Prue, proofs and #PizzaGate: Bread week comes to "Bake Off"

It’s Bread Week in the Tent, and we open on co-presenters Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding trading some quick-fire back-and-forth questions, which is really mostly so that Alison can ask Noel, “Do you still find a soggy bottom funny?” “Of course I do. It wouldn’t be “Bake Off” with a little baking-themed innuendo, this week coming in the form of a conversation between baker Matty and Paul Hollywood. Noel interrupts the bakers’ scoring and oven-watching to announce that they only have a few more moments until “Paul Hollywood comes in with his mahogany fists and smashes dreams.” When Paul, who is known within the tent as The King of Bread, does arrive, he’s pretty metered in terms of his praise and his criticism. Abbi’s bland cottage loaf, which she has begun to refer to as “Flat Janice” because of how misformed it became during the baking process, is probably this week’s biggest disappointment. We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism Moving into this week’s technical challenge — a “mystery shrouded in gingham,” as Alison put it — the bakers are instructed to make eight identical Devonshire splits: soft, light and rich dough buns that are split and then filled with homemade strawberry jam and whipped cream.