The Cornbread Gospels (29 page)

¾ cup stone-ground yellow or white cornmeal, plus extra for kneading

1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons sorghum or molasses (see
Note
)

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1½ teaspoons dried sage leaves

1½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¾ cup very hot milk (brought to a boil and turned off)

½ cup warm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

2 teaspoons minced fresh dill

¼ cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 cup whole wheat flour

1¼ cups unbleached white flour, plus extra for kneading

2 tablespoons gluten flour (see Pantry,
page 353
)

Vegetable oil cooking spray

1.
Place the cornmeal, butter, the 2 tablespoons honey, the sorghum, dried herbs, salt, and ginger in a medium-large heat-proof bowl. Pour the very hot milk over them and stir well. Let stand for 10 minutes, or until lukewarm.

2.
Meanwhile, combine the warm water, yeast, and the 1 teaspoon honey in a small bowl or measuring cup. Let stand until bubbly, about 10 minutes.

3.
When the cornmeal mixture is lukewarm, stir in the yeast, mixing thoroughly. Then add the fresh herbs and the whole wheat, white, and gluten flours. Turn the dough out on a floured board; it will still be on the sticky side. Let it stand for a few minutes while you wash and dry the mixing bowl. Then, begin to knead the dough, adding more flour or meal a tablespoon at a time until the proper texture is reached. Total kneading time: 5 to 7 minutes.

4.
Spray the washed-and-dried bowl with oil, and transfer the dough to it. Cover with a clean towel, and set in a warm place. Let it rise until high and rounded and doubled in bulk, about an hour and 10 minutes. Then, turn the dough back out onto the floured board, give it a couple of kneads, and shape it into a loaf. Oil an 8½-by-4½-inch loaf pan, and place the dough in it.

5.
Cover the bread loosely with a clean towel and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk a second time, 45 minutes to 1 hour. In the last 15 minutes of rising time, preheat the oven to 400°F.

6.
Bake the bread for 15 minutes, then turn down the heat to 350°F and bake until the loaf is deep brown and crusty, 35 to 45 minutes more. Remove the finished loaf from the pan, and let it cool on a rack.

N
OTE
:
Sorghum is a sweet, sticky, dark, flavorful syrup made from pressed sorghum cane, and it is common in the South. Although its taste is distinctive and delicious, if you can’t get sorghum, molasses is an adequate substitute.

M
AKES ONE
8½-
BY
-4½-
INCH LOAF

You typically do not want your cornflakes to get soggy, but in this delectable, homey brown bread you do. It’s a new take on a pleasing regional oddity found in most contemporary New England community cookbooks: Shredded Wheat Bread. (Perhaps the only thing odder or more incomprehensible to non–New Englanders is Grape-Nuts Pudding … like rice pudding, but made
with Grape-Nuts cereal.) In the original, this pleasing hearty bread is an all-white-flour loaf, the only whole wheat coming from 2½ ounces of Shredded Wheat; not so here.

Gluten flour is optional but good, giving the loaf a better, higher rise. The recipe doubles easily; why not make two loaves, and freeze the second?

1 cup milk, scalded

2½ teaspoons active dry yeast

2½ ounces (approximately 1¾ cups) cornflakes, slightly crushed

1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil

2 tablespoons molasses

¼ cup pure maple syrup, preferably Grade B

1½ teaspoons salt

⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

About 2 cups whole wheat flour

About ¼ cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon gluten flour (see Pantry,
page 353
; optional)

About ¾ cup unbleached white flour

Vegetable oil cooking spray

1.
Place the hot milk in a 2-cup or larger measuring cup to cool. When it is lukewarm, add the yeast and let it proof until bubbly, about 10 minutes.

2.
Place the cornflakes in a large, heat-proof bowl and pour the milk mixture over them. Give a stir and let it stand for another 10 minutes, then stir in the butter, oil, molasses, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Combine thoroughly, then add the whole wheat flour, cornmeal, and gluten, starting with the amounts given.

3.
Stir in the unbleached flour until you have a nice shaggy dough of good kneading consistency, and start kneading on a very well-floured board. It’s a quite sticky dough, so add more whole wheat or white flour if you need to. It will take about 10 minutes to knead by hand, 4 to 5 minutes to knead with a heavy-duty stand mixer with a dough-hook attachment.

4.
Let the dough rest while you wash, dry, and oil-spray the bowl you mixed the dough up in. Then place the resting dough back in the bowl, cover with a clean cloth, and let rise until almost but not quite doubled in bulk, 1½ to 2 hours.

5.
Punch the dough down, and let it rise a second time in the bowl, covered, again until just about doubled, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

6.
Punch the dough down yet again, and transfer it back to the floured board. Shape it into a loaf, placing it in an oil-sprayed 8½-by-4½-inch loaf pan. Use the oil spray one more time, to coat one side of a piece of plastic wrap, and cover the loaf with it, oiled side down. This allows the loaf to get a good rise, up to or, when the yeast gods smile, well above the rim of the loaf pan, without danger of the plastic sticking to it.

