The Great Canadian Baking Show - General Discussion

[Kohola3]

Holiday baking - sounds like fun.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes

Signature challenge
Nataliia's apricot chili pie

Technical challenge
pithivier

Showstopper challenge
Jodi's salmon quiche

[Florinaldo]

23 hours ago, rhys said:

These 2 are just too cheesy & seem disinterested in the food for the most part

The hosts for the first two seasons were much better at showing real interest in  the baking and the contestants rather than using the show as a pretext for hamming it up (mostly unfunnily). Too bad they were either uninterested or unavailable for a third season.

That holiday episode line-up is strange; on what basis did they choose those particular bakers? I hope Megan wears a hairnet or somesuch protection this time around; I hate the thought of the judges finding a blue/gray hair in what they have to taste. And I suppose Timothy will still be in a permanent state of insecurity and in need of constant validation.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

14 hours ago, Florinaldo said:

The hosts for the first two seasons were much better at showing real interest in  the baking and the contestants rather than using the show as a pretext for hamming it up (mostly unfunnily). Too bad they were either uninterested or unavailable for a third season.

Dan Levy was working on the final season of Schitt's Creek and Julia Chan was working on her new show Katy Keene.

14 hours ago, Florinaldo said:

I hope Megan wears a hairnet or somesuch protection this time around; I hate the thought of the judges finding a blue/gray hair in what they have to taste.

I don't think finding a blue hair in your food is any worse than finding a black or blonde hair in your food. If Megan should be wearing a hairnet, so should ALL of the contestants because her hair isn't more likely to fall off her head than anyone else with non-blue hair.. Purely anecdotal/non scientific, but in all my years of cooking and baking, no one has ever found my hair in their food (and I often have very long hair). My hair definitely falls out on its own because I find it on the floor, in the shower, etc. but it's never ended up in food when I'm cooking or baking.

[Florinaldo]

I knew Levy was busy making sure that the last season of Schitt's Creek will be a very strong one, but in past years the production schedules of the two shows did not overlap (or not much) so he could host this baking contest.  I did not know about Chen.

For some reason, the idea of finding coloured hair in my food is even more disgusting than natural hair, already a repulsive concept. Plus I find Megan very annoying to begin with, including in the ads she does for Robin Hood.

In an ideal world, contestants and chefs on cooking shows should wear hair nets, but I understand it would look silly and be distracting on TV.

Also unscientific and anecdotal, but I have seen hair turn up in food, not necessarily in my plate though.

I believe Jay walked past me this afternoon in a Gatineau grocery store, a stone's throw from where he lives (Cantley according to his bio on the CBC site). I resisted any urge to go congratulate him for his stint on the show and decided to respect his private life. His size makes him hard to miss; I felt dwarfed.

Edited November 2, 2019 by Florinaldo

[Kohola3]

On 11/1/2019 at 7:20 PM, Florinaldo said:

That holiday episode line-up is strange; on what basis did they choose those particular bakers?

I agree. I was kind of surprised to see who was selected. Why not include winners from the first two seasons?  Just odd.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S3.E8: Finale

Quote

The final three bakers return to the Baking Tent for the final showdown to determine who will win The Great Canadian Baking Show! The judges will have to make a tough choice to determine who will win the ceremonial cake plate.

Original air date: 11/6/19

[Aulty]

Pies with a face? I rewatched a few early GBBO episodes recently (because someone in the GBBO forum reminisced about series 3) where they explicitly mention that the signature challenge is about their favourite, tried and tested, family recipe. By all means, ask them to decorate their bakes, but that challenge was very specific, wasn't it?

A lot of people have mentioned hairnets etc. and I don't really get why. If you sign up to be judge for a TV cooking/baking competition - especially one about amateur (home) bakers - then thats what you get. The chefs on professional Masterchef or GBM don't wear hairnets either.

Anyone remember Mary Berry on the Graham Norton show a few years back, when she brought a cake that her dog had a go at?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

15 minutes ago, Aulty said:

A lot of people have mentioned hairnets etc. and I don't really get why. If you sign up to be judge for a TV cooking/baking competition - especially one about amateur (home) bakers - then thats what you get. The chefs on professional Masterchef or GBM don't wear hairnets either.

