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The Great British Baking Show Season 3 Episodes
Season 3 Episode Guide
16 Episodes 2012 - 2013
Episode 1
Cakes
59 mins
The first episode is all about cake, and the pressure is on from the very first challenge. The bakers tackle an upside-down cake for their signature bake. The feared technical challenge sees the bakers tackle Paul's recipe for rum babas, a hybrid of cake and enriched dough. It is an unusual and and unfamiliar recipe that baffles some of the bakers. And to keep hold of their place in the bake off tent, the bakers attempt to produce a showstopping cake that reveals a hidden design when it is sliced into. Who will impress the judges and become star baker and who will be the first to leave The Great British Bake Off?
Episode 2
Breads
59 mins
From the off the atmosphere in the Bake Off tent is charged as eleven bakers attempt to make flatbread. Tempting Paul and Mary with two varieties, the bakers are under pressure to produce 12 perfect flatbreads each. The feared technical challenge has the bakers in a twist as they attempt Paul's recipe for the notoriously difficult eight-strand plaited loaf. Remaining in the competition rests on pulling out all the stops in the showstopper challenge. Attempting a technique new to Bake Off, the bakers endeavor to make bagels. Boiled before they are baked, the eleven hopefuls have to produce 12 sweet and 12 savory bagels. But who will impress and be named Star Baker and who will fail to make the grade and leave the Bake Off tent?
Episode 3
Tarts
59 mins
Things are heating up in the Bake Off tent as the remaining ten bakers do their best to wow Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry with some unusual flavor combinations for their tartes tatin. Baking know-how is the all important ingredient for coming through the technical challenge unscathed. Mary's treacle tart seems simple enough, but its lattice top proves to be the undoing of some of the bakers. So the pressure is on - a showstopping tart is no easy task when baked under the gaze of Paul and Mary, but it is the bakers' best chance to achieve the accolade of Star Baker, and more importantly to avoid going home.
Episode 4
Desserts
59 mins
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?
Episode 5
Pies
59 mins
The bakers turn their attention to pies. For their first task, they must master a perfect Wellington. When they have recovered, it is straight into a fiendishly difficult technical challenge - hand-raised pies. None of the bakers have used a pastry dolly before and it proves the downfall of many. With several bakers in the danger zone, everything rests on the showstopper challenge - American pies. Who will be this week's star-spangled baker and who will be leaving the bake-off?
Episode 6
Puddings
58 mins
The bakers go all out to impress Mary and Paul with two types of delicious sponge puddings. The technical challenge sees them face a Queen of Pudding, a recipe direct from the archives of the Queen of Bakes, Mary Berry. The final test is a showstopping strudel that stretches the bakers to their limits.
Episode 7
Sweet Dough
59 mins
Facing three sweet dough challenges, the bakers start their campaign by creating their signature regional buns. Paul Hollywood opens his recipe vault for the technical challenge of jam doughnuts and in a final bid to hang on to their place the bakers produce a showstopping enriched dough loaf fit for a glorious celebration. But who will make it through to the quarter-finals and which two bakers will be saying goodbye for good?
Episode 8
Biscuits
59 mins
It is the biscuit based quarter-final, and Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry are taking the challenges to another level. The signature bake sees the bakers' organizational and baking skills put to the test, as they attempt to deliver a huge batch of perfectly baked crispbreads. Then the bakers have to throw away the baking rule book as time and temperature work against them to produce six perfectly tempered chocolate tea cakes for the technical challenge. A place in the semi-final will be hard earned as the final challenge tests not only the quality of the bake, but how well it works as a building material.
Episode 9
Patisserie
56 mins
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...
Episode 10
Final
60 mins
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 scrutinized. 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.
Episode 11
Masterclass 1
54 mins
Over the course of ten weeks of season 3 and thus ten challenges, judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood asked the bakers, for the technical, to make something that they may not only have never made before, but that they may had never even seen or heard of before, they needing to rely on their baking instincts to make the best version of what was asked within these parameters. Mary and Paul show how to make each of the ten technical requests to perfection, this, the first of two such masterclasses, covering the first five technical challenges: rum babas, an eight-strand plaited bread loaf, treacle tart, crème caramels, and hand-raised chicken and apricot pies, its hot water crust pastry breaking most rules of pastry making. As a bonus as one baker during the season used it to embellish his technical bake much to the the judges' chagrin, Paul shows how to make spun sugar to make a spun sugar cage or nest.
