Harvest corn sourdough: porridge and sweet kernels in one loaf

Here is a sourdough that celebrates the end of summer. Breadtopia's Harvest Corn Sourdough uses two kinds of corn: a porridge made from field corn or fine cornmeal, and whole sweet corn kernels folded into the dough.

The idea came from a small bag of last year's frozen corn the author found while restocking the freezer. Every year they buy a dozen ears from a local farm stand, boil them, cut off the kernels and freeze them. A useful tip from the post is to scrape the cobs with the back of the knife to get the sweet corn milk, and not to skip the blanching step, because it stops the enzymes that would otherwise change the corn's flavor and texture in the freezer.

The numbers are straightforward. The dough is 390 grams of bread flour, 280 grams of water, 80 grams of starter and 9 grams of salt, plus the cooled porridge made from 60 grams of fine cornmeal and 100 grams of boiling water, and 120 grams of sweet corn kernels. The corn porridge and kernels are laminated into the dough about an hour after mixing, followed by two rounds of stretching and folding. Hands-on prep is around 40 minutes, and baking takes 35.

Fresh or fresh-frozen corn is recommended over canned because it is sweeter, and home-milled yellow dent corn is mentioned as a good choice for the porridge. The author serves it as a table bread alongside late-summer vegetables, or for sandwiches, toast and even French toast.

It is a fine reminder that sourdough is a great carrier for seasonal ingredients. I like that the porridge step adds moisture and corn flavor without complicating the process too much.

Source: Breadtopia