hotter
before the soda bread goes in, which needs a much higher temperature.
Getting the timing is tough.
Two and half hours is a long time
if my breads were baking at the same temperature, but they're not.
That's going to make things very tough.
Dubliner Maryanne is a lab manager and teacher
with a scientific approach to baking.
She's not scared of any challenge,
but spiders are a different thing altogether.
You're adding quite a lot of cheese to that. I am, then putting it on top.
This is a fabulous Irish parmesan I've never tasted before...
There's two kind of Irish parmesan-type cheeses.
This is Desmond and the other one is Gabriel.
But the Desmond has a sweet fragrance to it. There's a nuttiness to it.
You'll get little pockets of cheese and of pear
and hopefully... Nice surprise.
I'm looking forward to eating that bread. Good on you. No pressure!
I've never done it with fresh thyme before, only with dried thyme.
I'm not sure how this is going to work,
or if I'm putting too much or little in, but we'll see.
It's in now. Nothing I can do.
Having been Star Baker last week, I think I've got a lot to live up to.
But I make bread at home most days for the kids,
and these are recipes that I've tried and tested - well two out of three are,
so I'm pretty happy.
I'm not feeling that confident because bread isn't my thing.
It doesn't get baked that much in my house.
It's normally brought to the house by the mother-in-law.
No, not my favourite, but we'll see what happens.
It's my toffee sauce to go on top of my apple, cinnamon and pecan loaf.
Can't go wrong with toffee sauce, everyone loves it.
Bet you Paul hates toffee sauce!
You're afraid I'm going to ask you about that! No, I want you to!
That's butter! You're making your own butter?
My own butter to go with the garlic and olive bread. Wow!
I was waiting for him to come over and say something! I thought you were hiding!
I was hoping he'd ignore it.
I could this, like...
Living in Dublin, Will has baking in his blood.
His Dutch father is a confectioner
and his grandfather, aged 92, was a baker.
His father has always been his harshest critic,
until Paul and Biddy came along!
Sometimes when I do bake,
I don't feel like it's any good.
Maybe it's a confidence thing,
that I want to build up and show perfectly that I can do it,
and I might start to believe it myself.
Bakers, you have one hour remaining. One hour to go.
Out of ten bakers, Stephen is the only one attempting a yeasted bread
with his plaited mango tea loaf.
As he has to leave his yeasted dough to rise,
it's a much longer process.
I've really pushed myself, especially with this signature bake.
It will literally be coming out on the countdown,
I'll be taking it from the oven and putting it on the board.
So it's going to be very tight for me.
- Are you impressed by this plaiting? - I am, actually. It looks good.
Talk to us about the ingredients, apart from the mango.
It's a whole load of different dried fruits.
There's figs, cranberries, sultanas, raisins and apricots in there.
Oh, and dates as well. It's going to be bursting with fruit flavours.
As well as his mango tea loaf,
Stephen is making leek and Gruyere wholemeal soda bread
and a wheaten loaf made with malt and good old Belfast stout.
You seem really comfortable making breads.
Do you feel relaxed doing this task?
Not today. This is literally going to be coming out
right on three two one... I'm going take it and put it on the board.
I've really pushed myself for time, but hopefully...
Maybe you should get that into a nice warm place. Yes,
and get it covered.
A quick way to tell if the bread is baked
is to tap on the bottom of the bake
and listen for a hollow sound.
It's done. Wa-hey!
Yeah, sounds hollow. OK.
The more hollow the sound, the more cooked it is.
Give it another five minutes.
I like a deeper hollow sound than that. I'll throw it back in
so the bottom gets a chance to crisp up. Smells good, though.
It's really a wholemeal soda bread.
Proper simple wholemeal soda bread.
And the other one is the no-yeast Irish one
with fried rashers and onions
and fresh basil. Like brekkie in a bread.
Yeah, poached egg and two rashers. Oh, gorgeous!
The basil is an interesting spin on it.
Are you using fresh or dried? Fresh.
It's my first time using fresh basil, so we'll see!
Live dangerously! I know.
Very brave.
Sounds good. Sounds good.
I would love to prove myself to Paul,
but I worry about the no-yeast Irish loaf.
It can fall apart. Don't know why.
Bakers, you have 30 minutes remaining.
That's half an hour to go.
(GROANS)
Are you joking me? Are you joking?
Welcome back to the Great Irish Bake Off.
