Scali Bread
This shiny, mahogany-brown braid is heavily coated with sesame seeds, giving it nutty flavor and a lovely appearance. Serve it with your pasta, or slice it for sandwiches; it's a fixture of Boston-area bakeries and supermarkets.
Follow step-by-step photos for making a scali loaf, or scali rolls, at our blog, Bakers' Banter.
Starter
- 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup cool water, enough to make a stiff ball of dough
- pinch of instant yeast
Dough
- all of the starter
- 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons Baker's Special dry milk or nonfat dry milk
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2/3 cup lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Topping
- 1 large egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds
Directions
|
1) To make the starter: Mix the starter ingredients together, cover, and let rest at room temperature overnight. Note: This is a dry, stiff starter. If it's too dry to come together, it may be that you measure your flour differently than we do here at King Arthur, or that you're in a particularly dry climate. Dribble in sufficient water to make the dough come together, and proceed with the recipe as directed. |
|
2) To make the dough: Combine the starter with the remaining dough ingredients, and mix and knead — by hand, mixer, or bread machine set on the dough cycle — to make a soft, smooth dough. |
|
3) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or large (8-cup) measure; cover, and let it rise for about 90 minutes, till it's just about doubled in bulk. |
|
4) To make one large loaf: Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into three equal pieces. Shape each piece into a rough log, and let the logs rest, uncovered, for about 10 minutes. This gives the gluten in the dough a chance to relax, which in turn will make the logs easier to roll. |
|
5) Working on a lightly greased surface, roll each log into a rope about 24" long. Brush each rope with the egg white/water, and sprinkle heavily with the sesame seeds, rolling the ropes gently in the seeds to pick up as many as possible. |
|
6) Grab one end of each rope, and squeeze the ends together firmly. Braid the ropes, tucking the ends under to make a neat braided loaf. |
|
7) To make rolls: Follow the directions above, but divide the dough into six pieces, rather than three. Roll each piece into a thin rope about 28" long. Take three of the ropes, and coat with seeds and braid as directed above. Repeat with the remaining three ropes. The resulting loaves will be about 18" long. |
|
8) Cut each braid into six 3" rolls. Squeeze the cut ends together to seal, and tuck them under. |
|
9) Place the loaf on a large, parchment-lined (or lightly greased) baking sheet. Or space the rolls on a baking sheet. Cover the loaf or rolls with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow to rise till very puffy, about 90 minutes. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F. |
|
10) Bake the loaf for about 25 to 35 minutes, till it's a deep golden brown. The rolls will need to bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, and cool on a rack. |
|
Yield: one large loaf, or 12 rolls. |
Recipe summary
- Hands-on time:
- 20 mins. to 30 mins.
- Baking time:
- 25 mins. to 30 mins.
- Total time:
- 11 hrs 45 mins. to 16 hrs
- Yield:
- 1 large loaf; or 12 rolls
-
Overnight
-
-
- Recipe comments (27) »
Reviews
02/08/2010
came back to review. Did not review with last post because I was not sure how if this would come out okay being the starter did not look right. YUMMY great taste, and texture, great crust. reminds of the italian twist bread from bakery stores and just as good.
02/08/2010
Hi came back to rate recipe. So so good just like the italian bakery bread store Italian twist recipe. My whole family loved it. Was not sure how this was going to come based on the way my starter looked. But this is amazing, great taste and texture. Will be making often as it was easy.
02/07/2010
Cant really rate this for taste yet, but I started this last nite and the starter upon morning did not look bubbly at all. I was wondering if it is the cool water and a pinch of yeast. I have done many starters before all requiring a specific measurement of yeast and they always turned out bubbly as they should. Any ideas why this starter did not look proper??? I did use it anyway so right now it is trial and error baking this bread to see how it comes out.
The scali bread starter is very stiff and doesn't look like other starters but I guarantee it becomes a delicious bread! Molly @ KAF
02/06/2010
I made this recipe this past week for "pasta night" at our house. I have to say, I could have skipped the entire meal and just served Scali bread with butter! My 12-year-old daughter ate nearly 1/3 of this loaf and hubby says definitely the best bread I have ever made! Wow, rave reviews! Only change I made was black sesame seeds for the regular (because that's what I had) and the black looked GREAT! Thank you so much for making me look so good!
02/05/2010
This turned out perfectly. I began the braid at the middle and worked out to the ends. This made both ends tight and evenly attractive. I also baked this on the second from the bottom rack of the oven to prevent over browning.
02/05/2010
Made this recipe for my in-laws and it was great!
02/02/2010
I made this bread the other day and it worked out perfectly. I used the 1/2 cup water for the starter, and it looked like your photos. I followed the recipe exactly and it rose beautifully and was picture perfect. We normally eat whole wheat bread (usually home made), so we won't have this frequently, but it was a lovely change and so satisfying to see such a golden brown braided loaf!
02/01/2010
I made the rolls this weekend - big success! I thought the dough was just lovely, rolling out into ropes evenly and easily. The braids were so pretty I didn't want to cut them, but they made the cutest rolls. Delicious, light crumb; tops browned perfectly. Big on flavor!
01/31/2010
This recipe is delicious, but we could only eat the top half of the rolls because it stuck to the parchment paper and I couldnt peel it off. What did I do wrong?
I would give the parchment a light spritz of baking spray. mary@KAF
01/31/2010
This bread is fantastic. Flavourful crust and super soft, fluffy crumb. I used poppyseeds instead of sesame and also substituted a little bit of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat. A definite repeat! Thank you.
Bookmark/share
this recipe