The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

corn

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Okay, I'm back to my normal self again baking abi-normal breads.  I've made bread with corn flour before, but this time I wanted to use a slurry of roasted corn as well as use corn flour in the sourdough starter.  I also wanted to add some cheese and I thought some nice salty tasting Feta cheese would be a good combination.  The bread is just about to come out of the oven and I can smell the corn and feta cheese all throughout the house.  Not exactly a great thing to control my hunger while on a diet, but such is life.

This is a very wet dough, even though the overall hydration is only 72%, by adding the corn slurry it really increased the moisture content of the dough greatly.  I tried to bake this using a bundt pan mold from my wife's collection. I should have probably baked it in the mold but instead I removed the dough and it kind of flattened out and melded together into a big round blob shape.  I scored the loaf and it did get some good oven spring but next time I will bake it part of the way in the bundt pan and see what happens.

The final bread, while not resembling the intricate bundt mold I used, did come out great with a nice crispy crust and open and tasty crumb.  The bread is nice and moist and really came out amazing.

If you make this recipe, make sure to roast your corn first or you will lose that special sweet flavor that only roasted corn can impart.

I also used avocado oil which I am not sure what it actually added to the flavor profile, so feel free to substitute olive oil or any oil of your choice.

Directions

Starter Build 1

95 grams AP Flour (KAF)

55 grams Corn Flour (Bob's Red Mill)

50 grams Seed Starter at 65% hydration (If you use a 100% hydration starter you need to adjust the water amount and flour amount to compensate)

90 grams Water at room temperature.

Mix all the above ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 4-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I usually do this the night before.

Starter Build 2

75 grams AP Flour

25 grams Corn Flour

75 grams Water at room temperature

Mix all the ingredients into the starter from step 1 until they are incorporated.  Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 4-6 hours or until doubled.  You can then refrigerate for up to 1  day or use in the main dough immediately.

Main Dough Ingredients

425 grams  Starter from above  (Note: you will have a little extra starter from above so make sure to weigh it out)

350 grams European Style Flour (KAF, you can sub Bread Flour with a little bit of Whole Wheat)

100 grams Durum Flour ( KAF)

75 grams Potato Flour (KAF)

50 grams Corn Flour (Bob's Red Mill)

77 grams Feta Cheese

17 grams Seas Salt or Table Salt

22 grams Avocado Oil (substitute olive oil if necessary)

425 grams Water at room temperature

155 grams Roasted Corn Slurry (Instructions below)

Total Flour (Including Starters and Seed Starter)

802 grams

Total Water (Including Starters and Seed Starter)

576 grams

Total Hydration: 72%

Procedure

Roasted Corn Slurry

I used a grill pan to do this since I still have too much snow on the ground to get to my barbecue.  Either way, you want to shuck 2 medium ears of corn, spray on or brush on some olive oil and add sprinkle some smoked hickory salt, onion powder, garlic powder and cheese powder. Wrap in aluminum foil or if you have the husks you can wrap them back in the husks.  Grill for about 15-20 minutes until you have a nice char on all sides.

Let the corn cool down and cut the corn from the cobs and place 155 grams in your food processor and give it a whirl until the corn starts resembling a slurry.  You don't want to overdo it since you want some texture to the corn to remain.

Main Dough

Mix the flours, oil and 385  grams of the water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  Next add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces),and corn slurry and mix on low for a minute.  Add the rest of the water unless the dough is way too wet (note this is a very wet dough but you don't want soup).   Mix on low-speed for another 2 minutes.  Next add the cheese and mix for 1 additional minute.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and with wet or oiled hands do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  (Feel free to do additional stretch and folds if necessary).  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.  As mentioned above I used a bundt pan mold.  I shaped the dough into 2 batards and placed both of them in the mold and sealed them together.

 

 Next I covered the dough with a moist tea towel.  The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 205 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

loydb's picture
loydb

I'm continuing with the theme of 'corn' this week. This time, I'm starting with a 50/50 mix of Heartland Mill's organic blue and yellow corn. It took me a little time to get the mill dialed in for the coarseness I was after -- and I ended up sifting out roughly 50% of the meal, leaving me with true grits (and a bunch of corn flour for my next loaf of bread).

I had a cup or so of a mixture of onion, hot peppers and garlic left over from making tacos the other night, so I used it as the base for the polenta along with chicken stock and (at the very end) butter and shredded cheddar cheese. After 45 minutes in the oven (stirring every 10 minutes), I had a nice creamy polenta that I served with marinara sauce and sour cream. The rest of the polenta was poured into a baking tray and put in the fridge. I'll grill it up over the next few days as a side dish.

