Masa Hariña-Rye Loaf With Masa Hariña Starter

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tpassin on 9 May 2025 at 15:04
Masa-rye loaf using masa harina starter

I created a new starter using masa hariña in four days.  This loaf is the first bake using it.

I don't know that there's much benefit out of using an all- masa hariña starter but I wanted to see if it would leaven a wheat bread well enough, as I thought it would. It seemed possible that there might be some interesting flavors compared with a wheat starter.

With a masa hariña starter, if you make it thick, as it would be at 100% hydration, it doesn't trap enough gas to show convincingly that it's active. You need to add liquid up to perhaps 150% to get a viscosity like a AP wheat flour at 100%.  Then the top and sides will show plenty of bubbles. Of course, it will ferment faster than the thick version. 

With this starter, the last day's mix was thick. I took 40g of it and mixed it with 40g of AP flour and about 60g of water, to demonstrate that the new starter was nice and active. After 5 hours it looked very satisfactory.  So I decided I had just made a levain and I should make bread with it.  It made quite a nice loaf.  Here's a slice from near the end of the loaf:

a slice near the end

Recipe

  • 110g (37%) - levain
  • 60g (20%) - rye (stone ground)
  • 20g (6.7%) - masa hariña
  • 220g (73%) - KA bread flour
  • 1 Tbs - sugar
  • 6.5g (2.2%) - salt

Mix everything until hydrated. Rest 1/2 hr, knead. Rest 1/2 hr, S&F. Rest 1 hr, S&F. Rest 1 hr, S&F.

Bulk ferment total ~6 hr. Refrigerate overnight. Warm 1 1/2 hours, shape, proof 1 1/2 hours.

Bake preheated to 450°F with steam, reduce to 300°F 18 min, 410°F 18 min.

The flavor is pleasant and delicate, but the corn isn't very noticeable. There isn't as much masa as I've been putting in my corn-rye loaves recently, and I will increase it next time to about 20%.

The crumb is soft and is nicely open.  The crust is too soft even  though it looks good.  That's because the corn holds onto a lot of water and I didn't bake it long enough to compensate.  It will still make great toast, though. The dough was very pleasant to handle by the last S&F, and I'm sure a dough like this will make a good Pullman loaf.  Instead of the sugar, added because it plays well with rye, @trailrunner's Trinity (EVOO, honey, yogurt) ought to work really well.

As a proof-of-principle this loaf is a success. 

TomP