My First Cornmeal Sourdough
I created a new starter last week from just cornmeal and water (150% hydration) as a bit of an experiment. It has a really nice sour smell to it and I've been so excited to bake with it. This is my first loaf using the new starter. It was really tasty, slightly sour. My husband really loved it!
- 200g 150% hydration cornmeal starter
- 500g water
- 30g psyllium
- 350g flour - 100g cornmeal, 75g white rice, 75g sorghum, 100g corn starch well combined
- 10g salt
Mix the starter and psyllium with the water and beat until a gel is formed. Add all of the remaining ingredients. Mix and knead until a smooth dough is formed. Cover in an oiled bowl and leave to rise until approximately 2.5x the original size. Form into a boule and place in a floured banneton. Cover and prove on the bench for about 40 minutes. Retard in the fridge over night. In the morning, lift out the bread and prove at room temp whilst preheating the oven to 250c. Turn out eh dough and slash the top. Egg wash if desired. Bake on a stone, with a couple of ice cubes in the bottom of the oven, until well browned. Leave to cool COMPLETELY on a rack before slicing.
Comments
Wow! i thought this was an ordinary bread. Gluten free, attractive and yummy.. Nice work, Laura!
Now, get me some Psyllium.
-Khalid
Thanks Khalid! I just wish I had a smaller banneton. It ended up a bit flat because it was a bit too wide for this amount of bread.
I think this yellow bake is great even though it doesn't have any of my favorite best tasting yellow non gluten grains - quinoa and millet. What a great GF bake. Well done
Thanks man! I love interesting coloured crumbs :)
quinoa is a super food but it is really in the spinach family and not a grain. Still Gluren free like Millets which isa grain but not a super food in my book
Looks great. So how did it taste? Was it like a sourdough cornbread?
It was a lot like regular sourdough. I've never had cornbread, so I'm not sure about that!
First of all-this is a beautiful looking loaf for gluten free (or even not gluten free!)
A coworker just told me she was diagnosed with celiac and REALLY misses bread so now I finally have a reason to work on my gluten free breadmaking skills. I have been lurking and reading but I just assembled my first dough. Many questions!
Actually I went to your blog and made the quick Ciabatta. My dough was more like a batter(more like a thick bannock or pancake batter) so in addition to the listed ingredients I added 50 g of teff flour (I like the flavor) to stiffen it a little more. The dough was still pretty loose but with a dough/bench scraper, it will kind of hold its shape. This is definitely NOT a dough I can knead like regular bread dough-very sticky and no strength. Almost like an airy mound of gelatin. Does this sound right to you?
I also notice that in each of your bread recipes, there is no oil, fat,eggs or sweetener of any kind. Is that a personal preference or do those ingredients have an effect on the dough formation?
I used instant yeast. Is that OK with a celiac? I wasn't sure if they use a wheat based cereal as part of the process and used it without thinking.
DRY INGREDIENTS:
Psyllium-I have psyllium husks (not seed). Is that what you use? The husks also come ground coarse and fine here (USA) and mine was coarsely ground.
Sweet white sorghum flour from Bob's Red Mill
http://www.bobsredmill.com/sorghum-flour.html?&cat=5
Brown Rice Flour -I didn't have white rice flour-Will that make a difference?
Corn starch- I believe that is the same over the pond.
I'll let eveyrone know how it turned out. Fingers crossed!.
Guidance appreciated!
I put up a cornmeal starter this morning and hope it will take off.The corn loaf looks so delicious!
I occassionally do use a little olive oil or sugar, but I find a lot of dairy/eggs weighs the loaves down and gives an un-bread-like cakey texture. A lot of people use eggs in gf baking and their dough is more like cake batter. They use very short proofing times and end up with heavy bricks which don't hold their shape. This is why I decided to go down another route and start the blog. The artisan baker in me just could not see those loaves as bread haha.
THe loaf-a little flat:
Crumb and bottom of loaf:
The texture of the crumb is a little too moist for me and next time I will reduce the salt. This is a very moist dough so any flavor gets transmitted to the tongue very easily-less flavoring needed.There is also an aftertaste I do not like and it may be the Brown rice flour. Next time I will buy some white flour and also possibly toast some of the flour for a "browned" taste. I can see why you instruct to flip the proofed loaf over as that prob traps all those broken bubbles inside the loaf. Not a bad 1st attempt but definitely needs improvement.
It would not have been such a good first attempt without LauraT and JeurgenKrauss former posts.
Nice first attempt! The type of psyllium you are using is ground and therefore I believe you may need to use less than me, but I'm not sure how to convert. I use whole husks. Also, I think the brown/white rice difference will have quite a big effect. The texture will be less fine in the brown rice and the white rice gives only a very subtle flavour.
My favourite loaf I've made and the one that has been the most popular on the blog, etc is this soudough. When your sd is ready, I recommend giving it a try.
I use instant yeast and the one I have specified gf. In the uk at least, any contamination is usually mentioned.
The sorghum flour I have is white but does not specify 'sweet' or not. I got it from an Indian grocer. It looks the same as the brm stuff, so it's probably the same type.
Oh, another note, you mentioned you cannot knead the dough, but this is not neccassary without gluten to develop. The ciabatta was supposed to be very wet, as inspired by Jason's Cocodrillo Ciabatta, which is close to 100% hydration. GF grains are similar to rye, in that they need a higher hydration.
Also, the bread needs to rest for quite a while before cutting, to prevent a gummy texture.
I mentioned "knead" because that was in the instructions about "kneading just until smooth". So a thick batter consistency is what you usually have? I'd love a picture of your dough next time you make a loaf.
I let thebread cool completely so the texture wasn't too bad but still a bit moist.
Although it is wet and sticky it is definitely still dough-like. Not like cake batter. I think the fact that we used different psyllium and flours will definitely have an impact.
I will try again this weekend with a change in some of the flours and some decrease in the psyllium.
Stay close!