7.
About 45 minutes into this third rise, preheat the oven to 350°F. Let the dough continue this final rise about 15 minutes more, then uncover it and pop it in the preheated oven.

8.
Let bake for about 25 minutes, then check and see how brown it’s getting (because of the relatively high amount of sweetener, it might brown a bit excessively before it’s fully done). If it seems to be getting too dark, cover it loosely with aluminum foil. Continue baking until the bottom of the loaf is brown and crusty, another 12 to 18 minutes. (Turn the loaf out of its pan to test—if the bread bottom is soft and not brown and crusty yet, put it back in and bake it just a little longer, 5 to 10 minutes.) Remove the loaf and place it on a rack. Let the loaf cool, really—the loaf tears easily if you slice it when hot, but slices beautifully once it cools.

M
AKES ONE
8½-
BY
-4½-
INCH LOAF

Once I’d tried this moist yeast bread with its distinctive corn tortilla taste and aroma, I just couldn’t stop making it. The recipe comes from my Minneapolis pan pal, cookbook author Beth Hensperger, and I have probably made it every other week since first experimenting with it. It’s that good, and it goes with everything.

Although the dough contains only a cup of masa harina (see Pantry,
page 354
), that cup is magic. Masa harina is cornmeal that has been soaked in an alkaline solution, making it easier to grind and to digest. It is
the
focal point of corn tortillas, and the minute you open the masa harina bag, you will sniff the one-of-a-kind aroma typical of tortillas, quite different from that of regular cornmeal. That aroma calls hauntingly as the bread bakes. The masa adds moistness, too; the bread’s just as good the second day. It’s excellent plain or toasted, or treated with butter and good honey or cinnamon-sugar, or with any bowl of Southwestern–style beans or soup.

About 2½ cups whole wheat flour

1½ cups unbleached white flour

1 cup masa, preferably white masa para tortillas

1 tablespoon salt

1 package active dry yeast

2 cups warm water

¼ cup dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Vegetable oil cooking spray

About 3 tablespoons stone-ground white cornmeal

1.
Combine the whole wheat flour (start with the 2½ cups), unbleached flour, masa, and salt in a large bowl. In a second, smaller bowl combine the yeast and ½ cup of the warm water, and let stand until bubbly, about 10 minutes.

2.
Add the yeast mixture to the flours with the remaining 1½ cups warm water, the brown sugar, and butter. Stir to incorporate.

3.
Begin kneading. While this is a moist dough, a bit sticky, you don’t want it too wet. (If you own a bread machine, this is a nice recipe to use it for, on the “dough” cycle.) Add more whole wheat flour as needed, somewhere between 2 tablespoons and ⅓ cup, to achieve this sticky, barely kneadable dough. Transfer the dough to an oil-sprayed bowl and set, covered, in a warm place.

4.
Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk, 1 hour. Punch it down, and let it rise a second time until it is again high and full of itself, 45 minutes to an hour. Punch down a second time.

5.
Spray an 8½-by-4½-inch loaf pan with the oil, then sprinkle the cornmeal inside and shake it around (you’re flouring the pan, except with cornmeal instead of flour). Tap out any excess cornmeal onto a paper plate, flexible cutting surface, or piece of wax paper.

6.
After the dough’s second rise is complete, turn it out into the loaf pan. As mentioned, it will be a bit sticky; you won’t really form it into a loaf as such, rather it will spread out into the pan somewhat. Sprinkle the excess cornmeal over the top of the loaf and cover it with a sheet of wax paper and then a towel, so the bread can
rise a third and final time. (The cornmeal keeps the wax paper from sticking to the dough.)

7.
When the dough is 15 to 20 minutes into this third rise, preheat the oven to 400°F. Let the dough continue to rise until it is rounding up against the wax paper, another 20 minutes or so. Carefully remove the wax paper, trying not to deflate the dough. (If it does sag just a bit, let it rise uncovered for a few more minutes.)

8.
Put the loaf in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 325°F and continue baking until the loaf is a deep, earthy brown, speckled with its white dusting of cornmeal, about 20 minutes longer.

9.
Let the loaf cool in its pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, then turn it out of the pan to continue cooling. Try to wait until it’s warm, not hot, before cutting into it, because the slices will tear otherwise.

M
AKES
5
MINI-LOAVES

I like to make this sweet, fruit-and-nut-laden yeast bread in small loaves to be cut into thin slices for a snack or sandwich bread. It is quite wonderful toasted lightly and spread with a little
cream cheese, served with hot, milky English Breakfast tea. It is packed to overflowing with native ingredients, including mesquite meal. It’s not as over-the-top sweet and rich as typical baking powder–leavened fruit and nut bread is, but it is still a nice indulgence.