Yeah, I don't get the pearl clutching about hairnets (it was mentioned earlier this season on GBBO too and some people had a similar reaction). Millions of people cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for their families every single day without hairnets and manage not to shed pounds of hair straight into the food.

I know hairnets are standard in commercial kitchens but what the bakers on these shows are doing is similar to what we do every day in our homes - we are making food for a handful of people in a non-professional and non-commercial setting.

I don't know what the regulations are in other countries, but in the United States you just have to cover your head which means you can wear a hat instead of a hairnet. Do you know how well a baseball cap or a disposable paper hat keeps your hair from falling into the food? About as well as not wearing a hat at all.

[Florinaldo]

I think we have more tolerance towards sharing bodily by-products with our family members (or people we live with day in and day out) than with strangers in a restaurant for example, or in a cooking competition. Family members get used to sharing their bathrooms with other people, with all this entails with regards to odours for example. but it's less tolerable when it's a communal bathroom in a public place. Which does not mean that finding your father's or mother's hair in your stew is necessarily a pleasant thing.

As for the judges, they are getting paid for what they do, so I agree they know exposure to strangers' hair is a risk that comes with the territory.

Oh dear, I forgot to slip on my pearls before posting this...  😉

Edited November 5, 2019 by Florinaldo

[TVbitch]

Just caught up and think we have got the right final three, although I was rooting for Chris to get his shit together!!  The pained looks on his face as they were judging his techincal were hard to watch. He's like stoic Ruhal!

The cast is diverse and pleasant. I was wondering how recently Natalia came to Canada, and if it was just her or a family move. Did they give her background and I missed it?

As for the hosts, wow are they not in any way amusing or interesting. They seem to think talking over each other is a hilarious gag. I could be harsher ...but this is a Canadian thread.

[Kohola3]

21 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

Did they give her background and I missed it?

She and her husband met online and fell in love.  She moved to Canada to marry him three years ago.  Don't know about her family, though.

[Florinaldo]

23 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

I could be harsher ...but this is a Canadian thread.

Thanks for respecting our national character.   😀

[TVbitch]

19 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

She and her husband met online and fell in love.

Thanks, now I remember! I was not paying close attention while watching an early episode, and remember thinking "did they just say she was like a mail order bride?" ...Sorry Canadians! If I knew the politically correct way to phrase that I totally would, but I don't, and google was no help! In any case, she is a lovely woman.  

19 minutes ago, Florinaldo said:

Thanks for respecting our national character.

Well I am a full 1/2 Canadian, donchano.  

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S3.E8: Finale

Quote

The final three bakers return to the baking tent for the final showdown to determine who will win The Great Canadian Baking Show.

Original air date: 11/6/19

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm so sad that this season is over!

I looooooovee strawberries so I was excited about the signature challenge.

Jodi's chocaholic fraisier with strawberry jelly, chocolate mousse, and vanilla custard sounded delicious. I felt so bad for her when she realized she had forgotten to add the gelatin to her mousse and she had to start over. And I appreciated that she didn't try to make excuses to the judges when they sliced her cake and said that the jelly wasn't set. All she said was, "It should be a lot firmer." Bruno really liked the strawberry jam if he went back for more! Obviously I didn't get to taste any of these cakes but based on the descriptions, Jodi's sounded like the one that honored the strawberry flavor the most (per the instructions). The other two sounded like they had a lot of strong flavors that would overpower the strawberry.

Colin's French toast fraisier with brown butter sponge, maple mousse, praline brittle, and caramel shards looked gorgeous. The maple glaze on top was so pretty and the shards added great drama and height.

Nataliia's matcha madness fraisier with white chocolate mousse, matcha mousse, strawberry mousse, and matcha cake was beautiful. She definitely took a risk making three different mousses so I'm glad it worked out. Her finished cake was gorgeous. It had different colors, great height, and delicate decorations on top.

No one really bombed the technical challenge but I do think Nataliia did better overall than Colin and Jodi.

I'm not a huge fan of pastry sculptures because they often end up looking messy.

