Your Great American Christmas Bake Off

It's that time of the year. Spice is redolent in the air. Mixing bowls are filled with icing and ovens are full of cookies. Yup, it's The Great American Holiday Baking Show. Paul Hollywood, he with the icy blue stare is back, frowning and smiling  - and ultimately charming not only his bakers but America as well.

ABC or local New York Channel 7 is airing this for three consecutive Thursdays between nine and eleven PM.It ends the day after Christmas, a time when , frankly, people are sick of anything baked and iced. Mr. Hollywood is the anchor of this with Sherry Yard replacing Prue Leith and the great Mary Berry. Ms. Yard is no hack, She is a pastry chef who has won the James Beard award three times for her amazing pastries and was pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Los Angeles. She kind of reminds me of Berry, with her chic outfits and cooking teacher demeanor. To inject humor there is Baby Spice, Emma Bunton and former Chicago Bear , Anthony "Spice" Adams (get the connection there?) They're not as sharp and witty as the original hosts , Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc but they do offer some levity. The program is the same with three different bakes with themes. There is the signature bake - a challenge for the bakers to show off their recipes, followed by a technical bake. This is usually a classic recipe  that has a series of steps omitted. The bakers have to guess what was omitted and add it in. The third bake is the showstopper. This allows the bakers to show off their skills and talent. In the past it had been gingerbread houses and cakes in the shape of elaborate mushrooms and cheeseboards.

One thing that is different. The Yanks are flown to the UK instead of Hollywood and friends coming to the states. They're baking in the picturesque Iver Heath , a Buckinghamshire town seventeen miles west of London. That alone is worth the trip and I hope the bakers all got to enjoy some sight seeing as well as experiencing English country life. The bakers come from all different backgrounds and states. There is even a priest  along with a research scientist, a former FBI agent and a chemist with a Harvard degree. That alone is an interesting mix. I watched or tried to watch the first episodes , as hard as they were to see  on a wonky DVR. The very first signature bake was an exciting one - an olive oil cake. To be honest I've always shied away from this recipe, deeming it too dense, and maybe too oily a bake. Yet seeing the bakers creating them and putting their own personal spins into the recipes has made me change my mind. Some added cranberries  while others added apples or grapefruit. The technical challenge was an angelfood cake with a passionfruit curd filling. I'm sure there will be cookie and cake challenges along with a fruit cake one.

If you're a big fan of The Great British Baking Show and Paul Hollywood's icy blue stare, then this is the show for you. It's also inspiring - filling your heard with more than just sugarplums. Look at the challenges and see if you can recreate them.

The Dazzle of Paul Hollywood

Yes, it's that time of year when all home bakers go into a frenzy about what to make for the holidays.ABC knows this and rolls out their annual baking show, The Great Holiday Baking Show, based on the UK's The Great British Baking Show. It even has that main attraction Paul Hollywood, he of the piercing blue eyes and stinging criticiques.

The show is on ABC every Thursday night , with two back to back hour long episodes starting at 9PM. Fans of the original will love this and it features bake loving Yanks from all corners of the country. There was even a priest, Father Kyle, who was sadly booted off Episode Two.Like the original every episode features a signature bake, a cake or cookie they might make for family and friends, a technical bake that features a challenging recipe from the judges and the final - a show stopper, something that would bring gasps if if were made at home. The judges in the past were Mary Berry and Johnny Iuzzini who returns this year with Hollywood. Paul Hollywood 's background is that of being the son of a baker who eventually owned a chain of bakeries in England. Paul, himself, became a baker, working at several five star hotels in the UK and on Cyprus. Iuzzini is also a pastry chef , from the Catskills region in New York State where he learned how to cook and bake as a child. He also attended the CIA, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park where he specialized in Baking and Pastry Arts. The hosts are chef Ayesha Curry who has written several cookbooks and forer football player and media personality Anthony Adams,

