Broa (Portuguese Cornbread)

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Description

This Portuguese cornbread is amazing with soup. Deserves to be more popular than it is.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups milk, or as needed
  • 4 pats unsalted butter
  • 2 teaspoons white sugar
  • 1 ½ cups cornmeal, or as needed
  • 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
  • 1 pinch white sugar
  • ¼ cup warm water
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil, or to taste

Instructions

  1. Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it begins to bubble. Whisk in butter and 2 teaspoons sugar. Add cornmeal and whisk until mixture reaches a thick
  2. sauce-like consistency. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
  3. In the meantime
  4. sprinkle yeast and a pinch of sugar over warm water. Stir and let stand until yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam
  5. about 5 minutes.
  6. Combine flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixture fitted with the dough hook. Add the yeast mixture and mix on low speed. Slowly pour in the milk mixture. Knead into a slightly dense dough. Remove from the bowl and roll into a ball.
  7. Grease the sides of a bowl or pot with olive oil and add the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume
  8. about 2 hours.
  9. Punch dough down and roll into 2 boules
  10. or flat-bottomed balls. Place boules on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat. Sprinkle tops with flour and cover with plastic wrap again. Let rise until puffy
  11. about 1 hour.
  12. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Fill an oven-proof pot with 4 to 5 cups water and place on the bottom rack of the preheating oven.
  13. Cut 4 shallow slits into the tops of the puffed bread boules in a cross pattern
  14. 2 parallel lines up and 2 across.
  15. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Spritz tops with water from a spray bottle. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and continue baking until crusts are a deep brown
  16. about 20 minutes. Remove breads from the pan and let cool for 20 minutes.

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 35 mins

Total Time: 4 hrs 20 mins

Servings: 10

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