Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 premiere recap: Yule Log mash-ups

Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 premiere recap has the bakers feeling the holiday spirit. But, one baker was sent home before the gifts were unwrapped.

Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 premiere recap is filled with favorite flavors and holiday treats. While nine bakers dream of sweet success, only one person will earn the title. Could you tell any potential front runners from the first episode?

In the pre-heat challenge, the bakers took on the flavor that has taken over food everywhere, pumpkin spice. While people love their PSL, that beverage isn’t the only way to enjoy the pumpkin spice flavors. These bakers needed to find a creative, tasty way to bring the pumpkin spice.

Overall, these desserts in the pre-heat were nice. Nothing was over the top creative, impressive or wow-worthy. It seems like the bakers were holding back on the first challenge. It felt like no one wanted to take a risk in fear that they would be the first to leave.

Truthfully, my guess is that nerves got the best of the bakers. Doug over-baked his cheesecake (it was like a soufflé). Chantal had broken cream. Jamie’s panna cotta didn’t set up, but she did come up with a save.

Judge Duff Goldman holds up contestant Dan Raymond’s dish from the pre-heat, as seen on Holiday Baking Championship, Season 5. photo provided by Food Network

In a way, these pumpkin spice desserts were a little lackluster and didn’t have that punch of pumpkin flavor. Maybe everyone has been just on pumpkin spice overload. The creativity seemed to be buried in the nutmeg, cinnamon and pumpkin.

Winning the pre-heat was Lerome. His dessert was clearly the most creative use of the pumpkin spice flavor. The little cake with cranberries and pumpkin cream cheese frosting was a creative and elevated dessert. Based on the other options, he rose to the top.

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For winning the pre-heat, his advantage was his choice of flavors for the main heat. This type of advantage can often be beneficial. No one wants to get stuck with a flavor that he hates. The dessert will always have a little bitterness in that scenario.

In the main heat, the bakers had to create a yule log mash-up. They had to take some classic desserts and incorporate those flavors into a yule log. While this idea doesn’t seem too difficult, a couple bakers struggled.

With his advantage, Lerome did choose to switch his flavors. He chose the Linzer cookie flavor over peppermint swirl cheesecake. Truthfully, the Linzer cookie flavor seems harder. Peppermint cheesecake, with a chocolate sponge, would have been an easy, obvious choice. Maybe that idea had Lerome aiming for a more difficult or elevated flavor.

Of course, Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 premiere recap always has a twist. The main heat twist had the bakers adding brandy into the yule logs. Again, this twist/ingredient doesn’t seem terribly difficult. It wasn’t like each baker had to use a totally outside of the box ingredient.

Host Jesse Palmer announces the main heat challenge, as seen on Holiday Baking Championship, Season 5. photo provided by Food Network

It was surprising that the majority of bakers went subtle on the brandy. Most of the judges’ feedback involved more brandy. Adding liquor to a dessert can be difficult. No one wants their mouth on fire with the brandy burn. Still, if there is liquor in the dessert, it shouldn’t be completely hidden.

Similar to the pumpkin spice challenge, the judges kept telling the bakers to bring more flavor. These bakers need to learn how to cater to the judges’ palates. These judges want big, bold flavors. Subtly might work in some decoration, but the flavor needs to be a front and present.

Overall, the yule logs were nice. But, I didn’t understand Nolan’s decision to do a stump. It seemed like he cheated the challenge. Rolling a cake for a yule log takes skill and it could spell disaster for a baker. By doing a simple layer cake, I would have thought that the judges would have criticized more. Truthfully, they applauded his decision to do something different.

Contestant Nolan Schooley discusses his dish with host Jesse Palmer in the pre-heat, as seen on Holiday Baking Championship, Season 5. photo provided by Food Network

The top two bakes were Chantal and Douglas. Chantal had sweet potato pie yule log. I commend her decoration of the yule log. The toasted marshmallow frosting was extremely smart. It was a nice nod to the classic sweet potato/marshmallow pairing.

Her roll was a lovely balance of cream to cake. Even though she had a slight mis-step at the beginning of her bake, she recovered well. Overall, she did a good job.

Douglas had a visually impressive yule log. The idea to use the ginger molasses cookies to symbolize hen of the woods mushrooms was genius. Why haven’t more bakers thought about this type of decoration? I am totally stealing this idea.

Also, Douglas was one of the few bakers who really brought the brandy flavor. The judges got the brandy in every bite. He delivered on both flavor and stunning decoration. He was awarded the first win of Holiday Baking Championship Season 5.

Unfortunately, two bakers were in the bottom for the Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 premiere recap. The two bottom bakers were Jamie and Sherry. Both bakers struggled in this main heat and had technical mistakes.

Jamie’s yule log mash-up was pumpkin spice cheesecake. After the pre-heat, this flavor combination was probably the worst one to get. No one wants to follow the same flavor in back to back challenges.

Her biggest mistake was the crumble for the yule log. She added way too much salt. While a salted caramel can be tasty, this garnish was a salt bomb. It was a big mistake.

Sherry’s yule log was overpowered by chocolate flavor. Her mash-up, pecan pie, could have been an interesting choice for this challenge. Unfortunately, the chocolate and pecan pie wasn’t balanced. Also, she didn’t have a strong brandy flavor and her pie crust garnish was under-baked.

If I had a vote, I would have sent Sherry home. Her roll was broken/didn’t roll right. Also, she had multiple mistakes in her dessert. But, I didn’t have a vote.

The first baker leaving in the Holiday Baking Championship Season 5 premiere recap was Jamie. The judges thought that her yule log mash-up put her on the bottom. It is unfortunate. I think that she could have done well in this competition. Still, it goes to show that little mistakes can get bakers sent home.

What did you think of this first episode of Holiday Baking Championship Season 5? Can you predict a front runner in this first episode? Check back next week for filled cakes. What holiday goodness will spill out of the kitchen?