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Corn Rye Sourdough
This is an adaptation of the Corn-Rye Rounds in Daniel Leader's Local Breads. I’ve had my eye on this one for ages, but never got around to making it. It sounds more "cakey" than "bready", using rye flour and a large percentage of fine corn flour. In this version I use coarse rye meal and polenta, aiming for an equally substantial, but more "bready" loaf. I veered a bit further in that direction than I meant to, but the result was absolutely delicious.
The rye flavor is particularly noticeable in the crust – there is nothing quite like that flavor. It combines very nicely with the slightly sweet flavor of the polenta. The only downside to this bread is that, right out of the oven anyway, the polenta in the crust can be little hard on the teeth.
The hydration is the trickiest part of this formula. Consider the numbers here a guideline. I know that’s the caveat in any formula, but I think it is especially true here. I ground the rye in a coffee grinder to about the same consistency as the polenta. It isn’t really noticeable in the finished bread the way the polenta is.
For next time I would like to try adding a little fine corn flour and more rye flour for an even heartier loaf.
Oh, and it makes a spectacularly delicious French toast!
And, the Family Grain Mill attachment for my mixer just arrived so I have some serious experimenting to do!
Marcus
Comments
Nice bake Marcus. Of my favorite varieties. If you stick with polenta you might want to turn it into a soaker to take some of the bite off. I did a corn beer rye that I need to revisit and this post reminded me.
Cheers
josh
Thanks, Josh. I did a hot soak of the polenta and rye meal overnight so in the crumb it was nice and soft, but the stuff out on the crust was dried out again by the bold bake. I might try grinding some or all of the polenta just a little finer next time. I'm finding that polenta combines well with just about everything, but I agree, this combo is especially nice!
Marcus
janetcook got me putting 5% corn in every bread I made for quite a while and the reason was simple enough. The bread tasted better with it in the mix. Your corn, rye is beautiful inside and out. It has to be very tasty. Well done all the way around Marcus and
Happy baking!
Thank you, dabrownman! There is something addictive about it. I've been having a hard time keeping it out of my breads lately!
Marcus
This looks fantastic. I've made similar breads using polenta and cornflour but I don't think with rye. I made a polenta bread with actually cooking the polenta and mixing it with some cheese. I then let it set and mixed the cooked polenta in with the bread. Anyway, this formula looks great and certainly worthy of trying.
Regards
Ian
Thanks, Ian! The polenta & rye combo is definitely worth a shot - I'm already pondering other ratios to test and methods to try. I can imagine cheese and polenta works brilliantly.
Marcus
5% corn and 35-40% rye which would be Lucy''s Tzitzel :-)
Happyy corn baking Marcus.
Well, I wouldn't want to see Lucy's ferocious side... what if I were to save her a couple slices?
Marcus
a bit of corrn meal and a bit of corn masa in there after she saw those fine corn masa biscuits posted earlier this week.
Lucy has been trained to only bite her master:and she is good at it-)
Yeah, the masa rolls caught my eye, too. Might have to try working some of that into a loaf soon.
Thanks, and yeah, I had the same problem, so the first loaf sure disappeared in a hurry! I'm almost afraid to take the second one out of the freezer. I'll have to plan some vigorous physical activity that day to balance out devouring a whole loaf of bread!