March 2, 2009 - 7:37pm
Corn flour
A local grocery store was going out of business and in their sale I picked up a bag of Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Corn Flour. It is very fine and I was thinking of Pane Siciliano - but of course it isn't semolina flour. So what CAN I use it for? Any suggestions? Has anyone used it? Help, please, A
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I have had very good results with the yeasted corn bread from bread cetra http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=129 I usually grind my own.
Thanks, beeman, I'll have to give the yeasted corn bread a try. I had never heard of it before but it looks good, A.
I too have made a lovely yeasted cornbread that is in SUNDAYS AT MOOSEWOOD RESTAURANT cookbook (here is our take on the recipe). It's fabulous sliced and grilled on the barbecue. It's also really good toasted with butter and honey.
You might also try Portuguese-style cornbread - this is not the sweet Easter version of Portuguese cornbread, but a plain (in a good way) bread that is ideal for savoury dishes. I haven't made that particular recipe yet (I keep meaning to! It's been bookmarked for ages.) If you do end up making it, I'll be really interested to hear what you think.
-Elizabeth
Elizabeth, thank you for your reply. I couldn't check your take on this recipe - for some reason Firefox wouldn't cooperate- but I would love to see it sometime, A.
Yes, suddenly, etherwork.net is offline. I don't know how long this downtime will happen. If it doesn't come back by tomorrow (I certainly hope that doesn't happen!), I'll type the recipe here.
-Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth, I thought the name was familiar and indeed I have the Sundays at Moosewood book - but I can't figure out which bread it could be? Anyway it would be nice to get your version, TIA, A.
I know what you mean about the recipe being hard to find, Annie. Inexplicably, it's not listed under "C" for corn bread. It's listed under "R" for Rhode Island Corn bread. (That's one of the disadvantages to using a book; one can't hit "ctrl+F" to look for key words....)
The recipe does call for cornmeal but I can't imagine that whole grain corn flour doesn't amount to the same thing.
I'm happy to report that my site is back online now if you'd like to compare the two recipes.
-Elizabeth
edit: and etherwork.net is OFFline again... (no idea what's going on), if you'd like to look at the recipe, the only thing I can suggest is to plug http://etherwork.net/recipes/yeastbread.html#corn into the search window on google and then view the cached version of the page.
Many thanks, Elizabeth. I was beginning to think I was really losing my mind this time! I'm still not sure - the corn flour is so very fine that I would hesitate to substitute it for cornmeal. But I am still interested in your take on the recipe, A.
I do believe that my site is back online again, Annie.
http://etherwork.net/recipes/yeastbread.html#corn
I do use cornmeal rather than finely ground cornflour. But I suspect the cornflour would work too.
It is sounding more and more like the flour you have would be ideal for the Portuguese-style cornbread "Pao de Milho". If it's the kind of bread I think it is (and it sounds like it is) it's really wonderful: incredible crust on the outside and a dense crumb. It's fantastic with grilled sardines.
-Elizabeth
Elizabeth, I have copied the recipe into my little book and it sounds good, thank you. Now I know where to look in the Moosewood book I can go back to that one too - so many breads, so little time! I appreciate your help so much, A.
Glad to be of service, Annie. And I know what you mean about so many breads and so little time (and/or freezer space)!
I'll be really interested to hear what you think of the Pao de Milho. (Although... I really should make it myself soon.)
Happy Baking!
-Elizabeth
Looks like corn flour is best for cakes and cookies. You might want to try the recipe for crumiri at Anson Mills http://www.ansonmills.com/home.htm, although it's for fine cornmeal. Hope your flour isn't too old.
Thank you, charbono, the crumiri look delicious! The flour I bought has a sell by date of 2/28/2010 so I think it is fine for a while. A.