Ethan from Madison, WI (2018 Week 2: Bread)

Baker

Ethan

Location

Madison, WI

Baking Challenge

Flatbread

Give your bread a name and tell us about your recipe.

Flour Tortillas. I’m originally from Southern Arizona, and one of the things that I miss the most are the wonderful, hot-off-the-griddle flour tortillas that practically melt in your mouth. I chose tortillas because I didn’t want to turn the oven on in my un-air conditioned apartment this week. My grandmother taught me how to make these when I was about ten, and I thought it was magical the way you could take 4 ingredients-flour, salt, butter, and hot water-and turn them into my favorite food within minutes, with no measurements but only a feel for how the dough should come together. I didn’t change the recipe for this challenge, partly because watching the bakers on the episode put flavoring into their “tortillas” felt sacrilegious. If you do it right, the flavors of the tortilla add to more than the sum of its parts, and making them makes the summer heat feel less oppressive and more dry, evoking the hot breeze of the desert. Or maybe just the heated skillet.

Would you describe yourself as a rogue baker, or do you strictly adhere to the recipe?

Rogue! But only in the sense that tortilla-making is an art rather than a science.

Tell us about how you added a Wisconsin twist to your bread creation.

Well, how better to eat a tortilla than in a quesadilla with some sharp Wisconsin cheddar?

How did you do?

It’s perfect – and I’m not sharing!