This week's signature bake requires the bakers to produce a basket of Irish bread,
to include soda bread, a tea bread
and one unyeasted bread.
Yeah.
It's kind of hard to tell because you might stick into a piece of pear
and it feels sticky.
It's been in for about an hour or so. Longer, actually.
With Stephen's stout loaf taking twice as long as expected,
he has just 25 minutes left for his plaited tea bread.
This one here I'm not 100% on.
That's why I'm putting a little skewer into it to see.
Would you like an oven? Shall I ask?
I might like a quick two or three minutes in another oven. I'll ask.
Bakers, Stephen was wondering if anybody has a free oven
for a few minutes that he can bung his bread into.
What temperature do you need it at? 180, 200.
Mine's at 180. Throw it into the bottom.
Aoife. Thanks, Aoife. No worries.
Aoife's getting more pints because she was kind.
Stick it inside. It'll only need a couple more minutes.
I actually think that's done.
Don't forget you've got two ovens on the go now.
I hope they're impressed with the plait today.
If it comes out right, it does look very appealing.
So hopefully the judges will credit me a few extra points
for going the extra mile.
Bakers, you have 15 minutes remaining.
Yes, 15.
OK.
I'm going to out it back in just for five more minutes.
How's this going?
I mustn't now take things out the oven.
I'm just trying to resist the urge to take it out really early
and serve it raw. Yeah. That's my current form.
My biggest fear is that it's doughy. I really don't want that.
With bread, timing is crucial.
A wise baker will test the dough with a metal skewer.
It's cooked on this side!
Bakers, you have only five minutes remaining.
I'm going to need the five minutes, so as soon as this buzzer goes,
I'll take it out and straight into the basket.
Ten nine eight
seven six five
four three
two one... Stop baking!
I'm really happy with that. We'll see how they taste.
The only thing I'm a bit edgy about is the size of my plaited loaf.
That's the biggest ever!
I'm a bit concerned my tea bread's a little bit soft.
Hopefully when it cools down it'll be OK.
They look really good, so hopefully when they cut into them,
they all taste as good as they look.
My soda bread I'm really not happy with.
I feel like it's so straightforward, something could go wrong.
And as those summer hailstones start to fall,
inside the tent it's judgment time for the bakers.
Maryanne, you look a little nervous.
Very nervous. Breads always look fine on the surface,
but you never know what's lurking beneath.
That feels nice and even to cut down.
Are you ready for this? No! (LAUGHS)
That's beautiful.
You've cooked it to perfection.
You can even see the beautiful crust on the base. It's beautiful.
Straightaway you get that parmesan coming through.
And the pear is beautiful and smooth in there.
I think it's a lovely combination of flavours and I like the texture.
That looks really nice.
It looks lovely and moist.
The toffee sauce keeps it moist.
It's all nicely spread around the cake.
You've got the balance right here in this one.
That's beautiful!
It's fab.
I love toffee. That's delicious. Well done.
That's nice. That's very pretty.
Lovely pink of the bacon. Look at the bacon.
And the green. Nice crust.
That's lovely. Yeah.
I can taste the bacon, and the onion.
That would be very nice toasted with a poached egg on top.
And then it is the full act!
I'm excited about this one.
If the flavours work on this one, it's going to be really nice.
That looks great. It's like a muffin. It is.
Your blackberries are nicely dispersed in the mix.
Let's have a taste.
Oh, yeah. That's lovely, isn't it?
Did you put any zest of lemon in there? Yeah, zest and juice.
It's a great combination and it's entirely yours! Yeah.
Go and patent it!
Thanks.
There's not much shape to it, and not much colour either.
Egg wash on the outside, that gives a lovely colour.
Let's have a...
Look at that. It might be a bit dense.
It looks like it. I can feel it here. Oh, no.
It's doughy, Tom. There's something not right with the recipe there.
I think what's happened is, there's too much raising agent in there. OK.
It's just kind of got confused.
I don't really know what went wrong. Was this in a small tin?
Yeah, it was in a tin. Looks fine.
Yeah, it does look nice.
I'm concerned the middle is gooey and soft. Yeah.
You are too? Well, I have a history of not cooking things long enough
in the show! So it may have happened again!
Probably tastes nice even if it's not cooked!
Hang on a second now.
No. It looks like your worries are clearly there.
There's a lot of fruit in there.
