Kat from Brooklyn, NY (2018 Week 2: Bread)

Baker

Kat

Location

Brooklyn, NY

Baking Challenge

Eight-Strand Plaited Loaf

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

Scali Bread – It’s a King Arthur Flour recipe that replicates a bread commonly found at bakeries in Boston. The sesame seeds add a nutty flavor that allows the bread to lend itself to being excellent french toast.

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

I adhere pretty much to the recipe unless the recipe it’s a very simple recipe that I know well. I’m not good at bread, so I stuck to this recipe. Though I stretched the amount of time I let the bread rise, which I think hindered its ability to maintain the plait during baking.

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

I live in New York City, so most of the Wisconsin ingredients I own are brought carefully packed on a plane or I paid an outrageous amount for them at the grocery store. Acknowledging this, the bread by recipe and design has no Wisconsin twist. While I did eat it with Wisconsin maple syrup as French toast, the more Wisconsin moment was sharing my loaf of bread in a van with my coworkers as we were stuck in 2 hours of traffic trying to get to New Jersey. Sharing food feels like family and home, and even though I live in NY, Wisconsin will always be my home. So handing out the slices of bread made it feel a little bit more like Wisconsin.

How did you do?

It’s not pretty, but it’s edible.