I had half a bag of fine cornmeal left in my pantry, and thought of making some corn bread. I consulted Ian's 2014 post on Broa de Milho before baking, and decided to use rye (10%), cornmeal (40%) and bread flour (50%).
I made a 90% hydration levain with the rye and cornmeal the night before and left it to ferment for 12 hours at RT 19 degrees. I then mixed the levain with salt, water and bread flour to make a 75% hydration dough of 700g. This was bulk fermented for 3 hours, proofed for 1 hour and then baked at 220 degrees for 35 mins.
The dough was extremely sticky to handle. I used a spatula to do a couple of folds during BF.
This went really quickly - faster than my usual doughs with 50% levain - and doubled in 3 hours.
The bread tastes slightly sweet due to the corn, but most of all, it tastes quite sour! I've not had such sour bread in a very long time. The texture is excellent - I can slice it really thin. The crust really does taste like cornflakes!!!
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What a good looking loaf! You got a more open crumb than I did the few times I tried making one of them.
Yes it did end up with a more open crumb than I expected, especially given how the dough was behaving throughout. The rather sour tang and unique crumb turned out to be very popular with the family. Very tasty, all gone today.
Lovely appearance and I love the yellow colour of the crumb very much Lin.
Have you made toast with it yet? It should make fabulous toast!
I'm guessing the time for the levain was just too long which is why it was sour?
-Jon
The last few slices were toasted for breakfast today - scrumptious!
Yes, the sourness was surprising, Jon. It was the usual protocol and the levain was ready to use at slightly more than double. It had not fallen and probably could have risen a little more. Went very well with butter and sweet potato soup though!
I suspect that corn tends to promote sourness. I've seen that a few times.
Tom, I recall you recommending a Masa Harina bread that you'd made before. Was there any sourness to that?
Good memory! It's at
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/72741/masa-harina-sourdough
No, that one wasn't sour. It didn't get an overnight retardation, though.
I have so much masa all colors. From Masienda. I can see I’m going down a rabbit hole on this corn bread slide. I make the most amazing corn muffins and I finally got them the way we love them by ignoring everything I ever knew about making cornbread.
I’ve used the same recipe and skillet since the 70’s. This year I broke loose and we are wild about the new version. Grinding my own corn and beating the dough like cake batter ( where have we heard this before) instead of light folding has made a totally light product.
Let me know if interested. c
Yes, am.
3/4 c milled yellow or green corn to flour consistency ( I used Oaxaca Green )
4 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk really well.
Combine :
1 1/4 c buttermilk
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 large egg
whisk really well to combine.
Start preheating oven to 350. Pour wet into dry and fold together then beat really well with a wooden spoon for a minute or so til light and fluffy. Have your greased 1 dozen size muffin pan ready. Divide the batter and let set til oven ready ....this helps the activation of the baking soda and baking powder before the heat starts. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Check with a toothpick. Your oven may vary.
Easy and straightforward recipe - love it. Will try it soon!
I'm going to make this as soon as I get back home to my mill. I have both Oxacan green and a yellow corn that I mill . This will be a perfect formula to follow. Beautiful bread. c
Would be interested to know how this turns out for you with freshly milled corn. I know you don't like sourness, so it might be worth keeping an eye on the levain - might be worth using when almost at peak.
And NOT use my makeshift incubator at 100°!
Thank you for the suggestion. c
I’m glad I could inspire you to come up with your own version. Your crumb is amazing and it sounds like the taste was too.
Coincidentally I just mixed up a dough with corn flour yesterday that I will be baking shortly. Not quite like this one but it does have a nice % of rye as well as freshly ground WW. I hope it comes out as nice as this one 🤞.
Best,
Ian
So how did it go? This was enjoyable and we will try it again soon. Might use a scald the next time round to see if there are noticeable differences.
I will post as soon as I get a chance. It's definitely more of a Rye bread but it did come out very tasty.
I did a bread recently with a corn scald and a Tangzhong. It was little tricky with the fresh milled flours and it is easy to over-ferment.
I look forward to seeing your results.
Best,
Ian
I've had the sourness with adding cornmeal (polenta) to SD. Also makes the dough not great to handle and can also rip the gluten if of the more coarse type.
It benefits greatly if you give the cornmeal a cold (overnight) or hot soak, but you need to figure out how that affects the hydration. There was a post her about soaker hydrations that had both if you want to find the calculations .
It comes out really nice with the soaker. Yellow and sweet and much easier to handle. Think I managed to go up to 25% of total flour, but maybe can take more..
Definitely giving the soaker a go the next time I get round to this bread again. I liked it very much, and decreasing the sourness would be ideal.
You'll join us for the flatbread CB, won't you? Shaggy biga flatbread........? ;)