Kathy from Wisconsin (2017 Week 6: Botanical)

Baker

Kathy

Location

Wisconsin

Baking Challenge

Leaf-shaped Herb Fougasse

Give your botanical creation a clever name – and tell us about your recipe.

Roasted Tomato Pesto Fougasse. I used Paul Hollywood’s recipe as a guide. The original recipe called for bread flour and fresh herb. I did not have bread flour on hand and don’t care for that much sage and rosemary, so I had to substitute. I used occident flour, white flour and white whole wheat flour as a substitute. I wasn’t sure it the texture would be okay and be chewy enough; I think the roasted tomatoes helped. My house smells like an Italian restaurant. I will make this again, perhaps with a reduce amount of all the herbs in the recipe.

Any disasters? Did you take any risks? Proudest moment? Lessons learned the hard way? Tell us about it.

I had a couple of problems: 1). The addition of roasted tomatoes and pesto made the dough wetter, so I had to reduce the amount of water and add more flour. 2). The recipe recommended using a pizza cutter to make the slits and mine was too large for most of them. I had to use a knife dipped in flour.

How did you add a Wisconsin twist to your flavors or decoration?

The basil came from my daughter-in-law’s garden.

How did you do?

Absolutely lovely.