Great British Baking - Week Three

It's bread week on Great British Bake Off, which is when I always say things get real on the show. In the past, the person who has won this week has usually gone pretty far (winning a lot of the time as well!). It seems like the people who know how to cook bread properly are just better all-around bakers!

The challenges for this week were tough- first up the bakers had to make a focaccia (most of which looked amazing and delicious - I'm especially intrigued by Crystelle's roasted grape and feta! She's becoming one of my favorites for her unique flavors). Then was the technical, which was cheese and onion ciabatta breadsticks, and finally the Showstopping bread sculpture. It always blows my mind the amazing things the bakers can create out of bread!

For the technical, I was excited to try out these breadsticks! I love olive and cheese, so these just sounded delicious from the start. To begin the recipe, I made the dough (and had to mix it by hand since I don't have a stand mixer). Once everything came together I added in all of the toppings and let it rise. It was a very wet dough, and it felt weird to add in all of the ingredients before baking! I don't usually make bread with things added, so it felt wrong.

After letting the bread double in size, I poured it out onto a semolina-covered board and cut it into equal sized pieces, stretching out to about 30 cm. They sat again for a bit before being baked and served along with tzatziki dip. 

These turned out delicious! The flavors were all great together and even without the dip they were great. But- the dip definitely took them up a ton of notches and I couldn't stop eating them!

The Good

• The flavor and all the ingredients were great!
• The consistency was spot on- crispy on the outside and super soft and light on the inside.
• The dip was fantastic and balanced the rich flavors of the breadstick really well
• Most of them were cooked well (some were a bit overcooked on the bottom)

The "Needs Improvement"

• Consistency- always my issue! Some were thick and some were super thin and overcooked
• I didn't have enough olives and didn't use the correct kind (I just used some leftovers in my fridge) so they didn't have enough of that flavor