It's just all too wet again.
Yeah. It looks wet and it looks kind of doughy.
We don't need to taste that, do we? Good days, bad days.
Yeah, we do, yeah. Again, work in progress. Yeah.
ANNA: Your presentation is fantastic! Thank you.
PAUL: Stunning. It's just so attractive.
Did you take your eye off it?
The oven temperature was up so high cos I was having issues with it.
I quite like the look of it. Thanks.
I like that. I like the glaze on it.
It could have done with a little more proving.
The base is a little bit under...
Let's have a taste.
Mm.
It's got a good flavour. I like the flavours, yeah.
That's beautiful, isn't it? Gorgeous. Oh, my God.
That's a crunch!
That's a crunch all right. I like that crunchy sound.
That looks really nice.
It's a lovely delicate colouring inside.
Them olives are stunning, aren't they? They're gorgeous.
I like that a lot. That's beautiful. Gorgeous.
There's some butter there too. You recommend that with it?
It really sets off the flavour. It's good.
Unfortunately it's not a competition for making butter. No, no.
Good on you. Homemade butter. Well done.
That signature bread challenge for me was just inspiring,
like a breath of fresh air.
Some of the breads today were just fantastic.
I thought Stephen's Belfast stout bread was enchanting.
He rooted it in his local area
and it really was a lovely example of a very traditional Northern Ireland loaf,
but with a modern spin.
His mango in his plaited yeast bread,
OK, it wasn't perfect, but the flavour there was amazing.
My signature bread challenge did not go well at all.
I have to do well tomorrow and get right up to the top
or I might be saying goodbye.
The technical challenge is crucial. If I don't do well in that,
it'll probably be the end of the line for me.
This week the Great Irish Bake Off is all about bread.
With an elimination on the horizon,
those who impressed the judges yesterday need to be consistent.
Those who didn't need to make amends in this technical challenge.
I've a feeling it's going to be yeast, which can be tricky. It can be so temperamental.
I have a feeling it might be something we have to make a lot of
and have more of a uniform shape. I don't know.
I'm hopeful about the bread technical challenge.
My signature breads, they seemed to like them,
so I'm hoping that I don't make a mess of the technical challenge.
Bakers, it's time once again for the technical challenge.
This time you're taking on the very best
because we want you to make Paul Kelly's favourite party bread.
So absolutely no pressure there.
Paul, tell us about this bread.
This bread is a favourite of mine.
It's a fun bread and is great for family get-togethers,
and if you have a few friends around. It's great to prepare.
But of course there is a technical side to this.
You have to be very, very careful working with the yeast,
also weighing up your ingredients,
and most importantly, it's important that the buns are all the same size.
ANNA: Do you all get that?
This challenge is going to be judged blind,
so I'm going to ask Paul and Biddy to leave the tent.
Bakers, you have two hours and 15 minutes to prove yourselves.
On your marks,
get set,
bake!
As with all technical challenges,
the bakers each have exactly the same set of ingredients
and the same basic recipe,
but no idea what their final bake should look like.
Sesame seeds. Poppy seeds.
Sunflower seeds... Linseed.
With seven different toppings and the dreaded live yeast to work with,
the bakers will need to be on top of their game.
Bread isn't my thing and yeast never seems to like me.
We'll see. It's all in the taste. Hopefully.
It is a yeast bread,
so if they haven't practised making yeast bread,
they're going to find that difficult.
I think if it's a double elimination this week,
that will be because they didn't get to grips with the yeast.
Biddy, this is such a fun bread. Just looking at it puts a smile on both our faces!
It's absolutely beautiful.
It's even more fun they're using fresh yeast for the first time,
and that will be challenging for a lot of them.
I can understand why, because fresh yeast is living.
When you're working with fresh yeast,
it's so important to treat it with the respect it deserves.
For me, it's important that they have a design in mind
when they start putting on the seeds,
that they can see what it's going to look like
when they've finished all of it.
Let's break into this bread.
Wow. Great.
And it came apart so easily.
It's a tear and share.
That's just tearing beautifully. Look.
Nicely proved, nicely cooked.
That's delicious.
It's a gorgeous flavour.
This is going to really test the bakers.
There's so many sides to this - seasoning, proving,
getting all the sizes of the buns right,
and then making sure you dip properly
so your seeds and your garnish toppings stay in one place.
This is gonna be a tough one.
