As I mentioned in the snippets, I baked Joanna’s cornbread and Sally’s semolina loaf over the weekend.
The semolina loaf (above) is a charming yet easy yeasted loaf, which went down well with my family of sourdough lovers. The fine semolina gives the bread an interesting flavour and a smooth, creamy coloured crumb. I made it exactly to Sally’s formula, although I kneaded it by hand rather than machine.
. . . . .
I also baked a version of Joanna’s corn bread, using sourdough starter instead of poolish. I meant to include yeast as specified in the original recipe, but completely forgot, so this loaf took much longer to rise and is slightly flatter than expected.
Having said that, Pete absolutely adored this bread and waxed lyrical about its texture and flavour. The crumb was chewy, elastic, and the most gorgeous shade of yellow…
So, for my own future reference, here’s our version:
- 225g active sourdough starter (100% or 166% hydration)
- 115g maize meal
- 190g water
- 225g bakers flour
- 9g salt
- 20g olive oil
1. Mix the maize and water in a small bowl and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
2. Mix all the ingredients together to form a wet dough, then cover and allow to rest for 15 – 20 minutes. Turn the dough onto a lightly oiled surface and knead briefly until smooth. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size.
3. Shape the risen dough into a ball and allow to prove until doubled in size (I use an oiled and floured plastic basket to rise the bread in). Preheat oven to 240C with fan.
4. Turn the dough out onto a peel and slash, then dust with semolina. Reduce the oven temperature to 220C with fan, and bake the loaf on a pizza stone for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 180C with fan and bake for a further 40 minutes to set the crust.
One thing to note – this loaf will only work with fine corn maize. I’ve tried making it previously with polenta, and the resultant dough was gritty. It’s definitely worth searching out the maize flour – we found ours at the markets.
It was the perfect loaf to serve with Pete’s beetroot dip!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I’ll have to make some semolina bread one of these days too! Mm that one of Sally’s looks great! I’ve only made the one with the semolina in the crust, tiger bread style.
That cornbread is the sort of bread to give to people who think sourdough is heavy and ‘sour’. Yours looks light and airy and well, delicious. I’m definitely going to try a sourdough version next time I make it and or a ‘whey’ version, whey being my ingredient of the moment. Thanks for the mention! xx
Beautiful looking loaves, Celia!
I am in the process of looking at new ovens. I am lusting after a Meile one that injects steam – perfect for bread baking!
Good looking breads- crust and crumb alike!
I’m feeling awful lazy- I better bake some bread.
Wish Sydney was a bit closer (wink wink)…you’re making me hungry!! x
Thank you, gorgeous people.. :)
Jo, our cornbread isn’t light and airy, it’s more chewy and elastic with the lovely, slightly rubbery (in a good way) ciabatta type crumb. As I said in the snippets, another batch rising as I type! :)
Crikey! Is that the price you are paying for semolina?!! Thats amazingly cheap.
Your breads look delicious. The crumb on both of them look lovely…the mere fact I can talk about the ‘crumb’ makes me smile.
Brydie, there’s a reason we shop at Flemington Markets!
Thank you – the loaves were both delicious – and yes, breadmaking has a wonderful jargon – leaven, proving, autolyse, crumb, hydration.. :)
What a true baker you are…just perfect!xx
that cornbread looks fiiiiine! my grandma used to make something similar, yeasted for sure, but the recipe is lost. when i moved to the states and discovered cornbread is a popular item i was thrilled, only to discover it’s not so much bread as unflavored, pointless corncake. (i’ve had since tried well-done cornbread and still don’t like it). now this is something to get excited about! grandma baked it in her outdoor oven, where she could fit a half a dozen things at the same time, on cabbage leaves. my predilect way to eat it was slightly toasted, with butter and honey. thanks celia, this takes me back!
Yvette, thank you for being so nice! :)
Dana, I think you’d like this recipe – it’s not cornbread American style, but it is an interesting yellow corn loaf. Do have a look at the original recipe on Joanna’s site, as it’s yeasted and might well be close to what your grandma made. Though I’m not sure how to replicate the magic of an outdoor oven lined with cabbage leaves! :)
Wow what magic and science is bread-making – and your loaves look so perfect. I’m such a bread lover and pay way too much for just this kind of gorgeous loaf!
I’ve always thought making bread is so intimidating… I think I have to be more brave! You are such an amazing baker :)
Wonderful looking loaves both. Showing my ignorance on the subject completely – again – what is the difference between poolish and starter? I thought they were the same thing.
Choclette, it’s a good question and one that often gets up the diehard sourdough bakers’ noses, because as I understand it, a poolish bread isn’t sourdough, but is so often passed off as one by breadshops.
