This bread was inspired by a post at Wild Yeast Blog (and also my inner frugality and curiosity) about incorporating old bread into the dough. The idea is also based on the bread-making wisdom that old bread will improve bread flavour and its keeping quality.

I love the idea that instead of throwing stale bread away, I can make the use out of it. The piece that was destined for the bin or compost could potentially improve the bread flavour and texture. It is a fabulous idea.

I had a small piece of sourdough corn bread left over from two weeks ago that I have put them aside in the fridge. I chopped it into one-inch pieces and process them in food processor to get the breadcrumb (it was about 90 grams, or 10% of total flour weight).

The bread has a wonderful aroma, and it is even more so when toasted. The bread is quite sweet even though there is only 5% of honey in it. I guess the high amount of corn in the recipe also contributse to the natural sweetness of the loaf. I totally love this bread for its flavour and aroma. It is seriously yummy bread. It's nice on its own and even better with butter.

I also stenciled hearts into the loaves, just to get into the spirit of Valentine's Day:P.

For more details and pictures, you can follow the link below:

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/02/sourdough-corn-bread-with-old-bread.html

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you my bake from last night.  I made this bread using white corn flour, freshly milled jasmine brown rice, and millet.  I may have overhydrated, but I think it turned out nicely.  Enjoy!

Tim

Ingredients:

700g AP

100g Jasmine Brown Rice (freshly milled)

100g Millet (freshly milled)

100g White Corn Flour

188g SD starter @ 60% hydr

700g Water

20g Kosher Salt

1/2 tsp ADY

1900g Total Dough Yield

Directions:

6:35pm - Mix all ingredients in large mixing bowl well, cover and let rest for 25 mins.

7:00pm - Knead for 30 seconds using wet hands and french fold kneading method in mixing bowl ala Richard Bertinet.  Cover let rest.

7:30pm - Turn dough.

8:00pm - Turn dough.

9:25p - Divide and shape into 2 boules.  Just do 2 letter folds, place in floured linen lined banneton and let proof for 1 hr.  Arrange baking stones on 2 levels along with steam pan.  Preheat to 500F.

10:00 - Turn dough out onto floured peel, place in oven directly on stone.  When all loaves are in, place 1 1/2 cups water in steam pan, close door.  Bake 15 mins at 450F with steam.  Rotate between stones, bake for 30 minutes at 425F.  Loaves are done when internal temp reaches 210F.  Cool completely before cutting.

Submitted to Yeastspotting on 5/6/10

One of my goals in learning how to make bread was to be able to recreate a bread I ate as a child called tzitzel.   As I understand it, tzitzel mean caraway in Yiddish, and tzitzel is a rye bread with caraway and covered with cornmeal.   So far, despite many attempts and many different formulas, I have not come very close to recreating this memory bread.   Perhaps one can never recreate memory bread.    In any cases, my searches on this site, with its many rye bakers, led me to Greenstein's Secret of a Jewish Baker.   I have tried making his Jewish Rye (p. 136) a couple of times, and not very successfully given beginner's errors.   I have also made Jewish Corn Bread (p. 155) actually a rye bread with caraway wrapped in cornmeal, several times,  and despite many  beginner's errors, this bread is delicious enough to make me (almost) forget about some elusive memory of tzitzel.   The problem with Jewish Corn Bread, at least as I make it, is that while I can get it to taste good, I can't for the life of me get it to look good.   The instructions call for the following:  "[after kneading] Transfer the dough to a prepared clean wet bowl...pat the dough down and cover with a film of water....Allow the dough to rise until doubled in volume, 45 to 60 minutes."   This is the only rise for this bread.   And within minutes after it's done rising it goes straight into the oven.   I suspect that this treatment is what causes it to taste so great, and what makes it so addictive (to me anyhow).   However, it's a bloody mess when it comes out of the water, practically unshapeable, soggy in parts and so on.   And to make matters worse, I'm not 100% sure that his instructions mean to immerse it in water - although that's how I've read it.    Does he mean immerse the dough, or does he just mean spill water over it until it's thoroughly wet.    Also Greenstein gives all his measurements by volume, some approximately, and I just cook it that way, but my results have been pretty consistent, and pretty consistently ugly. 

I'll wait until tomorrow to post crumb photos.   I've learned on this site, that one must wait, wait, wait to cut into rye!

And the crumb...

I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and remember corn bread shaped like rye bread. Except , if I remember correctly it was slightly yellow but I don't remember it being a sour>

Also I am looking for a recipe to make rye bread as used in delis.

Any suggestions? I would really appreciate it since I've being searching for eons.

Mitchell

For anyone who might be interested, I've described a recent baking of corn bread here:

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

SteveB

Here's a Canadian's first attempt at corn bread. It turned out extremely well. I baked them in a stoneware dish that has spaces for four loaves. The other two were promptly eaten with dinner. I wrote more about the recipe here: http://jeremyskitchen.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/corn-bread/ Any suggestions for my next baking project? 

Greenstein's Corn Bread is the ultimate Jewish rye, and it is unique in the technique with which it is made. The ingredients are the usual - rye sour, rye flour, common flour (AKA first clear flour), yeast and caraway seeds. And water. The crust is glazed with a corn starch/water mixture.