ANNA: Step one is a simple dough,
created by rubbing flour and butter together,
then adding salt and sugar.
I feel fine about yeast, I work with it quite a lot.
So you don't go into these ever nervous?
I do. I just put on a really, really good poker face.
Show me your poker face.
I like it.
The next step is mixing the yeast with egg and like-warm water.
Any mistakes at this stage could have serious consequences
when they face the judges.
PAUL: If your liquids are too hot or too cold,
if you add salt directly onto yeast, or sugar,
it's gonna affect the outcome of the bread.
They have to be so careful that they don't kill the yeast early on
in the preparation, because ultimately the bread won't rise.
Tom. I thought that was chicken!
But it's yeast!
Have a taste of it, see if it tastes like chicken!
I thought it was chicken or tuna when I looked at it!
I've never worked with fresh yeast. I didn't really know what I was doing.
I've only ever used the dried yeast,
so I just mixed it and hopefully I did it the right way.
Once a well is created in the flour,
it's then time to carefully add the yeast mixture
with the eggs and water, being careful not to spill.
I noticed that you were doing the recipe in a bowl.
I know. My tart went everywhere that time.
I've decided to leave the floor alone, I'll do it in a bowl!
OK.
Kneading is another process they need to get absolutely right.
It builds the gluten levels to create a dough
that's elasticated and springy to touch.
Otherwise the bread could be heavy and dense.
Mine isn't ready yet either!
Ooh!
OK, I think I'll stop doing that!
Have you done much kneading? Yeah, I like it
except when I'm being timed!
Yes. I tried baking this.
It was an unmitigated disaster.
Encouraging!
Can you tell me any pitfalls there that I could avoid?
Inside information!
The whole recipe was one big pitfall! OK.
How are you feeling after the last round? A bit down?
Erm, you despair when you make mistakes you don't normally make.
I guess it just means coming into this, there's not much room for error.
When the dough has the right consistency, it's then covered
and left to prove.
PAUL: Proving activates the yeast through heat
and the bread starts to rise and rise and rise.
That's developing the flavour and getting the nice little bubbles of air
and making it nice and light.
ANNA: The dough can be left in a warming drawer
or simply out on the counter.
Is it growing enough? It's growing enough, yeah.
What do you think it needs to look like at the end?
Like a snowball, I think, with the seeds on, and that's it.
One small ball... No, 19! Good. I won't bring your attention to that!
I've put the bowl over the bread because I think it's a bit breezy
and it just protects it, like a greenhouse.
It might be completely the wrong thing to do.
It's rising. I'm so happy!
It's ridiculous.
People are dying all over the world and I'm delighted with my yeast.
It's wrong.
It's looking good. She says, never having made this bread before!
It's just puffing up a little bit more.
I'll give it a few more minutes and we'll see.
Once the dough has doubled in size,
it must be divided into 19 equal balls.
If it's going to look good,
then they must weigh each dough ball carefully.
Otherwise they'll be all different sizes
and the presentation won't be perfect.
Oh, no. I've done this wrong.
Not every baker is a mathematician.
This is horrendous. I've never been able to long divide.
(MUTTERS)
855.
So, 45, 46 grams.
Go with it. I... I've just got to try and judge.
Bakers have to understand that weighing up is extremely important.
Mine was 856. I'm just doing 45 each.
This is a nightmare.
It's extremely satisfying cutting off as piece
and it weighs exactly what I want it to weigh. I love that.
It hasn't happened yet!
This might be the one now.
Does this weigh 44g?
No, 49g.
Some of my balls are larger than they should be.
But it's not the size that matters,
it's what's inside them and how they taste.
(CHUCKLES)
Oh, God. I'm being hysterical.
Dividing up the dough balls isn't working out too good, as you can see.
I just rolled out my dough into a sausage
and then divided it up as equally as I could.
I think weighing them doesn't necessarily give you the same size
because they're going to rise anyway.
So I'm just going to get them looking about right.
Once they have all 19 dough balls,
the next step is adding the seven different toppings.
Talk me through the toppings.
We've got flour, sunflower seeds, caraway, poppy,
linseed, sesame and polenta.
To ensure that the topping sticks,
each dough ball is moistened and dipped.
There's 19 dough balls but seven toppings.
So you can do two of each. But after that... Go wild.
You can just do what you want.
