Rye and Maize Bread
I came across an interesting bread blog the other day that has some historic bread recipes on it that seemed interesting. One of them was this American recipe for a historic rye and cornmeal bread that I thought looked really interesting! The only change I made was I added a little bit (~80g) of maple syrup because a lot of these types of bread called for molasses and I upped the hydration a tad. I figured that because they were popular in New England, maple wouldn’t be much of a stretch to add.
I used whole rye and Oaxacan green cornmeal for this bread. I was very, very impressed! It’s definitely a dense loaf, but it’s not unpleasant. I really like this technique of scalding all the flour in the loaf to pre-gelatinize the starches — the dough was a lot more cohesive than I would’ve expected for cornmeal and rye.
This is definitely not a mildly-flavored loaf: it’s very assertive and full-flavored, but everyone in my family thought it was outstanding. I’m definitely going to try and fine-tune this bread to try and perfect it. It might be interesting to try a sourdough version…
Thanks for posting this. I made my own loaf yesterday from the recipe you linked to, and I'm pleased with the way it came out.
Differences - I used yellow corn grits (A US term for coarsely ground field corn) and stone-ground rye. I didn't add any sweetener, and I did add some water because the dough seemed too dry to moisten all the flour. I also added some salt since I didn't notice any in the recipe. I didn't knead the dough much although the recipe suggests doing so because the 19th century American bakers are said to have kneaded these ryes a lot.
I baked in a 9-inch Pullman pan for about 52 minutes, with the lid off for the last 12. The loaf steamed visibly when I removed it from the pan, but when I sampled it the next day it didn't seem overly moist. There is a thin crust that crunches when bitten, which I like.
So far I've only had it toasted with butter, and that's mighty fine.
rye-grits-slice.jpg
I did do 1.5% salt for this -- forgot to mention that. That's interesting to do it with grits! Unusually for me, I only had cornmeal on hand (I eat a lot of grits), so the thought didn't come to mind.
Glad someone else is experimenting with it!
That loaf looks pretty tasty and well-baked @pogrmman!
I'll have to try this version of a rye and maize bread. I made a loaf of Dixie Rye from Ginsberg's website and the flavor seemed off. I was disappointed because I really like both rye and cornmeal. The version you posted with milk (and maybe a little molasses or maple syrup) might be much more to my liking.
Here is another version (that includes whole wheat flour) made at Conner Prairie living history museum near Indianapolis. One of the interesting techniques mentioned in the video are the yeast "cakes" made with barm and cornmeal.
https://youtu.be/Sp71deZlIxk?si=-EBTN6qG3N8wRNC5
Now that I've made a similar loaf with some buckwheat too (https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/73353/thirded-bread-buckwheat-rye-corn-maize if you haven't seen it already) I'd suggest adding some. I think you are right that the milk adds something too.
That sounds really interesting, for sure! I'll have to check that one out. I love both rye and corn for flavor! The milk really does something for it.