Jodi's cookie Eiffel Tower pièce montée with petits fours, strawberry cream puffs, and meringue kisses was simple in theory but it was a lot to execute. I felt so bad for her when one of the big cookies ended up on the floor. But I really give her credit. She didn't freak out or fall apart. She just kept on working even though she was obviously upset. The judges seemed to like everything she made though. The only criticism I recall was that the cake in her petit four was a little dry and she didn't have any kind of glaze on it. Jodi did so well all season so I was sure she would win but she had so many mistakes that this was like Steph kicking ass all season on GBBO and then crashing and burning in the finale.

Colin's CN Tower pièce montée with milk tea cake and lychee buttercream, matcha profiteroles and eclairs, and kransekake cookies looked like a messy phallic sculpture. I agreed with Bruno - the purpose of piping is to hide or decorate and he did neither with that blue frosting on his cake.

Nataliia's Motherland monument pièce montée with pistachio cream puffs, chocolate cake with cognac soaked prunes, honey ginger cookies, and macarons sounded like it wasn't a great idea when she described it, but it ended up looking really great. My issue is that the main assignment was the choux aspect and hers were underbaked. But visually, she had the most impressive show stopper so I knew she would win.

[Kohola3]

Gosh, that series just flew by!  I will miss all of the bakers but not the hostesses.  They got on my last nerve sometimes.  And that horrible hair do with the knob on top make that one (never cared to learn their names) like a 3 year old.

It was a given that Nataliia would win.  Her creations were really imaginative and well done and she used a lot of unusual flavors.  My only question is.....is she a Canadian?  I know that's picky but I don't think she can be a citizen yet and that seems kind of, well, unfair.  It would be like and American being on the GBBO shows.  

[Florinaldo]

Natalliia, as expected. The judges have had a hard-on for her bakes since the first episodes. She won despite the fact that there were several problems with her execution last night, including underbaked choux, the ultimate sacrilege!

I am not a big fan of pièces montées; so often there's a lot of physical work designed to impress visually, but for little gustatory rewards. One exception seems to be Colin's lychee cake base, a difficult flavour to bring through in baking as the judges remarked. However his CN Tower was rather squat and slightly crooked. Points to him though for using a technique learned during the season, i.e. the kransekake.

Jodi's did not look like the Eiffel Tower I know, but more like a conical or pyramid structure in the vein of the Transamerica in San Francisco and others. Granted, the challenge of replicating the Eiffel lattice and silhouette was probably beyond anyone's ability in the time imparted.

As for Nataliia's effort, the best thing I can say about it is that it had all the grace and artistry of a Soviet-era piece of official public sculpture. In a word, ugly.

I thought that the earlier dishes sounded and looked more interesting, like the lip-smacking and scrumptious (to use the judges' own word) fraisier from Colin; he even got a high-five from Bruno for it. Natallias's looked like overkill with all the competing layers. Too bad for Jodi forgetting the gelatin; otherwise she might have come up on top.

Marjolaine, the cake that unites 3 flavours I dislike (hazelnut, almond and praline); at least I could appreciate their technical proficiency in bringing it together.

14 hours ago, TVbitch said:

Sorry Canadians! If I knew the politically correct way to phrase that I totally would

Don't worry about it. We Canadians can be as harsh and bitchy as anyone. We just do it in a way that sweetens the message (it's the maple syrup, of course).

1 hour ago, Kohola3 said:

Gosh, that series just flew by!  I will miss all of the bakers but not the hostesses. 

My sentiments exactly. If there is a fourth season, I hope Dan Levy can come back because the aftermath of Schitt's Creek's final season (sniff!) will be over by then and perhaps Julia Chan's show will be on production hiatus.

Edited November 7, 2019 by Florinaldo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

47 minutes ago, Florinaldo said:

One exception seems to be Colin's lychee cake base

Tiny correction - Colin's cake was Hong Kong milk tea cake with lychee buttercream.

1 hour ago, Kohola3 said:

My only question is.....is she a Canadian?  I know that's picky but I don't think she can be a citizen yet and that seems kind of, well, unfair.  It would be like and American being on the GBBO shows.  

I don't know what the specific requirements are for the Great Canadian Baking Show (or Canadian reality shows in general), but usually being a citizen is not a requirement for shows like this (and this season of the Great Australian Bake Off has an American contestant!).