They really do need a bit of flair in choosing the various toppings,
so that it doesn't look all over the place,
that there's some rhyme or reason to it.
I'm going to do two of each, giving me five left over.
Then I'm going to do a mixture, I think.
I love to see nice tidy finish on this bread loaf,
it's very important for me to have that.
OK. And double dip.
(SIGHS)
where this week's challenge is bread.
Soon the bakers will face the latest elimination.
But first they have to produce their version of Paul's tear-and-share party bread
for the technical challenge.
PAUL: It's working with yeast, which scares a lot people, and rightly so.
A lot of things can go wrong if you don't treat it in the right way.
I have no idea how to prepare this yeast.
So I've followed the recipe.
That's all I can do.
Should that be in your bread?
No, cos I weighed it out exactly, as Paul was asking.
But you have put egg into the... I have put the egg in.
The egg is present and accounted for. OK.
Now an essential stage in the bake.
The bread needs to be proved for a second time.
They look fabulous. Thank you.
They're not proved as much as I want, I've just had to...
Only 25 minutes to go. I'll pop them in now
and see how they go.
I just don't want them underproved.
This is the corner of underbaking!
We've set up a support group. Underbakers Anonymous.
Is your tart sloppy? Is your bread doughy?
My name is Bridget and I have a soggy tea loaf!
Yours are in. No, they're not.
You need to put yours in the oven!
Next the bread must be baked in the oven at 200 degrees.
20 minutes to bake and there's 22 minutes left.
I'm going to turn up the heat... So you're moving away from the recipe.
Just from prior experience of undercooking things. OK.
It's one of the 12 steps... Yeah.
Yours are so perfect. Jesus.
Look at the state of mine.
You're always saying that and you were Star of the Week.
Once. Exactly! (LAUGHS)
Five minutes to go.
Four of them I mixed the toppings...
I mixed it on one, just in the middle.
I do think they're actually rising. I'd like them to go...
Bakers, time is up. Stop baking.
Didn't drop it! Yes!
I feel tired after that challenge. Mentally drained.
It's a lot harder than I thought.
Nobody looks like they had a total disaster of a technical bake.
But you never know with bread until you open it up and see.
Time was a little bit tighter than I had expected,
so my second proof might not have been long enough.
But it looked fine. With bread, it's all about what lurks beneath.
With no idea which baker has made which bread,
time for Biddy and Paul to taste and judge the party breads.
Hello, bakers.
We are here to judge party bread.
I'm not going to judge it. I tried it at the weekend
and made an absolute hames of it.
So I think these all look absolutely fantastic.
Paul, initial impressions?
I'm very impressed so far.
Now we're going to go nice and close
and have a look at the close-up and the nitty-gritty.
ANNA: Shall we start here?
I like that. Good big loaf too.
It is, yeah. Nicely proved.
There's a few seeds down the side. You like the seeds to be on top.
So maybe a little bit overproved in some cases, but a nice full loaf.
Shall we break in? Look at that.
It looks fluffy and light. It's tearing beautifully.
That's very nice. A very good start.
Very good start. One to live up to, perhaps.
Sets a high standard, doesn't it?
It's a bit low. It is, yeah.
Doesn't really work.
Still, a nice proof.
A little bit more dense, maybe.
It's a bit heavier. A wee bit doughy.
A nice attempt, but some of the buns are a little bit smaller.
Well, there's a lot going on here, isn't there?
A lot of seeds down the side. Yeah.
The sizes are pretty uneven too. Look at that one and that one.
That's beautiful. It's well-risen. Very nice, yeah.
Just maybe the next time when you're separating your toppings,
you give a bit of space.
Some of them are quite the same, very close together.
Look how even that is. Somebody's really weighed up here.
The finishing is better on this one.
And the seeds are at the top of this, can you see?
Nicely proved and nicely cooked.
That's nice. Nicely seasoned as well.
Great flavour there.
The design of this one is a wee bit odd, isn't it?
Yeah, there's a bit of a mix and match here.
Some poppy seeds mixed in with the sesame seeds.
Both? Mixed together, yeah.
That's an interesting thought.
It's quite low, this. But it's wider.
In this particular bread, it's nice to keep all the toppings completely separate.
Some of this is uneven. This one got squashed.
See? But a good attempt, though.
This looks nice and full, doesn't it? It looks impressive.
It looks good. Beautiful.
With the baking of the bread, they're doing very well.