The show lacks the wit and sparkle that the British version had under Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. Ayesha and Anthony are likeable enough,  especially Anthony when 'he's cadging candied cherries off contestant Cindy Maliniak. They do add to the show especially when they interact with the bakers and are a nice foil to Paul's snark. Yesterdays episodes featured making naked cakes. which are layers cakes with just fillings and iced top layers.These  were pretty in their own messy ways,but I feel that British bakers would have handled the challenge better. The second hour featured everything yeasty. This is where the bakers got truly creative , especially with the first one which featured doughnuts . They reflected the contestants backgrounds. The episode's show stopper was a sweet bread with different fillings and decorations. Again the bakers became truly creative with flavors reflecting  Hector De Haro's Mexican heritage and Vallery Lomas' Louisiana's influenced King Cake, Hopefully upcoming episodes will feature more Christmassy  challenges like mince pies and cookies. They did have to recreate a log but it was more of a sponge cake.

Will the American holiday version  stand up to the British? Hopefully it will .It is entertaining and inspiring to home bakers , longing for a challenge

The Great American Holiday Bake Show

Can something very very English translate to American? Sort of, as we've seen in a variety of TV shows that originated across the pond. There's another reincarnation, this time an American version of The Great British Baking Show. It highlights some of this country's best amateur bakers with an Yankee twist.

There has been some criticism regarding the show which airs on ABC Monday nights at ten PM. The hosts husband and wife Ian Gomez (he of Cougartown) and Nia Vardalos of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding " fame  chat and banter with the judges, Mary Berry, imported from the British show and Johnny Iuzzini ,a renowned pastry chef and former head judge on Top Chef : Just Desserts. Gomez and Vardalos don;t have the plummy, highly witty panache that the British hosts,Sue Perkins and Mel Gieidroyc. These ladies would fit right in with Jeeves and Wooster with their puns and sarky asides, along with their Pythonesque silliness. Sadly the Gomezes are more like your neighbors , offering help along as with lame jokes. Even "Ready, set, BAKE!!!", the show's "Tally Ho"  comes off as a weak mew  where their Brit counterparts shout it exuberantly. The format is the same., three bakes an episode, starting off with a signature, followed by a technical, then the showstopper.. Mary Berry is the same on this four week competition, as she is on the British ,a  kind of sweet but crackly Home Ec teacher. What is missing is the beefy sexiness of Paul Hollywood along with his sharp tongue. He is the perfect foil for Ms. Berry, tart to her treacle. Johnny Iuzzini is good as a judge, offering suggestions, but he's kind of like the sycophant assistant teacher, trying to cozen up to Ms. Berry for a promotion,.There's no smoldering fire there  to bake anyone's cake. Mr. Hollywood was a judge on a similar American spinoff, The American Baking Competition with Jeff Foxworthy back in the summer of 2013. That interpretation was just a little more livelier.

What about the bakers themselves?Are they as personable as their British counterparts? Yes,.as with the British mother ship, the bakers come from all over the country , offering a wider range of regional sweets and accents than the original show. They're not as catty or as backstabbing as other American reality show contestants. They're more like students attending an elite baking class ,. This makes watching the show addictive and refreshing . The bakers are all so nice, you find yourself rooting for all of them. The Yanks  face up to the challenges with the same , grace courage and determination as their English counterparts. Gomez and Vardalis joke with them, although it's not the same as Sue and Mel. The couple also tell the audience about each contestant's signature and show stopper bakes,with the same story book graphics, that explain designs and ingredients to the viewers. The challenges are interesting with the bakers coming up with gingerbread pagodas and Eiffel Towers (well this is the holdiay competition after all). There is a top baker chosen by Mary and Johnny and sadly one baker has to go home. The setting is done in an airy tent in the middle of a lush field where contestants are also interviewed.

Will Americans cozy up to The Great American Holiday Baking Show? ABC is probably hoping so, however diehard fans will still watch the original British one. It's a semi sweet treat that's fun for foodies to watch.