Portuguese Corn Bread • Broa de Milho

Hey it’s almost Saint Martin’s Day here in Portugal (it’s tomorrow on the 11th), this is a wonderful celebration in Portugal, it combines a slew of different traditions from wine making to Pagan and Christian, it’s also very common to eat some chestnuts, drink some new wine and have a nice party, and one bread very common at the table is the corn bread, well Portuguese style corn bread.

Portuguese Corn Bread isn’t very different from many other kinds of cornbread, it’s not pure corn, it’s a mixture of wheat flour (plain flour) and corn flour, so the texture and taste is a bit more rustic, it creates a wonderful thick crust and the interior is creamy and slightly sweet, this is a bread you can find all year round in any bakery in Portugal, let’s check the recipe!

Portuguese Corn Bread • Broa de Milho

Servings: 2
Time: 2hr 30mins
Difficulty: Normal
Rating: ★★★★★
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Traditional recipe for typical portuguese style corn bread, good for any ocasion.

Ingredients

Water – 500ml (Boiling)
Corn Flour – 600gr
Warm Water – 200ml
Baker’s Yeast – 10gr (In Powder)
Wheat Flour – 400gr (T65 or Bread Flour)
Coarse Salt – 10gr (+/- 2 teaspoons)

Directions

Start by scalding (or blanching) the cornflour, in a bowl add 500ml of boiling water to 600gr of cornflour, mix and let it cool completely.
When the corn flour is cold, in a separate bowl activate the baker’s yeast, add this to 100ml of warm water (don’t use water that’s too hot, if your finger can’t stay in the water then it’s too hot), leave it for about 5 minutes, until you start to see bubbles.
In a separate bowl, dissolve the salt in the remaining 100ml of warm water.
Finally, mix everything together, add the cornmeal mixture to the wheat flour, followed by the yeast mixture, knead well and finally the salt mixture, knead everything very well until you get a uniform dough ball that doesn’t stick to your fingers, if it sticks too much sprinkle with a little flour until it doesn’t stick.

Pour the dough ball into a large bowl, cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place for at least 1h30m or until the dough increases in size.

Preheat the oven to 220ºC and prepare a baking tray lined with non-stick paper.

Take the dough from the bowl, divide in half or three parts if you want three small buns and form balls, I like the balls to be more like ovals for the shape of buns, but be my guest.

Now sprinkle the non-stick paper with a little corn flour and place the dough balls on it, sprinkle them with more corn flour and let them peel for another 30 minutes in a warm place.
Then take the cookies to the oven, two balls should take about 50 minutes, if they start to toast too quickly on top cover them with some aluminum foil, if you make 3 or 4 smaller ones they will of course bake faster, when they are well browned.

Remove from the oven, and you’re done, enjoy and Happy Saint Martins Day!

Notes: Although this is a delicious bread, this is kinda not the perfect bread for toasts or sandwiches it’s not a bread with a lot of structure, it’s a bread to spread with just butter, jams, honey and not so much to have it with cheeses and hams, its more breakable than “sliceable” if i make myself clear ;D

This recipe for Portuguese Corn Bread • Broa de Milho was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Broa de Milho à Moda Antiga foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.