So You Think You Can Dance has had several contestants who were not American citizens and there were issues with their visas. The contestants must have a work visa in order to perform on the top 10/20 shows (everything after the audition process) so anyone who was here on a student or tourist visa would have to return to their home country and apply for a work visa. In one of the early seasons, a contestant who was supposed to make the top ten had to drop out because he couldn't get a new visa before filming began. Blake McGrath, one of the finalists on SYTYCD S1, was Canadian and he was allowed to compete for the title of America's best dancer (he was expected to win and they actually changed the tagline to "America's favorite dancer" after he lost).

Even if Nataliia is not a Canadian citizen, she is a Canadian resident and that should suffice for the requisite Canadian-ness to compete on the show. There have been immigrants on many different seasons of various bake off shows and I don't recall anyone asking if they were actually citizens of the countries where the show took place. And not all immigrants choose to become citizens of the country where they reside. You can become a permanent resident without becoming a citizen.

On 11/2/2019 at 2:05 PM, Florinaldo said:

I knew Levy was busy making sure that the last season of Schitt's Creek will be a very strong one, but in past years the production schedules of the two shows did not overlap (or not much) so he could host this baking contest. 

The current season of the Great Canadian Baking Show was scheduled to begin filming in May/June and applicants were told that it would be approximately 30 days of shooting. Schitt's Creek finished shooting their final season at the end of June, so there was no way that Dan could have done both this year.

[Florinaldo]

20 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Colin's cake was Hong Kong milk tea cake with lychee buttercream.

Correct, I reversed the two flavourings in my mind while I was typing earlier this morning and I was focused on the lychee beause of the difficulty mentioned. Milk tea is another good ingredient and the base cakes makes for a very interesting and unusual combination of flavours. Unfortunately, I bet it's another recipe that won't be posted by the CBC.

[Aulty]

2 hours ago, Florinaldo said:

I am not a big fan of pièces montées; so often there's a lot of physical work designed to impress visually, but for little gustatory rewards.

Its a bit underwhelming when they stick together flat biscuits like Jodi's Eiffel Tower (not a very fresh subject either). I liked Nataliia's because it had a more sculptured look but overall I am tired of all the challenges that are too focused on decorating.

My favourite final showstopper was in series 1 of GBBO where they were asked to make several bakes for a tea party including sandwiches (baking their own bread), tarts, choux and scones. A proper test of a variety of baking techniques.

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I don't know what the specific requirements are for the Great Canadian Baking Show (or Canadian reality shows in general), but usually being a citizen is not a requirement for shows like this (and this season of the Great Australian Bake Off has an American contestant!).

It was the same for Project Runway - they needed a valid work visa but US citizenship was not required.

Eastern European bakers seem to excel in the Canadian Baking Show - last year's winner Andrei has Polish roots. I certainly can't blame them, Eastern European bakery is so good (I had a Bohemian Kolache earlier, still warm and omg so delicious).

They need to get Dan back as a presenter.  This year's host were so annoying.

[Florinaldo]

5 hours ago, Aulty said:

They need to get Dan back as a presenter.  This year's host were so annoying.

Yes and they should keep the same judges (or perhaps rotate between the two female judges we have seen so far). They all are knowledgeable and provide useful and specific criticism instead of generic comments. Bruno also shows a refreshing openness to new flavours and combinations and really shows his sincere appreciation when pleasantly surprised.

Imagine the reaction if Paul Hollywood was presented with an ube cake, a dessert made with spinach or a milk tea/lychee combination...

Did they show even one promo for next week's Holiday special? I don't recall seeing one; the show is on the on-line schedule.

Edited November 7, 2019 by Florinaldo

[Cheddar]

I'm not surprised at all that Natalia won but I was really rooting for Colin. I also really enjoyed Jodi the entire season. I liked Kyla way more than I expected. I thought she had insightful comments.

[Rammchick]

7 hours ago, Florinaldo said:

Did they show even one promo for next week's Holiday special? I don't recall seeing one; the show is on the on-line schedule.

Yes, as a matter of fact, they did.  I think it was towards the end.

