GBBO S'mores Challenge Is Infuriating American Fans
Long-running Channel 4 hit "The Great British Baking Show" (or "Bake Off" as it's known across the pond) brings together 12 competitors from around Britain to compete for the title of UK's Best Amateur Baker. Over 10 episodes, the bakers participate in weekly challenges, such as the show's signature challenges; a signature bake to show off a go-to recipe; the technical bake, a grueling challenge where everyone bakes the same recipe; and the showstopper bake, where bakers are asked to create elaborate and inventive masterpieces that "call for a professional standard in taste and appearance" (per The Great British Bake Off).
While the GBBO 2022 winner has been decided by an algorithm, fans are still tuning in to see who wins and who walks each week. While usually it's the contestants who make the big stir on social media following the episodes — who left, who won, who should've left — last week's Halloween challenge has the Twitter-verse all atwitter.
Digestive biscuits and soggy marshmallows dampen Halloween
This year's Halloween episode of "The Great British Bake Off" was the series' first-ever Halloween special in 13 seasons. In last week's episode, the show's technical challenge was to bake S'mores from scratch (per The Guardian). The only problem being, according to American viewers, the show got the recipe wrong.
Fans took to Twitter to air substantial grievances with how the campfire classic was represented on the show, saying things like the show makes, "s'mores with digestive biscuits instead of graham crackers. Some weird chocolate paste. They just hate American food." Another person wrote that the contestants were out of their depths: "They're all freaking out over burning their marshmallows and I guarantee every American watching it is screaming 'its supposed to be burnt?!'" S'mores aficionados know that burning the marshmallow caramelizes the exterior.
The timing of GBBO's latest episode comes after backlash from a Mexican cuisine-themed episode that some experts called racist and "vile," per Variety — and also left some cooks critiquing the treatment of avocados.