I love polenta and it tastes awesome in bread. Here is my polenta bread recipe for a sourdough loaf with pumpkin and sunflower seeds inspired by Dan Lepard’s polenta bread in The Handmade Loaf.
Polenta bread recipe with seeds
Day 1
Sourdough
- 50g 100% hydration sourdough starter
- 100g strong bread flour
- 100g fine wholewheat flour
- 200g water
Combine the above ingredients in a bowl and cover for 24 hours.
Toasted Seed Soaker
- 2 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted
- 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
- 80g water
Toast the seeds in a small saucepan and cover with the water. Cover for 24 hours.
Day 2
- 50g polenta
- 175g water
- 1 tsp of olive oil
- 300g white flour
- 50g maizemeal
- 7g salt
- Oil a dinner plate with the olive oil (use a brush to spread).
- Place 50g polenta and 100g water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil; stir while it thickens and wraps itself to the stirring spoon.
- Remove from the heat and from the pan right away; spoon the polenta onto the dinner plate and flatten it out across the whole surface.
- Place another dinner plate (up side down) on top and leave to cool slightly.
- Combine the flours and salt, the cooled down polenta, the remaining water (75g), 400g of the sourdough and the seed soaker in a large bowl.
- Knead for 10 minutes.
- Place back into the bowl, cover and leave for about 1.5 hours.
- Give the dough another quick knead.
- Prepare a proving basket by flouring the surface in order to prevent the wet dough from sticking. Alternatively, if you have one, use a Lékué bread maker, it’ll make the proving and baking process much easier.
- Shape the dough into a loaf and move around in a flour bath (covering the whole loaf surface) before placing it into the proving basket seam-side up.
- Cover with a polythene bag and keep in a warm place for 3-5 hours until well risen. The time may vary widely based on the temperature in your room. Give it some extra time if the dough needs to rise more.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Turn out the dough onto the baking tray and score the dough by making several diagonal incisions.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
