I used to be skeptical about whether bread week could truly tingle my taste buds. I mean, if I had the UK’s top ten amateur bakers at my disposal, I’d want them to produce soufflés and gâteaux instead of humble old loaves. But after last year’s bread sculptures – Tracey Emin’s My Bed recreated as a glutenous form of postmodern art was quite unforgettable – I’m treating bread week this year with all the respect it deserves. And it certainly didn't fail to impress.

The signature challenge, chocolate bread, is far from boring. The bakers seem, for once, uniformly creative with their ideas oozing chocolatey goodness (but then I guess making anything with chocolate sound unappealing is a real feat), and there are some stellar performances in getting these exciting concepts out of the oven as actual, tasty bakes. Andrew substitutes the raisins of the traditional Irish barmbrack for chocolate chips; I feel like this cures all the heartbreak caused by all the instances when you’ve discovered that what you thought was a chocolate chip cookie was in fact raisin and oatmeal. The biggest feat for Andrew this week is proving Paul’s initial doubts about a single prove massively unfounded: the Cantab's unorthodox approach produces a beautiful loaf and Paul admits that it paid off beautifully. Get in there, Andrew.

In another bread-y baking bravado, Tom goes further afield with his Mexican-inspired boost of flavours, combining chilli, chocolate, and cayenne pepper, all topped with dark chocolate ganache icing. After over-boozing his cakes in week one, I had my doubts; but he manages not to burn the judges’ heads off and earns a commendation for his strong flavours, even if in style the bread looks like a series of detached Chelsea buns.

That’s not to say that all is well in chocolate land. Candice suffers a brutal fall from last week’s Star Baker grace, when her pecan-topped salted caramel and chocolate dough balls come out of the oven quite literally as dough balls. If baking bread that is not raw wasn’t, well, a basic requirement of the challenge, I’d feel sorry for Candice undergoing the GBBO equivalent of public shaming, i.e. Paul refusing to have a bite of her bake.

The technical rises the dough to new levels of challenge with a bake that none of the contestants have even heard of. Dampfnudel, for the uninitiated, is a German steamed dumpling: essentially an iced bun without the icing. The trick is that the bakers have to steam the dumplings in a pan, and somehow know when they’re cooked without lifting the lid and compromising the rise of the dough. If that wasn’t tricky enough, the dumplings, steamed to identical perfection, must also be served with custard and plum jam. Not surprisingly, the bakers are left pondering what the elusive Dampfnudel is meant to be. This confusion is reflected in the judging: from overcooked bottoms to thick sauces, the bakers hear it all. At least they can find some consolation – or Schadenfreude – in Rav hitting the absolute rock – well, dough – bottom, as Paul squishes his attempts at German bakery back into raw dough -ouch. On the brighter side of the steamy challenge, it’s a joy seeing underdog Val coming out on top, with a bake that actually resembles the intended product.

It’s not the start of a lucky streak for Val, though. The showstopper asks for a savoury platted centrepiece with three different doughs, and Val opts for nothing less than Noah’s ark. Unfortunately, her attempt at recreating the biblical flood damage prevention mission emerges out of the oven like a sunken vessel. I also don’t quite understand her logic behind having only one of some animals because “the elephants had a fight”- more likely that the deformed doughy elephant was classified as a species of its own when entering the ark… The same goes for Michael’s Cypriot flag: not even the alcohol served with the national symbol saved it from being, quite frankly, a mess.

In contrast, there is nothing deformed about Kate’s corn maiden: cheddar and goat’s cheese may not be the most inventive of ingredients, but what can't be forgiven in favour of some beautiful doughy plaiting? Tom’s fully risen showstopper (no innuendo there), on the other hand, is far from dainty: the loaves depicting a serpent and Thor’s hammer seriously whet the appetites of the audience, even if you aren’t convinced by his eccentric, and now signature, flavourings of chilli, seaweed, ale, and volcanic lava. A rather explosive performance, to say the least.

Despite some doughy disasters, bread week certainly proved the bakers to be more thoroughbred than in the crumbles of biscuit week. With everything from deformed elephants to signature testosterone-fuelled loaves, who knows what batter week will dish up.