Plot

The search for Britain's best amateur baker, with Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, is now halfway through. The bakers take on biscuits and these bite-sized, delicate delights prove too much for some. As always starting with the signature bake, the remaining eight must impress legendary cookery writer Mary Berry and artisan baker Paul Hollywood with their interpretation of a classic biscuit. Who will crumble when it comes to judging and whose ginger nuts are too hot to handle? Next up, the technical challenge, where following a Mary Berry recipe is not as simple as it would seem for our bakers, who start feeling the pressure when faced with brandy snaps. Finally, the toughest showstopper challenge yet as they attempt to bake and present a macaroon display that must taste as good as it looks. With five hours on the clock, every second counts. This is the last chance to impress the judges before someone's dream of becoming Britain's best amateur baker is over.—BBC

With the bakers recovering from the surprise that two were eliminated last week leaving only eight instead of nine in contention, they have to refocus on this week, which is all about biscuits. They are given free reign to make any batch of twelve of their favorite biscuits for the signature, taking into account what Mary and Paul are looking for in that typical biscuit, especially concerning texture. By their very nature, they are not given that free reign for the technical, which is for each to make twenty-four identical cream filled brandy snaps. And for the showstopper, they have to make one hundred twenty macarons - sixty sandwich pairs - in three different flavors, they judged as much for how they display their finished products as a collective. Interspersed with the bakes, Mel and Sue talk about one type of biscuit that was once used as part of a weight loss diet, and how biscuits were once associated with funerals.—Huggo