"The Great British Baking Show" has been a salve for fans who have watched bakers take on complex recipes (opens in new tab) during the storms of the past few years with more encouragement than tough competition. Fortunately, Netflix has announced that television's most heartwarming competition show will be back, with the first episode of the new season available on September 24, 2021.

For those new to the show, the British baking competition, known in the UK as the Great British Bake Off, is a weeks-long challenge. Judges let amateur bakers create intricate cakes, cookies (which in the UK means hard cookies), breads, and pastries. Refreshingly, the contestants make no pretense of competing, but instead become close friends and help each other "bake." Each week one contestant is crowned "Star Baker" and another is eliminated. The last winning baker will win the show's famous engraved cake stand. The new season (10 episodes) of [The Great British Baking Show] will premiere on September 24 in the U.S., with new episodes available every Friday; according to Variety (opens in new tab), September 21 in the UK, three days before it airs on Netflix, Each episode will air on Channel 4.

UK viewers were able to watch "The Great Celebrity Bake Off" (opens in new tab) earlier this year, but that edition of the show unfortunately never made it across the pond.

Watch The Great British Baking Show on Netflix (opens in new tab)

The latest season was filmed at the Down Hall Hotel Spa and Estate outside London (opens in new tab) and produced under the strict confines of COVID COVID. A surprise teaser released earlier this month gave the first glimpse of the baking tent. In keeping with the program's theme, the video made us dream of this year's new cakes.

The show was filmed at Down Hall, which was one of the first to resume production last season after a pandemic shutdown. Host Matt Lucas confirmed to Radio Times (opens in new tab) that filming began last May with a "bake-off bubble," with the cast and crew taking over the down hall and setting up a baking tent.

The show's longtime judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Reese will return for the new season. Also returning are veteran host Noel Fielding and newcomer Matt Lucas, who took over hosting duties from Sandy Toksvig in the previous season.

Despite the turnover, the judges and hosts are closer than ever. Paul Hollywood said of "The Bubble" in a Netflix Q&A: "Being on The Bubble has really brought Matt, Noel, and Prue together. We've always been good friends, but now we're the kind of friends that don't have to keep talking to each other to fill the silence. They are really close, easy, relaxed friends."

The cast of bakers (opens in new tab) includes retired detective Amanda, dancer Rochka, software developer Tom, and nine other unique home bakers who definitely win hearts and bake bread (and, well, bake a lot more) .

Hollywood gave a preview of what to expect from the cast of bakers in a Netflix Q&A: "I feel the standard of the bakers [in this series] is very high and they really brought a lot of expertise to the tent this year. There are some great intros this year that viewers will really enjoy. We're unusually dressed up a lot this year; in fact, we have four different costumes in this series."