The Great Holiday Baking Show

This week, the bakers return to the tent to test their skills at making decadent and delicious cookies and breads.

It's the semi-finals, and the bakers' stress levels are at an all-time high when they face three French pastry challenges and compete for a chance to make it to the final round. This week's Signature Challenge is all about precision as the bakers must make two-dozen Petit Four glacé-style mini cakes. The cakes may be small, but that just makes them that much harder to perfect. Next up, the Technical challenge, which throws the bakers for a loop when Johnny surprises them with a donut – the French Cruller. The bakers won't just need to master their dough; they'll also need to master the deep fryer. Then, in the Showstopper, it's Mille-Feuille, also known as the Napoleon. Layers of perfectly flakey puff pastry sandwiched with unique fillings. But getting it perfect in the short time frame will be difficult for all and the downfall for one.

A celebration of chocolate. As one of Johnny Iuzzini's passions and specialties, the pressure is on to impress both Mary and Johnny. For their very first Signature Bake, the bakers are tasked with creating a dozen molten lava cakes where mere minutes in the oven can result in a cake whose center flows like hot magna or has no ooey-gooeyness at all. Next is the Technical Challenge, where Johnny gives the bakers one of the most difficult challenges to date, tasking them to create a perfect assortment of delicious and decadent truffles. Finally, for their Showstopper Challenge, it's a naked, layered mousse cake full of soft, silky layers of flavorful mousse, built upon a baked foundation and topped with elaborate chocolate decorations. In the end, not everyone's desserts will rise to the occasion, and another baker will be eliminated from the competition.
 With only three bakers continuing on to the semifinals, the slightest difference will be the factor in who stays and who goes home.

Beginning with the Signature Challenge set by Mary and Johnny, the bakers create a dozen perfectly sized dinner rolls incorporating unique flavors and spices, including those traditional to Portugal and India. Next up, The Technical Challenge, where the judges once again surprise the bakers – this time it's Johnny's Christmas Stollen, a traditional German Christmas fruit and nut bread. Finally, for their Showstopper Challenge, the competitors must create elaborate sculptures with bread. In the end, Mary and Johnny will decide which bakers create a masterpiece and which sculptors crack under the pressure.

For their very first Signature Bake, the bakers are tasked with making bundt cakes inspired by winter flavors. Next up, a Technical Challenge of Mary Berry's recipe for apple almond cake. And lastly, The Showstopper Bake has these bakers constructing fantastical multi-tiered holiday celebration cakes.

This week’s Signature Bake finds the bakers making breakfast pastries, perfect for Christmas morning. The Technical Bake features one of judge Mary Berry’s most festive and fruity recipes. And the Showstopper finds the bakers building elaborate centerpieces from cream puffs and other puffed pastry pieces. The stakes are high in this episode as it will decide the three bakers who make it to the final. Some bakers will impress while others fold under pressure.

This week’s challenge is all about Christmas cookies. Armed with only their skills, their imaginations and drive to win, these bakers compete in three challenges: Signature Bake, showcasing their family recipes as they create two sets of cookies that are both delicious and unique; Technical Bake, a surprise recipe where they must demonstrate precision and technique; and finally, The Showstopper Bake, where the bakers are asked to create elaborate flavorful gingerbread houses.