Portuguese Corn Bread (Broa de Milho) for Homemade Bread Day
The original post for this bread credits Varda for requesting a recipe for it. The poster (whom I neglected to record - sigh), found and adapted a recipe, and it was that formula I chose to prepare. It contains whole wheat, spelt, rye and BF, along with a scald of cornmeal. It employs a 4-hour levain and an overnight bulk ferment on the counter.
There were several steps, so I had read the recipe carefully, assembled ingredients, and (thought) I followed the directions. All went fine with the levain and with the scald, but once I brought everything together for the final dough... I had soup. No way was the flour going to accommodate all that liquid. I still can't figure where I misstepped, but reviewing the formula, it was clearly my mistake.
So, Tillie (my erstwhile apprentice and harshest critic) and I conferred - it was either: toss the mess and start over or attempt a repair. Plan B it was! In went more flour, and more, and more (plus salt), nearly 400 g. How could I have mismeasured by that much?! But it came together and I left it on the wet side (% wasn't possible at this point) to allow for hydration. So into an oiled bowl for the night on the counter, and woke to this...
It looked disastrous, but all was recovered, a few stretch and folds later, it was a lovely, resilient dough that I divided into 6, rather than the intended 4 small loaves. Wow. Two hours later, it went into the oven, baked on parchment at 450F for 20 minutes with steam and at 400F for 25 minutes without. They sprang nicely, but didn't brown beyond a sunny, corny gold.
I'd like to make this one again - correctly next time - but I'm not displeased with it. The crumb is a bit closer than I would have wished, but soft and pliant, the corn flavor comes through and there's a noticeable, but not overpowering sour. There's no denying that it's homemade bread, but that's exactly what I wanted it to be.
Looking forward to seeing all the posts! Happy Homemade Bread Day!
Cathy