Great British Bake Off 2017: Bread Week's technical challenge saw the innuendo spiral out of control

'You’ve got to be able to bond the top with the bottom. If they don’t, the bottom will blow off the top'

(Channel 4/Mark Bourdillon)

Though Channel 4 seemed to claim their take on The Great British Bake Off was going to drop the constant innuendo, that doesn't seem to have lasted long.

Episode 3 brought Bread Week with it and the technical challenge of creating a Cottage Loaf, consisting of a smaller piece of dough on the top and a larger piece on the bottom, with good slashes all around the loaf.

The smaller top has to be bonded to the bottom, which involved bringing out Paul Hollywood's certified "finger treatment" - i.e. sticking your fingers through the top and bottom. Sounds simple, looks incredibly filthy to watch. And things soon completely spiralled out of control.

Hollywood dived straight into the innuendo with a straight face as he described how, "You’ve got to be able to bond the top with the bottom. If they don’t, the bottom will blow off the top. It’s all about making both of the balls quite tight. And the way you do that – and the way I do it – is just drive my finger right through to the tray underneath."

At which point, fellow judge Prue Leith leaned over and cheekily added: "Do you flour your finger?” Breaking down into a fit of giggles, Hollywood replied: "I could oil it."

The contestants certainly didn't pass up the chance, either. Stacey described her process as, "What Paul does is he sticks his fingers in the flour. And he goes down like that, with two fingers, up and down like that. I just know how he does it."

Bake Off airs every Tuesday on Channel 4 at 8pm.