Courts and I discovered polenta bread at the delightful Red Hen Baking Company in Middlesex, Vermont. We bought it to make French toast the next day for the adventure cycling tour we were cooking for and it was fabulous. Since then, we discovered Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn products and now we make our own polenta bread with his amazing corn flour and corn meal. It’s fantastic for toast in the morning or French toast for special occasions. Watch for that recipe soon!🍁🍞🌽
Professor Torbert’s corn is made from cobs with deep orange kernels that are packed with potent antioxidants called carotenoids much like carrots. Orange Corn offers more vital nutrients than white or yellow corn and has distinctive nutty, buttery character. We love using it in our corn baked goods. We’ve made Blueberry Corn Muffins, Chocolate Chip Corn Cookies with Toasted Pecans and now this fantastic polenta bread with Professor Torbert’s corn meal. All have been fantastic!
This polenta bread made with orange corn flour and meal, has a delicious corn-rich flavor, a beautiful golden crust, rich texture and chewy crumb. It’s delicious right out of the oven or toasted the next day for breakfast. It’s fantastic all by itself and also makes amazing French toast!
Don’t confuse this polenta bread with your typical corn bread (which is also delicious), this is more like a regular loaf of bread, but with a unique texture. This bread holds up very well when dipped in eggs, milk and cinnamon for crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside French toast.
We have yet to try this, but you could probably substitute 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free flour for the all-purpose flour and it would be 100% gluten-free! We will try that soon and report back. In the meantime, if you do try making that way, please leave a comment or email us to let us know how it turned out!
Orange Corn Polenta Bread
Equipment
- 1 Standing Mixer (You can also mix this by hand and knead it instead of using the mixer)
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water (115° F)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. dry yeast
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 3/4 cup bread flour
- 1 1/2 cups corn flour (We love Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn Flour and Corn Meal)
- 1/4 cup corn meal
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Prepare a 9×5 inch bread pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 300° F.
- Place water, sugar and yeast in a small bowl. Whisk gently to combine and then let sit, undisturbed, for about 5 minutes, or until the yeast starts to foam.
- Combine corn flour, bread flour, corn meal and salt in the bowl of your standing mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Whisk to combine. Add olive oil and yeast mixture and mix well on a low speed of your mixer until well integrated. Continue to mix for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is light and no longer sticky.
- Shape the dough into a loaf and press into the prepared bread pan. Cover with a damp cloth and allow the dough to rise until double in size. This should take about 1 hour. Remove cloth and get ready to bake the loaf.
- Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the bottom of the pan sounds hollow when you tap on it with a wooden spoon.
- Remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.