This Week’s ‘Great British Baking Show’ Was a Literal Bloodbath

In this season of The Great British Baking Show, one contestant has won over half of the technical challenges, proving—no pun intended—that he’s the one to beat. With that track record heading into this week’s challenge in Pastry Week, all eyes were on Dan as the bakers were asked to make dauphinoise pithiviers. The pressure was on. Blood was shed—literally.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

What is a dauphinoise pithivier, you ask? Pithiviers are round, flaky pies made with puff pastry. A dish from southeastern France, the dauphinoise is a filling consisting of potatoes soaked in cream. Judge Paul Hollywood has kindly posted his recipe online, in case you wanted to follow along with the bakers this week.

Around halfway through the bake, the contestants had to grate butter onto their dough. While Dan was whipping through the challenge, in the middle of grating his butter, he accidentally sliced his knuckles open. Ouch! A few drops of blood oozed onto his dough, rendering it inedible. Right as the hosts called the halfway point, Dan had to restart his entire bake.

All of the bakers had spent the first half of the bake whining about how finicky puff pastry is. Now, Dan would have to deal with it twice. Making matters worse, the baker had to compete with gloved, injured hands the second time around. So much for his reign on the technical challenges.

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Without a single beat, though, Dan recreated his bake and delivered a perfect dauphinoise pithivier to the judging table. (Not that I know what a perfect dauphinoise pithivier would look like; I’m just guessing here.) Dan received great marks for his masterful recreation of the dish from Paul.

Ultimately, Dan took first place in the technical. If Dan can complete these challenges better than the other bakers with just half the time they had, he’s really the one to beat.

Dan went on to create another brilliant bake in the showstopper challenge, but it wasn’t grand enough to secure him the overall win for the week. Star baker instead went to Cristy, who earned a Paul Hollywood handshake earlier on in the day for her creamy mushroom and leek picnic pies.

Since no one was eliminated in last week’s episode, the chopping block came down on two players this week: Rowan and Nicky were sent home by the end of the three challenges. And if no one can measure up to Dan in the technical, everyone else is in danger, too.

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