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

Baker

Rebecca

Location

Madison, WI

Baking Challenge

Eight-Strand Plaited Loaf

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

Whole Wheat Pesto Plait. I often find plain white bread boring, so I decided to make a bread which would work well for grilled cheese sandwiches (made with Wisconsin cheese, of course!). I boosted the flavor by adding pesto to the dough and using about half whole wheat flour.

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

If I’m trying a new technique I’ll stick to the recipe. If I’m comfortable with a dish I’ll adapt the recipe to suit my tastes or combine elements from multiple recipes. Bread is pretty forgiving, so it’s less risky to play with ingredients. For this week’s bake, I started with a recipe for bread with pesto rolled inside, but I mixed the pesto into the dough itself and added whole wheat flour.

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

The bread dough includes Sassy Cow milk, and the pesto is made from my garden basil and SarVecchio parmesan cheese.

How did you do?

Absolutely lovely.