Portuguese Corn Bread

When Ron was experimenting with Basque Cod Pil Pil (http://www.foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/the-magic-of-basque-cod-pil-pil_topic3009.html) he wanted to make a bread that would both compliment the dish, and be more-or-less traditional.

Turning to Bread: The Breads of the World and How to Bake Them at Home, he found a recipe for Portuguese Corn Bread. Not exactly traditional to a Basque dish, but a good choice to accompany the cod. And, in fact, the exact same bread made with barley flour would be a traditional Spanish version.

So, all in all, I thought it was a good choice. And he’ll be posting a pictorial about his experiences soon as he can get to it.

Ron reported, privately, that the bread was delicious. But he’d had some issues with it. Among the more important ones:

      -The dough was very stiff and difficult to knead. 

      -The crumb was on the crumbly side. Not falling-apart crumbly, but not as tight as most wheat breads.

     -The crust was harder than he’d expected, and required overnight storage in a plastic bag to soften.

It’s always difficult to analyze something you don’t have in hand. And in this case it was a bread I hadn’t made myself. So I set out to make the bread. Doing so reinforced some of my guesses about what Ron experienced. I thought sharing those thoughts might benefit other FotWers who think they’re doing something wrong. As it turns out, Ron did everything right. And the bread he’d baked turned out precisely the way it was supposed to.

Let’s look at his issues in order.

     -A stiff dough usually is a sign of a dry dough. Sometimes that’s the intent. But more often it means additional liquid needs to be added. If you’re kneading by hand, this can be an especial problem, because you’re automatically adding more flour from the work surface.

       When I made the bread I ran into the same problem. In my case I added a tablespoon more water. That doesn’t sound like much, except that Wiesenberger flours tend to require less hydration than others. Normally, when following recipes, I have to add considerably more flour to balance the dough. Plus I was using a stand mixer, and not adding any bench flour.

     All of which means that, with most American flours, this bread might have required as much as a ¼ cup more liquid.

     When adding liquid you do it slowly. My recommendation is to add a tablespoon or so at a time, while kneading the dough. What you’re looking for, in all cases, is a dough that is slightly tacky, but not sticky.    

     -Crumbly crumb is a hallmark of using cornmeal. Lacking gluten, corn doesn’t “cement” the same way as wheat, and is always more or less crumbly. The higher the percentage of cornmeal used, and the courser it’s ground, the more crumbly the final bread will be.

     In my case, this crumbliness was totally acceptable. I suggested to Ron that if it was too objectionable he could alleviate it slightly by first pulsing the cornmeal in a food processor to make a finer grind.

     -Hard crust. When Ron first mentioned this as a problem I was envisioning a brittle crust, such as is found on really good baguettes. But I realized that was not the case. What I think now is that he’s not used to European breads.

     One of the differences between American and European bread is that Americans prefer soft crusts. Ultimately this shows in the Wonder-Bread types, in which the crumb and the crust are barely different in texture. European breads tend to have harder crusts, with a very distinct difference in texture.

     In my household we prefer European types, and tend to think of them as normal. So it took me awhile to figure out the issue here.

     To soften the crust on this bread I suggested two things. First, not to spray the oven. Contrary to what some people think, increasing the humidity of the oven stiffens the crust rather than softening it. If anyone is interested, I’ll explain why that is.

     Second, this bread calls for dusting the surface of the formed loaf with polenta. Dusting like that leads to an even harder crust, because the grains serve the same function as sand in a cement mix. Skipping that step, I believe, would be helpful.

At any rate, since making it I’ve added this bread to my permanent file. It’s really good, all on its own. And it’s a fantastic bread for sopping up sauces and gravies.

To be fair, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. Instead I modified it to fit my baking style. The comments in brackets reflect my changes.

Portuguese Corn Bread

3/4 ounce fresh yeast [2 tsp instant yeast]

1 cup lukewarm water

2 cups yellow cornmeal

4 cups unbleached bread flour

2/3 cup lukewarm milk

2 tbls olive oil

1 ½ tsp salt

Polenta for dusting [additional cornmeal]

Dust a baking sheet with a little cornmeal. [semolina]

Put the yeast in a large bowl and gradually mix in the lukewarm water until smooth. Stir in half the cornmeal and ½ cup of the flour and mix to a batter with a wooden spoon. [combine the yeast, 1 cup of cornmeal, and ½ cup flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the  paddle, mix in the water]. Cover the bowl with lightly oiled plastic wrap [drape with a towel] and let the batter sit, undisturbed in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until bubbles start to appear on the surface. Remove the plastic wrap.

Stir the milk into the batter, then stir in the olive oil. Gradually mix in the remaining cornmeal, flour, and salt to form a pliable dough [adding more water or flour as necessary]

[Switch to dough hook] Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about ten minutes [five minutes] until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place, for 1 ½-2 hours, or until doubled in bulk. [demonstrating why the clock is, at best, a guideline---under my conditions the dough doubled in less than an hour. This likely has to do with the yeast change]

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and punch down. Shape into a round ball, flatten slightly and place on the prepared baking sheet. Dust with polenta, cover with a large upturned bowl [lightly oiled plastic wrap draped loosely] and let rise, in a warm place, for about 1 hour or until doubled in size. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450F.

Bake for 10 minutes, spraying the inside of the oven with water 2-3 times. Reduce the oven temperature to 375F and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until golden and hollow sounding when tapped on the bottom. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.