[TVbitch]

Jody had a really bad day. The show made quite a faux pas when in the final shots of Natalia talking about winning, Jody can be seen in the background utterly heaving and sobbing into her husbands arms. It went on for quite a while and I was like, really, they could not have changed the angle on that?! 

I don't like the build-a-scene bakes either. They rarely turn out gorgeous.

I was rooting for Colin too, but Natalia was worthy. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 11/2/2019 at 8:47 PM, Kohola3 said:

I agree. I was kind of surprised to see who was selected. Why not include winners from the first two seasons?  Just odd.

The GBBO Christmas specials don't always include previous winners. I think it's just whoever they can get who is available to film. There have been three sets of GBBO Christmas specials so far and it wasn't until last year that they had one of the previous winners participate in one of the holiday episodes.

The first one featured Mary-Anne (S2 finalist), Janet (S2 - 4th place), James (S3 finalist), Cathryn (S3 - 5th place), Howard (S4 - 7th place), Ali (S4 - 9th place), and Chetna (S5 - 4th place).

The second set had Rob (S2 -7th place), Beca (S4 - 4th place), Paul (S6 - 5th place), Sandy (S6 - 9th place), Selasi (S7 - 4th place), Benjamina (S7 - 5th place), Rav (S7 - 7th place), and Val (S7 - 8th place).

The third set had Kate (S5 - 6th place), Tamal (S6 finalist ), Candice (S7 winner), Jane (S7 finalist), Andrew (S7 finalist), Steven (S8 finalist), Liam (S8 - 5th place), and Flo (S8- 10th place).

[Tabbygirl521]

On 11/7/2019 at 6:33 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Tiny correction - Colin's cake was Hong Kong milk tea cake with lychee buttercream.

I don't know what the specific requirements are for the Great Canadian Baking Show (or Canadian reality shows in general), but usually being a citizen is not a requirement for shows like this (and this season of the Great Australian Bake Off has an American contestant!).

So You Think You Can Dance has had several contestants who were not American citizens and there were issues with their visas. The contestants must have a work visa in order to perform on the top 10/20 shows (everything after the audition process) so anyone who was here on a student or tourist visa would have to return to their home country and apply for a work visa. In one of the early seasons, a contestant who was supposed to make the top ten had to drop out because he couldn't get a new visa before filming began. Blake McGrath, one of the finalists on SYTYCD S1, was Canadian and he was allowed to compete for the title of America's best dancer (he was expected to win and they actually changed the tagline to "America's favorite dancer" after he lost).

Even if Nataliia is not a Canadian citizen, she is a Canadian resident and that should suffice for the requisite Canadian-ness to compete on the show. There have been immigrants on many different seasons of various bake off shows and I don't recall anyone asking if they were actually citizens of the countries where the show took place. And not all immigrants choose to become citizens of the country where they reside. 

America’s Got Talent always has plenty of contestants from other countries, and until recently none of the judges were American, either. It used to crack me up. (Now that I think it it, maybe the judges were naturalized citizens. I’m too lazy to look it up 😃)

[TrixieTrue]

Nataliia was consistently on top the whole season, so it wasn't a huge surprise to see her win. And she did really well with all three of the final challenges. 

On a totally different note, I loved the little pineapple pin Bruno was wearing. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes

Signature challenge - fraisier
Nataliia's matcha fraisier

Technical challenge
marjolaine

Showstopper challenge
Jodi's strawberry cream puffs

[Kohola3]

Recap of the finale.

[littlebennysmom]

On 11/7/2019 at 8:15 AM, Kohola3 said:

Gosh, that series just flew by!  I will miss all of the bakers but not the hostesses.  They got on my last nerve sometimes.  And that horrible hair do with the knob on top make that one (never cared to learn their names) like a 3 year old.

That hair was so hideous and very unflattering.  I couldn't stop expressing disgust every time it was shown.

[Kohola3]

It was kind of bizarre to see the whole holiday tableau when everyone was sweating and wearing shorts and sleeveless tops and complaining about the heat!

Glad for Timothy.  Seems like a sweet young man although I liked them all.

[Florinaldo]

What the hell happened to Timothy? Where has the insecure and needy baker prone to basic mistakes gone to? Could this be his just-slightly-evil twin who switched places with him? 

