Bread Therapy

The local Portland branch of the family decided that Labor Day weekend would be a good time to get together and reconnect with our Texas roots. Sunday we gathered at the nephew and niece-in-law’s for a southern supper. N made shrimp appetizers. A brought fried chicken and caramel cake. V and K made collards, black-eyed peas and brisket. I did up a big pot of okra served over white rice. V2 added a peach pie. We ate a lot.

I also (being the bread maker around here) brought cornbread. For some reason, cornbread is my nemesis. It just never turns out right. I keep trying, though. Sooner or later I’m going to get it right. Kinda like the job search, eh? During the summer I searched the internet for the best “Texas-style” cornbread which means one that doesn’t add white flour or sugar. The recipe that claimed to be the absolute best came out too salty and sort of like a big corn cracker. Might have worked as a base under black-eyed peas but not very good as a bread. Then in July in Texas (please forgive me, I was far from my home kitchen) I cooked up a couple of boxes of Jiffy Mix which would have been fine except I got distracted and forgot to take the pan out of the oven leaving me with a not quite burnt, overly dry, crumbly mess.

This time, I tried two recipes. I was using Bob’s Red Mill cornmeal so I tried the recipe off the bag. It looked pretty in the pan but it was too dry and had a strong flavor of baking powder. The recipe in the Point of Departure for regular cornbread was almost identical except that it called for two eggs instead of one. That didn’t seem like enough of a difference to make a second batch of disappointment so I made their Corn Stick recipe instead. It uses sour cream instead of milk, has less cornmeal and flour and a lot less baking powder. It was better. Still not blow me away special but definitely better. I may work on that one some and report back. At the moment it’s not good enough to bother posting the recipe.

On the other hand, while I was going through the corn related recipes in the PofD, I came across Pilgrim’s Bread which not only had cornmeal in it but also would use up some of those other little bits of flour cluttering up the pantry shelf. It was kind of fun to make, too, since you basically make a cornmeal mush first and then put in the yeast and flour. I really like the end result. It has everything I like in a pan bread; good texture with a firm but still moist crumb and little bits of cornmeal crunch and an interesting, complicated flavor that owes a lot to the rye flour. It reminds me a bit of the cracked wheat bread we used to eat when I was a kid. Not that we ate it as a regular thing, mind you. It was special. Mostly we ate Mrs. Baird’s sandwich white, incredible as that now seems to me.

I haven’t gotten a verdict from my regular tasters yet but I think they’ll like it. I’m considering entering it in the Grand Central Bakery householding contest on the 18th. What do you think?

Here’s the recipe.

Pilgrim’s Bread

• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 2 packages active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup rye flour
• 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

As usual, I mades some minor adjustments to this list. I increased both the whole wheat and rye flours and used some unbleached white and some white whole wheat to make up the rest of the total. I didn’t have any “cooking” oil by which I assume they mean corn oil so I used olive oil.

Thoroughly combine cornmeal, brown sugar, and salt; stir gradually into boiling water. Stir in oil. Cool to lukewarm (about 30 minutes). Soften yeast in the warm water; stir into cornmeal mixture. Add whole wheat and rye flours; mix well. By hand, stir in enough unbleached white flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes). I think I actually went a little light on the flour and wound up with a dough that was not quite as stiff as they were intending.

Shape dough into a ball. Place in lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover and let rise in warm place until double (50 to 60 minutes). Punch dough down, divide in half and let rest while you grease your pans. It really is a fast rising bread. Good choice if you’re a little short on time.

Shape dough into two loaves and place in two greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise until almost double (about 30 minutes). Bake at 375 degrees till done, about 45 minutes covering loosely with foil after 25 minutes to keep loaves from overbrowning. Remove bread from pans and cool on wire racks.

Tags: bread, cornmeal, loaves, pilgrim, recipe, rye, therapy, wheat, white, whole

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