Albany native Bobby Deen again hosts ‘Holiday Baking Championship’

With Halloween firmly in our rear-view mirrors, it’s now onward to those holidays where overeating is not so much a bad habit as it is an obligation: Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Cookies, cakes, pies and other such confections are integral to the American diet this time of year and they’re also at the center of the action on Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship,” which returned for its third season on Sunday.

In the seven-week competition, nine talented bakers square off in various challenges with host Bobby Deen throwing in a few twists and surprises along the way. The winner, as determined by judges Lorraine Pascale, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller, is crowned Holiday Baking Champion and awarded a $50,000 grand prize.

“There is an amazing level of talent in the show,” says Pascale, a British TV cook, author and former model who has also appeared as a judge on Food’s “Worst Bakers in America.” “We have some professional bakers. We have some home bakers.

“It was a really interesting mix that will appeal to everyone, and that’s what makes the show so much fun is having different levels of bakers. Even though they can all bake really well, you know some are trained, some are hometaught, self-taught, so it’s a really exciting group of people.”

As usual, the challenges will require imagination, ingenuity and a little outside-the-box thinking. Among them in this round: cookies inspired by grandma, a dessert competition that celebrates ugly holiday sweaters and a challenge that forces the bakers to bake without appliances.

In Sunday’s season premiere, the contestants were tasked with turning classic seasonal beverages into custom-made confections.

“Perhaps you have eggnog,” Pascale cites as an example. “You know, it’s normally a seasonal drink and it’s somehow incorporating that into something that is baked. So what would you do with eggnog? It could be an eggnog crème brulee or an eggnog cupcake or lots of different variations and it’s just about being clever and thinking outside of that box.”