That's nice, yeah.
That's very nice. Just try and keep all the toppings separate.
Some are a bit overproved, so it's pushed it out to the side.
This is a bit flat and very uneven in size.
Look at this.
But again it's nice. It's not doughy. It's a nice crumb as well.
I like that, yeah.
It's kind of messy here, the decoration. You think so?
This looks very rounded, doesn't it?
Interesting shape. How did you do that?
Can I have a go at tearing? Yeah, go on.
Didn't I do it well? Well done.
That's actually a nice crumb as well.
A little bit dense. That's all. Maybe a little bit rushed as well.
Maybe give it longer to prove.
This one looks a little bit scarce.
There's not that many with full toppings on.
Look at them all here. It looks like a full loaf.
I think that's put there on purpose. Oh, decorative!
Maybe a garnish, yeah?
That's a nice colour. Nice colour. Nicely cooked.
That's nice, yeah. That's lovely.
Nicely proved as well.
This is nearly nicely separated, but it isn't when you look closely.
It looks like a nice loaf.
It's torn beautifully.
That's beautiful, yeah.
That's lovely.
That's gorgeous.
I think it's wonderful.. This was quite a technically difficult challenge,
and they really have risen to it.
Working with yeast puts fear in all of us.
So well done to everybody on this challenge.
Paul and Buddy must now rank each bread from tenth place all the way to first.
Who baked this one?
The texture is just a wee bit dense
and some of the toppings are sparse in the middle.
And some of the little balls came out different sizes.
It was a close-run thing and it was still a good bread,
but this has come in tenth place.
Who baked this one?
Didn't rise perhaps as well as it might have done.
The toppings were a little bit uneven.
Just not as artistic as some of the rest of them.
You are in ninth place. OK.
Whose is this?
ANNA: With Barbara taking eighth place, Jarek is seventh,
Tom's number six
and number five for Bridget.
Fourth for Stephen and Oonagh is third.
Whose is this one? And this one?
It came so close. There was so much more in this bread.
There was flavour, there was the weighing-up of the buns,
there was a nice even bake,
the colour of the final bake, and the seeds on top - very important.
And with that,
this is our number one.
ANNA: Maryanne won the technical challenge,
but who has impressed the most over the last two days?
And who will be next to leave the Great Irish Bake Off.
We have to be so critical now.
This one in particular, because they were all good.
What sound like picky points are actually what separates them out
into the different placings.
I'd like to think that I'm safe, because I came in the top half.
Star Baker would be great, but I don't think it's going to happen.
If today's technical bake was so bad,
they might not look past that.
I just hope today I don't go home.
I came kind of middle.
So I don't know. I'm confused.
There's light at the end of a very long tunnel.
Well done, bakers.
You've all indeed proved that you can put some bread on table.
We have found our Star Baker this week,
someone who has shown great flair and great skill.
Our Star Baker this week is...
...Stephen.
Now, some of you have heard that there may be a double elimination.
The day will come when there is a double elimination,
but it's not today.
A little bit of light relief!
But unfortunately one of you has to leave us.
So, the person who is leaving the Great Irish Bake Off is...
...Tom.
I'm pretty sad to go and very disappointed as well,
but it's like a happy sad.
I'm happy I got this far, but I'm most sad about leaving the guys,
all the other contestants.
I'm probably sadder that Tom went than if I'd gone myself.
It seems quite strange to continue on without him there.
Even if I hadn't gone, I think I would have burst out crying anyway.
So right now I'm trying not to cry again, on my own.
I'm so, so happy to get Star Baker.
I'm actually genuinely surprised that I did actually get it.
PAUL: Stephen has really stepped up to the mark now.
His plaited yeast bread yesterday, he was the only baker to try anything with yeast yesterday.
He's been very ambitious and creative.
The competition has gone to another level.
They really have improved extraordinarily over the weeks.
They're developing skills they probably never dreamt they had a few weeks ago.
Don't be making us cry!
I've enjoyed every second of this, every moment. It's been brilliant.
And I will bake wheaten breads until I perfect it,
and I'll post it to Paul and Biddy and say, 'Now, there you go!'
Next week on the Great Irish Bake Off...
desserts.
Pressure. Darn it.
I actually don't like it. Now here's the horrible bit.
Now my roulade has cracked as well. Fun times.
Don't. I will cry. Please don't come over.