Bake Off’s Paul Hollywood solves Christmas baking dilemmas

It’s the weekend before Christmas, time to sing a festive song, or try your hand at baking, which will likely go wrong.

But to avoid disaster, and whip up something good, listen to the wisdom of Paul Hollywood.

In a video posted to the official The Great British Bake Off Twitter/X account, the handshake aficionado read some Christmas baking dilemmas and tried to dish out some sage advice.

Related: The Great British Bake Off winner announces engagement to other half

For the pastry for mince pies, Paul advises “less folding. You just want to bring it together. Couple of folds, done”.

He added: “Chill it down before you roll it out.”

For the perfect Yule Log, Paul said: “The secret with a Swiss roll sponge is, when you bring it out, put it on some paper with a little bit of icing sugar and roll it up straight away. And then leave it to cool, while it’s rolled up.”

mark bourdillon – Channel 4

It’s just one day until the first of Channel 4’s two festive Bake Off specials, with 10 contestants from previous series coming back for another go in the tent.

The Christmas Eve special features George (series 12), Sophie (series 8), Dan (series 9), Amelia (series 10), Linda (series 11), and Carole (series 13).

The New Year’s Day special line-up consists of Mark (series 11), Maxy (series 13), Maggie and Jürgen (both series 12).

mark bourdillon – Channel 4

Meanwhile, Channel 4 is airing special episodes of The Great Pottery Throw Down and The Piano on Christmas Day.

The list of this year’s most-watched shows were recently revealed, with Bake Off taking one of the spots in the top five. It’ll be interesting to see how that top 10 list changes by the end of the year with all the festive specials on the way.

The Great Christmas Bake Off airs on December 24 at 8.15pm on Channel 4, while The Great New Year’s Bake Off airs on January 1 at 7.40pm. Previous series and specials are available to stream now on Channel 4 website and app.

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