Joking aside, like Bruno said he probably practiced a lot in the intervening months, as well as matured and gained in assurance; the Timothy we saw first time around would not have been able to pull off those three bakes, especially all the fancy decorations in the third one, including the pulled sugar and his hand-made candy canes.

Good for him! I just hope this does not mean he neglected his studies, or else his future patients might be in jeopardy, but at least they will get sweet treats as a consolation. 😉

They brought back Colin for a little singing but where was the rest of his vocal trio? I am sure they would have liked the exposure as well (unless they have disbanded).

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S3.E9: The Great Canadian Holiday Baking Show

Quote

Four bakers from previous seasons compete in three holiday-themed challenges for the chance to become the first Holiday Star Baker

Original air date: 11/13/19

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I love the holiday bake off shows. Everyone seems so much more relaxed and it's fun to see the bakers we already know!

Timothy's chocolate rosemary alpaca elves and Santa alpaca cookies with kirsch were gorgeous. His piping skills were so amazing - very precise but creative.

Vandana's orange cardamom mandala sugar cookies were pretty but compared to Timothy's, I was like eh, she just used a stamp and then painted each cookie one color.

Megan's spiced mulled apple toffee snow globe Christmas ornament cookies with coconut snow were very ambitious and had a lot of different elements but the overall effect was a bit clumsy.

James' gin and tonic Christmas card sugar cookies were very clean looking, which is such a hilarious contrast with his always messy work station. My only complaint is that they were maybe a little too simple in design.

Ooh challah! I totally cracked up when Timothy described apple butter as "an edgier applesauce" which he then immediately followed with "In fourth place is..."

I really liked when Kyla said that Megan's bread went wrong because the second proof wasn't long enough and that's what caused the bread to stretch because it was still trying to expand and caused the bread to tear apart. That is the specific kind of critique/explanation I love to hear.

It was clear that Timothy's bread was by far the best. Awww, I was so happy that he won after he said that he never won a single technical or star baker on his season.

Cookie villages - eh. building stuff ike

Megan's Albertan ski resort with berry and nut nougat, caramel stones, toasted coconut cookies, and peppermint marshmallow mountain was simplistic in execution.

James' Danish village with a praline Christmas tree, chocolate soil, and lebkuchen and almond cherry nougat mushroom houses was a mess. Even if he'd had time to make the little gnomes and if the mushrooms hadn't collapsed, it still would have looked really clumsy overall.

Vandana's beach village with chili chocolate cookies, pistachio and macademia nut nougat surf boards, pineapple ginger chocolate truffle ice cream cones, and a candy ocean was so cute. I loved the little touches like the cinnamon stick trunks and the rainbow hammock. If she had brought stronger flavors, she would have been a contender to win.

Timothy's toffee bit cookie fort with homemade candy canes, cherry pecan nougat, and maple meringue elves was so impressive. He made so many different elements!

And we got to see Colin sing! His melisma was a bit much for my taste, but it was nice to see that they included him.

10 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

It was kind of bizarre to see the whole holiday tableau when everyone was sweating and wearing shorts and sleeveless tops and complaining about the heat!

Ha, I live in California so it seems normal to me. I grew up in Chicago and I do not miss the snow AT ALL. Give me warm weather and a beach any time, even at Christmas.

[Florinaldo]

I just had a rewatch of some portions of the episode and Timothy's challah did look perfect as far as texture and colouring. Very close to results at the bakery I get mine from (I am not at all patient when it comes to braiding so I just about never make from scratch).

It is amusing that two of the contestants defeated expectations. Timothy did much better than his performance during his season and fully deserved the win. Vandana was billed as the "queen of flavours", but last night she was told repeatedly that her spices were not strong enough, except for the ginger in her concluding ice cream cones.

8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I really liked when Kyla said that Megan's bread went wrong because the second proof wasn't long enough

As I posted before, this is the kind of specific on-point comments we do not always get on other cooking competition shows. Kyla nailed it with her mention of overproofing; I had it happen to me with some yeast breads and the signs were indeed telling. It is one of the difficulties of the technical challenges that the instructions are not always detailed and in this instance did not specify the proofing time, so bakers had to rely on their experience and instinct. The cooking time was also left open, but at least two of them had the good sense to use an instant-read thermometer to check doneness.

