The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Polenta Sourdough

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Polenta Sourdough

I came across polenta flour (maize flour) at Oasis Bakery (a middle eastern food store) and thought it would be an interesting ingredient for bread. I use polenta (coarse grind) quite often with my multigrains bread and I like its taste. It make the bread sweeter and give a nice yellow hue to the crumb.

Having no experience working with polenta flour, I had no idea how well it would absorb liquid, what changes it would make to the gluten development when mixed with wheat flour, etc. A search through Google and The Fresh Loaf website didn't give much information either. It doesn't seem like polenta flour is widely used in bread making, at least not from the information I found on the Web. 

The bread turned out quite nicely. The crumb was relatively open. It is denser and slightly chewier than usaul. It's good change from normal wheat bread and works really well with tomato, basil and olive oil.

More details can be found here:  

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/01/sourdough-polenta-bread-recently.html

Comments

Aussie Pete's picture
Aussie Pete

Hi MAB8, I have used polenta quite a lot when making a normal white sandwhich bread. Because of a medical situation wholemeal bread can be too heavy for me to eat. So for increased fibre I will use polenta. I generally add it in to my recipe as a straight flour from the pack. Where as I have seen some recipes call for polenta that has been cooked and cooled then cut up into small rough pieces and then kneaded into the recipe. Although I like my baguette and ciabatta loaves a good polenta loaf never goes astray.............Cheers.....Peter

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Hi Peter,

How much polenta do you put into the bread, in term of percentage? Do you use polenta flour or coarse polenta? What do you think of the dough handling with polenta flour?

Most of information I found on the Web regarding polenta in bread, appears to refer to coarse polenta rather than flour.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

Aussie Pete's picture
Aussie Pete

 Hi MAB8a

I have not seen polent flour.......I misused the word earlier. It is the course sandy product that I use. Sorry for my mistake. Polenta is the Italian word and the Americans call it corn meal. So you may want to google "corn meal" and see what comes of it. I think this is the basis of corn bread. But I might be corrected on this.

Normaly I use a generious tablespoon of polenta per 500grms of flour. I start with the required volume of water for my recipe and just add a little liquid as I go with kneading the bread. ie sight and touch compensating for the polenta.

Hope this helps..............Pete

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Thanks for information, Pete

I use polenta (coarse corn meal) too in multigrain bread, but generally soak it before mixing into the dough. I have never tried adding polenta straight to the dough. It's interesting to hear from a first-hand experience that it can be done without soaking it first.

I think you're right. Polenta flour (maize flour) is called corn meal in US. I have googled 'corn meal' for bread making and it has now returned some relevant results.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

Aussie Pete's picture
Aussie Pete

Hi Sue......also google "Corn Bread".............Pete.

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Mouthwatering Picture, Sue! You and my wife are so much alike! she loves multigrain breads.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

I say, your wife has a good taste, lol. I love multigrain bread for its texture and flavour...and of course, for its nutritions.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

gary.turner's picture
gary.turner

Look also for "masa harina", a corn flour in the native American manner.  The corn is converted to hominy by cooking in an alkaline water, washing, and grinding the wet kernels to form a dough. The dough is then dried, powdered and packaged. This is considerably more healthy than unprocessed corn meal, as the conversion to hominy makes the corn's nutrients more available, especially niacin. I think it tastes better, too.

cheers,

gary

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Thanks Gary for your information, I didn't see your comment until today. "Masa Harina", I wonder if it is available in Australia.

@Sourdoc, first time I heard from anyone in Melbourn on TFL. Nice to meet you.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

Aussie Pete's picture
Aussie Pete

Hi Sue,

Hi Gary as well.

I didn't realise you were another Australian communicating on this site. I am located in Cessnock NSW gateway to the Hunter Valley wine country.

We don't have "Oasis" up here but we do have a "Bakers Delight". This one little shop has won many local regional baking awards in the Hunter Valley. Still no match for a good home cooked loaf.

Favourite Flour .....Laucke "Wallaby" Bakers Flour...........generally available most supermarkets. I like it becuase of it's strong gluten developement, it's unbleached and has NO PRESARTIVES. Any products you guys would like to mention??

We had five days in Melbourne 2 years ago. My wife and I truly loved the place for a Holiday. We then trained it over to Adelaide on the Overland Train for another 5 days...what a wonderful trip. Came home 4 kilos heavier than before I left. All gone plus some more now thankfully.

.............Pete

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Hi Pete,

I use Laucke "Wallaby" Unbleached Flour as well. They're good flour. I also picked up Laucke Unbleached Atta flour sometimes from Indian/Pakistani store.

Thomas Dux also stocks a good range of flour and grains, rye, spelt, oganic wholemeal, cracked wheat, quinoa, to name a few. If you don't have Thomas Dux in your area, you can also look for Macro brand at Woolworths supermarket.

Note: Thomas Dux is a subsidiary of Woolworths.Formerly, it was Macro green grocer. They were bought by Woollie few years back. 

Cheers,

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

Aussie Pete's picture
Aussie Pete

Hello Sue,

"Atta Flour". This I have not heard of before so I looked on the Laucke web site with no luck. It is not promoted there so I did the good old Googling. Used for Indian style Naans and chapati breads. I will try our local health food shop or an Asian grocer when next in Newcastle or Sydney. I have made Naan once or twice but my recipes only call for a white flour. Your Atta sounds interesting.

The cooking show on SBS last night was exploring Indian food. He showed a recipe obtained from a Dehli Restuarant. What surprised me was the use of eggs. I have never before seen a recipe for Naan using eggs.

 Do you have a chapati recipe that you can share............I have tried naan on many occassions when at an Indian restaurant, but never a chapati.

Cheers...........Pete

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

 Hi Pete,

Below is the link to info I found about Atta flour on Laucke web site. I generally use it in place of wholemeal in bread flour. The protein percentage is 12%

http://www.laucke.com.au/flours.html

I have never made Naan and Chepati but they are on my list of things to bake. Unfortunately, the list is getting longer by days, and they're being push towards not-so-top on the list.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

Aussie Pete's picture
Aussie Pete

Hi again Sue,

Pretty tired at present. Just worked 2X14hour shifts along with the same at the beginning of the week in this striffling heat. I don't know about Melbourne but here it has reached 42 Deg' every day this week. I'm resting now and going back out tonight for another 12 hour shift. At least I won't be in the heat of the day.

Sorry for complaining about this weather. My reason is I have come across another site about corn bread that you will find interesting.

http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=129.

Cheers for now.................Pete.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Thanks for the link, Pete.

I made the sourdough corn bread as well this weekend. It was really good.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

Aussie Pete's picture
Aussie Pete

Hi again Sue,

I am just making at present a sandwich loaf of white(laucke Wallaby) with a slight difference.

Recipe

Poolish

150 grams flour

150 grams water

4grms of instant dried yeast(Lowmans).

Mix together above, let stand for 8 hours in covered bowl and let rise etc.

Stage Two

450 grms of flour

4grms yeast

10 grms salt

50 grms polenta (course, not floured)

100 grms of buttermilk.

mix the poolish and stage two together then  keep adding enough water till it feels right for you to knead. I used my old bread baking machine to knead. I've allowed an hour  to rise, divided the dough in half and now letting have a final proof before baking. I've ended up with 2 loaves in sandwich pans now getting ready for the oven while the oven is heating up for them.

This recipe is straight from the top of my head. Next time I will measure the water weight.

I'm just thought I would try buttermilk and polenta together looking for a soft high fibre sandwich loaf. Baking about 200 Degrees

Wish me luck and I will let you know how it goes.