Szanter5339's picture
Szanter5339

350 ml of water
3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons cornstarch FLOUR
1 tablespoon vinegar (20%)
3 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
800 gram flour
20 grams of yeast

In yeast +
Preparation of yeast, 1-2 days before cooking.
yeast:
140 ml of water
150 grams of flour
1 tablespoon oil
½ teaspoon salt
20 grams of yeast

loydb's picture
loydb

I broke out the metal 'stones' for my Retsel and made cornbread tonight. The corn was organic blue corn from Heartland Mill. The wheat flour in the recipe was a mixture of hard red and hard white wheat from Pleasant Hill. These, plus some butter and jam, were all we needed for dinner tonight.




HokeyPokey's picture
HokeyPokey

An emergency bake,  supplies of bread are running low, Mexican chilli on the go for dinner and I have nothing to go with it. To me all of that calls for a soft and buttery corn bread – I wanted to use starter as it was bubbling away nicely but due to time constrains I had to use some commercial yeast as well.

I am very very happy with the result – lovely and crumbly corn bread with whole corn kernels and a touch of chilli. It only lasted a day, and I haven’t even had a chance to try it toasted – I can imagine it would toast really well.

 

Full recipe and lots of photos (including in-progress ones) on my blog here

iPhone quality photos this time, didn't have time to get the big camera out

grahamcraker's picture

Corn Fritters, Corn Cakes?

August 7, 2011 - 8:27am -- grahamcraker
Forums: 

When I was small, my father had an older friend we would visit on the weekends. He would make these; what he called, "Corn Fritters" for me. I loved them! They were actually some kind of corn meal/flour, fresh corn pancake things. He made them like Griddle Cakes, and we poured Maple Syrup on them.

I have tried to replicate them, but am having issues. Anyone Have an Old Family recipe for something like this?

Thanks

HokeyPokey's picture
HokeyPokey

My starter was calling out to me and I couldn’t decided what type of bread I should make when I got home after work. I’ve noticed red chillies sitting on my kitchen shelf and remembered that I had some fine corn meal somewhere in the cupboard – corn and chilli bread it is!!

Mixed it up last night after work, shaped it around midnight before going to bed and baked it this morning. Didn’t get a very strong corn smell while it was baking – the corn flavour is quite mild, crumb is very soft and it is very very tasty.

The dough was incredibly soft and I was tempted to all more flour to it last night – glad I didn’t, great texture and you can really tell the impact milk and butter had on the dough. Will definitely make this one again.

Full recipe and instructions in my blog here





austintexican's picture

Trying to make cornmeal flatbread that will wrap/fold like pita

May 19, 2011 - 11:35pm -- austintexican

Hi everyone, this is my first post on Fresh Loaf,

I'm trying to make a flatbread that tastes like mild cornbread (somewhere between an earthy, "maizey" white masa tortilla and the sweet yellow cornbread I grew up eating) that has the physical properties of pita bread, in that it is fluffy and breadlike, yet easly folds so that you can wrap it around fillings.

So far, I'm getting the taste and fluffy breadiness I want from the recipe below, but the flatbreads break and crumble when I try to fold them, even though the crust is relatively soft and they will flex a bit.

manuela's picture
manuela

  I baked these rolls using a recipe from a book published in 1918 and meant to help in the conservation of wheat flour. It has many interesting recipes using other grains such as corn, buckwheat, etc. and the recipes that I tried all turned out beautifully. These rolls contain a minimal amount of sugar and butter and taste great.I made them for bread baking day #12.

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup scalded  milk

1 egg, well beaten

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp melted butter

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

zest of 1 (organic) lemon

1/2 cup (60 g)  corn flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill brand)

1 tsp active dry yeast dissolved in 2 tbsp warm water

3/4 cup to 1-1/2  (105g to 210 g) cups bread flour (or as needed) (I used King Arthur bread flour)

Pour the scalded milk over the sugar and salt, mix well and set aside to cool. Once the milk mixture is lukewarm add 3/4 cup of bread flour and the dissolved yeast. Mix vigorously and let the sponge ferment,covered, until doubled.

When the sponge is light add the melted butter, egg, grated lemon rind and corn flour. Mix well at low speed then add just enough bread flour to make a dough that is very soft but well developed and just slightly tacky.  Do not add too much flour or the rolls will turn out dry and heavy.

Lightly grease a bowl and place the dough to rise, covered, until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Gently transfer the risen dough onto a lightly greased surface and divide it in 12 equal pieces. Shape each into small round rolls (the dough is too soft to keep well any other shape more complex than rounds or ovals). Place each roll onto a rimless baking sheet and lightly brush with milk.

Let the rolls rise, covered, until doubled. Brush again with milk then with sharp kitchen scissors cut a decorative pattern on each roll.

Bake for about 20 minutes until nice and golden.

These rolls are great to eat either warm or cold. They can also be split and toasted to have with jam or marmalade, and can be frozen once cooled.

http://bakinghistory.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/corn-flour-rolls-bbd-12-small-breads/

Subscribe to RSS - corn