Broa de Milho (Portuguese Cornbread)

Rachel

Oct 6, 20192 min read

"Bro-ah jeh meel-yo." Of course if I see a sourdough version of one of my favorite Portuguese breads I gotta try it! It is dense but not doughy. It is sweet while still being sour from the starter. It pairs well with chili, soups, or simply as a snack! And what's also lovely is that it's surprisingly easy to make!

The recipe is from Foodgeek: https://foodgeek.dk/en/broa-de-milho-portuguese-corn-bread/

Ingredients:

300 g finely ground cornmeal (see picture below)
300 g boiling water
100 g wheat flour (rye flour is traditional)
8 g fine salt
100 g rye or wheat sourdough starter, not fed in 24 hours
Note: you can substitute the starter with 50 g flour, 50 g water, and 1 tsp dry yeast.
Rice/wheat flour for dusting

Directions:

If using cornmeal from the U.S.A. or Canada, it is likely too coarse for this recipe, so you will need to grind it finer with a food processor or spice grinder (see picture below).
In a heatproof bowl pour the boiling water over the cornmeal and mix in. Cover and let rest 1 hour at room temperature.
Then add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well to combine. Take out onto a clean surface and knead until a somewhat sticky, but well mixed mass forms.
Cut out a piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough into a ball and place it on the paper, smoosh it down slightly.
Cover and let rise 3.5-6 hours at room temperature, or until it's increased in size and cracks have formed on the tops and sides.
Heat the oven to 260°C/500°F with a baking stone or heatproof pan inside.
Slide the bread and paper onto the baking stone.
Bake the first 20 minutes on 260°C/500°F, then turn it down to 230°C/445°F and bake an additional 25 minutes.
Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack. It takes a couple of hours.

In this recipe you will want to use fine cornmeal (right) as opposed to sandy coarse grained cornmeal (left). I used a spice grinder to get from left, to right. Whole grain cornmeal might work in this recipe, but you might break your teeth biting through the crust...

Mix the boiling water into the cornmeal, cover, and let sit one hour.

Then add the starter, flour, and salt. Then mix them together. As you can see I used my rye starter, but all purpose wheat flour whereas the traditional recipe only uses rye.