 Submitted by Franko on October 29, 2010 - 3:45pm
Savoury Polenta Levain
This summer our garden provided us with a bumper crop of little cherry tomatoes , so many in fact that we, or rather my wife Marie, ended up putting a large portion of them in the dehydrator so we could make use of them through the winter time. The tomatoes were cured briefly in a mix of salt, olive oil and fresh oregano before going into the dehydrator. When they were finally ready to eat we were amazed at how well the pure tomato flavour had been retained. I've eaten a lot of the sun dried type that you can find at the grocer or deli over the years, but I've never had any with quite as intense a flavour as these little gems. At last count we had just over a half pound of dried cherry tomatoes , which made me think that we could spare a few to make a bread with. The idea of using them in a loaf with polenta came from remembering an excellent grilled polenta with a sun dried tomato, garlic, parmigiano and olive oil dressing that I'd had years before at a pot luck BBQ with some friends.
Searches on TFL and the web in general didn't turn up much that I was interested in as most them called for eggs and milk or other ingredients I wasn't keen on, so I thought a little experimentation was in order to make the bread I had in mind. It had to be made with natural yeast, polenta -(more accurately, a hot cornmeal soaker), and the dried tomatoes, other than that I was pretty open to using whatever I felt would help compliment the flavour of the tomatoes. Thinking about the grilled polenta dish that I'd had, I decided to just go with some roasted garlic and parmigiano as the flavour additions and see how that worked. Well it worked just fine! The tomato flavour came through as the main player, the garlic and cheese offering subtle support, and the polenta adding a soft texture to the overall loaf. The sour sort of plays around in the background, which is what I was hoping for since I wasn't going for a tangy or sharp flavoured bread. The polenta gives it a soft crumb, and the wheat provides a good chewy crust, making for a pleasant contrast while you're eating it. This bread is great for panini sandwiches and toasts up quite nicely as well, but to me this is what I call a 'cocktail bread' , or something that you might make to take to a friends for dinner, or to have with some olives and cheese and a glass of wine as your waiting for the main course to finish cooking. There are a number of other things you could add to it such as toasted pine nuts, various herbs, or a different type of cheese but if you're looking for the taste of the tomato to shine through I'd recommend using a light hand. The recipe is included below as well as some photos. If any TFL'rs are interested in giving this one a whirl, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.
All the best,
Franko
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SAVOURY POLENTA LEVAIN
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Ingredients
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%
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Kg
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Kg
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Levain
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Mature liquid Culture
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13
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10
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Bread Flour
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100
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78
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Water
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125
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100
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Polenta
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Water-144 F
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100
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300
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Yellow Cornmeal
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33
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100
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Butter/olive oil *
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5
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15
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Final Dough
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Bread Flour
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100
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600
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Polenta
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69
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415
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Honey
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2.5
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15
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Roasted
Garlic/
Shallots
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6
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36
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Parmigiano Cheese
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10
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60
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Levain
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31
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188
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Salt
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2
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12
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Water
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25
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150
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Dried Tomatoes
*
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10
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60
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Total
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1305.5
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Notes:
*drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes to soften before starting the mix.
sundried tomatoes packed in oil and drained can be used as well -all or in part
* either butter or olive oil work well, use butter if a richer flavour is desired
Procedure:
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Make the polenta at the same time as the levain. Pour boiling water over the cornmeal and butter/oil and stir well then heat in microwave on high for 1 minute, stir until it begins to thicken, then heat for another minute or less and stir again till the polenta is very thick. Pour into a shallow container and let cool overnight. The polenta should be soft and slightly granular, not gelatinized or rubbery.
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Break the polenta up in the mixer using the paddle attachment on 3rd speed for 1 minute, then add and mix all the ingredients except the salt and tomatoes on 1st speed until combined in a rough mass. Add the salt and mix on 1st speed for 3-4 minutes then on 2nd speed for 7-8 minutes. Adjust the water if needed to attain a medium soft dough. The dough should be soft enough to incorporate the dried tomatoes easily.
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1st stretch and fold after 1 hr, then again after the 2nd hr.
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Retard at 45F or less for 18 hrs. Allow the dough to come to room temp of 70-75F for 1-1/12 hr before shaping.
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Lightly round the dough, cover and rest for 15-20 minutes, then shape as desired and roll the loaf in semolina. Try to tuck any tomatoes poking through the suface back inside or underneath the loaf to keep them from scorching. Let rise for 2-1/2 to 3 hrs, then slash and slide on to a stone in a preheated 500F oven with normal steam and lower the oven temp to 460F. Bake for 15 minutes then rotate the loaf for even baking if using a non convection oven and bake an additional 20-25 minutes, rotating the loaf once more.
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Cool the loaf on wire racks for 8hrs wrapped in baker's linen
Submitted by md_massimino on December 30, 2008 - 11:42am
I'm a newbie breadophile and I've been baking nonstop for about three months. Most stuff I make is good, with the occasional clunked. This came out so good I wanted to share. We had a large family gathering on Christmas Eve so I wanted to make a special bread. I found this recipe on Food Network's site...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/three-tiered-braided-christmas-bread-recipe/index.html
It's essentially three separately flavored bread loaves braided into one big un, the flavors being olive, sun dried tomoato and pesto. The only thing I changed in the recipe was instead of making the three pastes to flavor the bread I bought 8-ounce containers of pre-made from Whole Foods. At $4 a pop it was cheaper in the long run and saved some time on an already hectic morning or party prep. The picture below shows the pre-baked loaf before the final rise:
Here's the finished product:
It was a jaw dropper once it was on the table, people were blown away. It's relatively simple to make except my wife had to explain how to make a braid. The crust was great, the bread itself was super moist and tasty. I didn't take a picture of the crumb because I didn't want to dig into it before the guests arrived and when they did I was too busy playing host to snap a shot.
Overall a highly recommended project for a special occasion.
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