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

Baker

Maddie

Location

Madison, WI

Baking Challenge

Eight-Strand Plaited Loaf

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

Pesto and Cheese Eight-Strand Plaited Loaf

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

I typically follow recipes fairly closely, but I like to experiment, so I almost always end up making a few adaptations. For this challenge, I used Paul Hollywood’s recipe for the bread and directions for the eight strand plait, but strayed from the recipe by adding a filling into each strand in order to meet the Wisconsin criteria and to add some flavor!

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

My "Wisconsin twist" this week included homemade pesto made with basil grown in Wisconsin soil in our garden, and Wisconsin Parmesan cheese. I rolled out the dough for each strand and spread pesto in four and sprinkled cheese on the other four. Then, I rolled each one up lengthwise to create the strand and alternated the flavors before plaiting the bread. In retrospect, I would add pesto to all eight strands and sprinkle the cheese on top of the loaf – while the bread was pleasantly flavored, the pesto seemed to be absorbed into the bread and not as strong of a flavor as I thought it was going to be.

How did you do?

Pleasantly satisfied.