Episode 12
Revisited
58 mins
On the eve of the Season 3 Great British Bake Off champion being crowned, the twelve contestants from Season 2, the Class of 2011, go back in front of the camera to discuss their experience on the show. They talk about the impetus to apply to be a contestant, the several times they marched into the tent as a group for filming purposes, the feeling of the first day in the tent and sizing up the competition in more ways than one, their feelings about the others as the competition progressed, the differences between baking at home compared to in the tent, being critiqued by Paul and Mary who are seen as the steely-eyed straightforward critic and the grandmotherly doyen of traditional baking respectively, needing to recover from baking disasters both their own and of others, the general fear they had in doing the technical bakes, the unwitting influence of the other bakers in what they often did especially in the technical, the emotional support provided by Mel and Sue, the impending feeling and the actual announcement that they were the one going home that week and in turn how they felt when a friend left, and lastly how their lives have changed both practically and spiritually a result of being on Bake Off.
Episode 13
Masterclass 2
58 mins
Over the course of ten weeks of season 3 and thus ten challenges, judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood asked the bakers, for the technical, to make something that they may not only have never made before, but that they may had never even seen or heard of before, they needing to rely on their baking instincts to make the best version of what was asked within these parameters. Mary and Paul show how to make each of the ten technical requests to perfection, this, the second of two such masterclasses, covering the second five technical challenges: queen of puddings, jam filled doughnuts, chocolate covered teacakes, fraisier cakes, and fondant fancies.
Episode 14
Masterclass 3
56 mins
While judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood wanted and expected uniformity from the bakers in the ten technical challenges, coming as close to what Mary and/or Paul would have made themselves in issuing the challenges, they wanted the bakers to show their individuality in the ten signature challenges. While Mary and Paul have demonstrated how to make those ten technical challenge items requested in the first two of the masterclasses they have held this season, they, for the third and final masterclass, take a slightly different tact in showing how to make what they themselves would have chosen for five of the signature challenges if they were among the competitors. Paul demonstrates how to make a Camembert and quince jelly filled flatbread, and his spins on the traditional beef Wellington and the Chelsea bun, what he would have chosen for the yeast raised flatbread, savory Wellington and regional sweet buns challenges. Mary demonstrates her spin on a classic apple tarte tatin, and sticky toffee apple and pecan sponge pudding, what she would have chosen for the tarte tatin and sauce accompanied sponge pudding challenges. As a bonus, Mary shows how to line a round cake tin properly with parchment.
Episode 15
Christmas Masterclass
58 mins
Bake Off judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, in reminiscing about their favorite aspects of Christmas, inevitably talk about food, they who demonstrate how to make six Christmas classics to perfection. Mary shows how to make Christmas pudding, Christmas cake, this specific recipe which she has been using as long as Paul has been alive, and Bûche de Noël which she assures is much less complicated than it looks. Paul tackles mince pies, his Frenchified version of panettone, and savory Chelsea buns which utilize leftovers from Christmas dinner, the buns which Paul serves for a Boxing Day brunch. In addition, the tradition of mincemeat at Christmas is discussed, and a presentation of the oldest Christmas pudding and its connection to the British Navy is made.
Episode 16
Easter Masterclass
56 mins
Bake-Off judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, in enjoying the festivities surrounding Easter, demonstrate how to make some bakery items associated with the holiday. Bread fanatic Paul shows how to make the perfect hot cross buns, and a traditional Cypriot loaf called tsoureki, and strays away from the bread for a chocolate custard tart, a Hollywood family favorite. Mary chooses a spicy Easter biscuit, Easter-decorated pavlova with lemon curd, and simnel cake, a fruit cake layered with marzipan, the cake's decorations tied to eleven of the twelve disciples. Mary and Paul provide tips to overcome any perceived difficulties to be able to make these bakery items to perfection. In addition, the history of the decorated Easter egg is presented, including that of the more modern chocolate variety.