Basically, a poolish is a bowl of flour and water with a pinch of bakers yeast, which is left to develop for several hours before making the bread dough. Over that time, the poolish will ferment slightly, giving the finished loaf a more interesting flavour.
A sourdough starter or leaven has no bakers yeast in it whatsoever (or at least, it shouldn’t) and the rising agent is wild sourdough yeasts, which are regularly fed to keep them alive. There’s always some confusion because so many cook books (including Nigella’s from memory) will specify creating a sourdough starter with a little bakers yeast, but that isn’t regarded by the diehards as a true sourdough.
Many retail outlets here in Australia sell “sourdough bread” which is made with bakers yeast and soured with vinegar, much to the ire of the artisan baking community. :)
Joanna, is that all correct?
Sarah, Tes, breadmaking is one of those funny things – before you start, you have all these preconceived ideas in your head about how hard it will be, and how time consuming etc, but once you actually get going, it’s quite simple. Now, the thought of getting in the car and going somewhere to buy bread seems like a chore! :)
If it’s of any use, I wrote a detailed bread tutorial – the link is here. Just make sure you use yeast that’s not too old, and good bakers/bread flour (not plain or self-raising flour). If both of those are in the mix, the bread will almost certainly be edible! :)
I suppose ‘starter’ is anything that starts the bread fermenting :) But it seems to be used mostly to describe sourdough or wild yeast leaven/levain currently.
Poolish is a yeast starter, made as you say above. If you leave the mixture for 12 hours it looks as bubbly and active as putting a much larger quantity of yeast in the same flour and water and leaving it for say 2 hours. Because the yeast has had longer to break down the flour the idea is that the flavour of the resulting bread will be more complex and the bread more digestible. This is what I read anyway. And it’s relatively modern.
With a much longer history, and I think better, (and I’ll be making some baguettes with this at some point again) is paté fermentée’, or ‘old dough’. Basically a piece of dough, so flour, yeast, water, salt, mixed to form a dough as opposed to a batter and used in the new dough, again less yeast, and adding flavour etc etc.
Then there is ‘biga’ which is Italian and I think is the same more or less as poolish.
And there is something called salt risen dough which is an American thing, which I have read about and never tried. Ford on Mellow Bakers wrote about it in detail.
And barm bread, which Dan does a version of, where the starter would have been some form of beer yeasts. And breads made with fermented potato water and…..
Basically anything that ferments and makes gas that can be trapped by the gluten strands in the bread can be a ‘starter.’
Commercial yeast was a wild yeast once upon a time. Like wild boars and domestic pigs…..
hope this helps and doesn’t confuse… Joanna
Love, love, love those chicken names !! Did you have a naming ceremony, with special cakes?
No naming ceremony, but I do have a post about them coming up in a couple of days time! :)
What lovely looking bread, Celia! Question: could one grind up polenta in a coffee grinder to make corn maize, or is corn maize something different altogether….?
Christine, I think the maize flour is something different again, which is why I posted the picture. It’s finely ground like regular plain or bakers flour. I’m not sure if you could replicate that with ground up polenta, though it could be worth a try?
Hello Celia!
Your bread looks absolutely appetizing!
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM,…a lovely bread!
Goodness me Celia those loaves look perfect! It’s enough to induce a massive carb craving in me late at night! :P
Celia, loved the breads! Thanks so much for linking to my blog, that was nice of you!
Glad you enjoyed the recipe – as I mentioned by email, our Summer has been extremely hot, no wonder my dough was about to run away through the streets… it rose like a rocket!
:-)
Thanks Celia and Joanna, that’s cleared it up nicely thank you. I’m one of those guilty of being rather sniffy at supposed “sourdough” that has bakers yeast in it, so it’s useful to understand the meanings of all these other terms. Pleased to say, mine is genuine sourdough. But the poolish and other methods do sound interesting.
Sophie, Lorraine, thank you!
Sally, gorgeous recipe, thanks for the inspiration. It’s nice to have something quick and easy which tastes so good!
Choclette, on re-reading our comments, I did smile at how passionate we breadbakers get about things. I get a bit snarky about “bogus sourdough” as well :D
Your breads are so inspiring me, but alas no time to devote to bread at present but will re visit your bread posts when I get to Tasmania at end of year when I will have some time to get flour all over the kitchen. Roz
Will have to visit your bread tutorial to try my hand at breadmaking. Can’t resist fresh bread!
Roz, Emma, thank you! A warning, breadmaking is very addictive, although I’m sure Roz already knows that.. :)
I am told that a home isnt a home without bread baking the oven. I must make a note to myself to bake bread more often.