I wonder if the bakers have to clean up their stations after a challenge is over or if it is left to the show's crew. I suspect the latter, but if they had to clean up their own mess, perhaps some of them would be more disciplined.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes (for some reason, their website only has one available but I'll add the others as they are posted)

Signature bake - Christmas cookies
 

Technical challenge
braided challah with homemade butter and apple butter

Showstopper challenge - cookie villages
 

[rhys]

Interesting to see Colin singing at the end of the holiday baking episode. I wonder how that came about; did he approach GCBS or vice versa. But good that he got some exposure I suppose for his music.

I'm wondering if Megan's snowy mountain might have tasted a bit like toothpaste. I think you have to be so careful with mint.

[TVbitch]

Just watched, and was so pleased for Timothy! 

I thought I saw a bunch of bakers in the crowd for the season just finished, so perhaps they filmed this shortly after that. 

[NotRedRobyn]

On 9/19/2019 at 4:37 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ha, I've never seen such an enthusiastic reaction to being named star baker. Nataliia was so cute about it.

I didn’t care for her reaction. We have seen so many star bakers honored in every bake off, in every culture. Each accepts it with grace, which is very important considering there are several people afraid they are going home. Even when Richard won his fifth, he smiled graciously. Dancing around in their faces is not gracious. I was surprised she did it again for biscuit week. I want to like her but her “in your face, I’m so awesome” dancing and cheering makes me not like her.

[hula-la]

New hosts for the upcoming season! Not going to lie--I wasn't a fan of last season's hosts. https://www.tv-eh.com/2020/09/15/two-new-hosts-enter-the-tent-for-season-4-of-the-great-canadian-baking-show/

[Kohola3]

So happy to hear it's coming back but that's more than a year away.  I'm not that patient!

[dewelar]

19 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

So happy to hear it's coming back but that's more than a year away.  I'm not that patient!

Winter 2021 almost certainly means January/February, not December.

[Kohola3]

3 hours ago, dewelar said:

Winter 2021 almost certainly means January/February, not December.

Even with Covid?  I have to wonder how/when they could have filmed it unless it was before March 2020.

[dewelar]

3 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

Even with Covid?  I have to wonder how/when they could have filmed it unless it was before March 2020.

Obviously I don't know for sure, but when the media says "winter" this is generally what they mean. If they mean December, they'll say "autumn".

Also, if the show runs ten weeks and they start filming soon, they can have it wrapped by the end of November and have plenty of turnaround time. Alternatively, they could follow the lead of the GBBO and do quarantine filming for six weeks.

[Kohola3]

23 minutes ago, dewelar said:

Alternatively, they could follow the lead of the GBBO and do quarantine filming for six weeks.

I didn't realize that GBBO was still fliming.  Are you in the US?  We don't get it here, just the reruns of past seasons.

[dewelar]

4 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

I didn't realize that GBBO was still fliming.  Are you in the US?  We don't get it here, just the reruns of past seasons.

Yes, I'm in the US, but read about GBBO's impending return on the board here. I checked Wikipedia, and that's where I found out they filmed the whole season in six weeks. If GCBS can do the same, I don't see any reason it can't be on the air by January.

[The Crazed Spruce]

On 9/16/2020 at 3:49 PM, Kohola3 said:

Even with Covid?  I have to wonder how/when they could have filmed it unless it was before March 2020.

It's filmed outdoors, in an open-air tent. With proper testing and social distancing guidelines in place, and a limited crew, it can be pulled off pretty easily.

[Rammchick]

On 9/16/2020 at 3:20 PM, Kohola3 said:

I didn't realize that GBBO was still fliming.  Are you in the US?  We don't get it here, just the reruns of past seasons.

Yep, new episodes are currently airing on Netflix.

[hula-la]

On 9/16/2020 at 3:20 PM, Kohola3 said:

I didn't realize that GBBO was still fliming.  Are you in the US?  We don't get it here, just the reruns of past seasons.

CBC just started airing a new season of GBBO. I don’t know if it’s the same season that’s airing on Netflix in the US, or a previous season that’s new to us. You should hopefully also be able to see it on CBC Gem.