American Baking Competition 2013 Recap: Episode 4 – Bread Week

The amateur bakers are back for another episode of The American Baking Competition 2013 and tonight will be all about Bread Week on The American Baking Competition Season 1 on CBS. Judge Paul Hollywood says that breads are his speciality, so these amateur bakers will have some extra pressure in order to impress him. I’m sure The American Baking Competition host Jeff Foxworthy will be happy to eat whatever they bake though! Let’s get to Bread Week during our American Baking Competition 2013 Recap and find out who was eliminated on The American Baking Competition 2013 tonight!

The amateur bakers are in the kitchen and it is Bread Week. For the Signature Bake, they have three hours to make a free-forming bread that is hand-shaped and it must be a yeast bread. Darlene is going to make a twist and turn pesto bread, which she makes for her kids all the time. Kolette is making her version of German Pumpernickel and Paul is concerned about being able to make that in three hours.

James is making a Prosciutto, Capicola and Pepperoni Loaf and he said he has stuffed the bread with a pig, but is that too much. The bakers are now proofing, which is supposed to make the bread double in size. Francine is using Red Hots as a flavor on her bread! Elaine is making Old Fashioned Potato Loaf and she has won Star Baker two weeks in a row, so will she continue her winning streak tonight?

Brian tells the judges that he has some good bakes and he wants the Star Baker this week and he just had to get that off his chest. Paul tells him humility is important in baking and do his winning through his baking! The time is running out and Brian is obsessing with being the Star Baker thing and I am over him. Anyone else?

Time for the judges to taste the bread on American Baking Competition 2013! Francine is first and Marcela Valladolid was worried about the combination, but it is good. For Elaine, Paul said he loves it and Marcela said it is dense and moist. For James, Paul said it is lovely and Marcela said the texture is very nice. For Effie, her bread is not fully cooked. For Darlene, Paul said he loves the shape a lot and it is lovely. For Brian, Marcela said she was expecting it to be more powerful, but it bland. For Kolette, Paul said it is underbaked.

Now we have the Technical Bake on The American Baking Competition on CBS, which the bakers are given the ingredients and part of a recipe, but not the full recipe. They will be making eight soft pretzels tonight! I want some of them! The pretzels have to be looped as well.

None of the amateur bakers seem to know how the dough should feel, but they are all proofing it and waiting! Effie’s over-proofed her dough, so it is poofing out. The dough is out and now they must figure out how to twist them! Francine learned when she was 16 years old from the Amish, so she is using that old knowledge now!

They are now boiling the pretzels and James’ pretzels are falling apart and Kolette is struggling too. Effie is not happy and her dough did not turn out. The time runs out and the judges come back to see what they have done tonight on The American Baking Competition 2013.

For Elaine, they said they are thin, but the flavor is pretty nice. For Brian, they said the density is good and has a good crisp and the flavor is okay. For Kolette, the shape is okay and uniform, but too dense. For Francine, they said they are stable and has a nice flavor. For James, they said they were boiled to death, only six pretzels. For Darlene, it is a nice color and closest to the original color. For Effie, they are poor and light in color.

Here are the rankings, from worst to best: James, Effie, Kolette, Elaine, Brian, Francine and the winner is Darlene! She is overwhelmed and she won the technical bake with Paul’s recipe!

No time off, as the amateur bakers are going right into the Showstopper on The American Baking Competition 2013. For the Showstopper, the bakers will be making 24 croissants. They will make one plain and one filled. They are given two hours to work today and then they will conclude them the next day.

James has sticky, wet dough still and he is struggling with confidence. Brian is confident, of course. After beating sticks of butter and flipping and rolling and flipping and rolling, the time runs out and the dough is in the fridge. They will finish up the next day!

The next day arrives on American Baking Competition 2013 and the bakers are back to work on finishing their croissants in three hours. Elaine is the only one who froze her dough, so she feels she is way behind the schedule now. Paul tells her it should have been in the fridge, so she is worried now. No Star Baker for Elaine tonight?

Effie is using pears for her filling, but Paul tells her to be careful the pear juice doesn’t sit on the bottom. Francine is showing off her croissant guns after rolling and rolling! Marcela said they must cut them all the same size, otherwise they will bake at different times and that is not good. Kolette used twice as amount of butter to flour, so Paul Hollywood is worried, but Kolette said she likes the buttery.

The croissants are in the oven and five minutes left! How hard would it be to just sit there and watch your stuff bake? Elaine is not done, but she has to go with them. Her last pan is in the oven cooking as time runs out, so she is screwed and no Star Baker tonight!

The American Baking Competition judges 2013 will now judge the croissants and Elaine is first. Paul said the plain are great, but the filled are raw. For Francine, they said the filling is delicious, but she has a more bread consistency. For Kolette, they said presentation is killing her and she has too much butter. For Brian, they said the flavors are great and well done. For Darlene, they loved the presentation and she has baked them okay and it has a lovely flavor. For James, they said that is what a croissant should taste like, but the chocolate is too bitter. For Effie, the pears made it soggy, but the flavor is really nice.

The judges discuss all the bakes and time to determine who wins and who goes home. Back in front of the amateur bakers and this week’s Star Baker is Darlene! Brian misses out again and that brings a smile to my face! The baker going home tonight on The American Baking Competition 2013 is Kolette. It was bound to happen, but she made friends and she misses her cats!

What do you think of the judges’ choices tonight on American Baking Competition 2013?

Join us next week on Reality Rewind for our American Baking Competition 2013 Recap! Let’s watch together and see who went home on American Baking Competition Season 1! Subscribe to our Email and RSS or like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all our latest updates.