2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup cornmeal (use whole cornmeal, not degerminated)
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup molasses
1 tbs salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
flour
Add the cornmeal to the boiling water by degrees, stirring it steadily as it falls, to make a smooth porridge, as if making polenta or cornmeal mush. This can be done the pot in which you have boiled the water, or in a bowl into which you have poured the water from your kettle. It doesn’t matter since the water does not need to be boiling while the cornmeal is being added to it, and it will not be cooked further. The choice is yours.
To the cornmeal, add the butter, molasses, and salt. Allow to cool slightly.
Combine the yeast and the warm water, and allow to become foamy.
Add a couple handfuls of flour to the yeast to create a barrier between the yeast and the forthcoming cornmeal mixture so that the yeast will not come into direct contact with the heat from the mixture. When the cornmeal mixture is still warm but not too hot to touch, pour it over the flour and begin to mix the three portions together.
Continue adding flour until the dough is just barely stiff enough to knead, and turn out onto a well-floured work surface. I have a pastry board that works very well for this.
Begin kneading the dough, gradually adding just enough flour at a time to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface. Work the dough for about 5 minutes. It should still be quite soft but show signs of the gluten in the flour developing, such as the forming of little “webs” of dough. Butter a large bowl well, round the dough into a ball (work quickly, as it will be a little sticky still, and dexterous speed will keep it from sticking to your hands), and put it smooth side down into the buttered bowl. Quickly turn the ball over, so the smooth side, now buttered, is on the top. Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to rise until doubled, or until you’re ready to work on it again. (I would never consider suffocating my dough with plastic wrap, and any recipe that advises doing such a thing makes me irate. Think about it: in all the history of bread baking, how heavily has plastic wrap figured in successful loaves of bread? My great-grandmother, well known for the superior quality of her breads, would not have used plastic wrap if she had had it.)
I prefer a long slow rise to give the flavors a chance to develop, so I will usually make the dough in the morning and then let it sit all day in a cool corner of the kitchen. Sometimes, depending on my schedule, I will make it late in the evening and leave it overnight in a cold but not freezing place, such as our shed, or the refrigerator if the weather is warm.
Butter two 9×5″ bread pans well. Divide the dough in half, and taking one half at a time, roughly flatten the dough and roll it up like a jelly roll and place it in the pan with the seam on the bottom. The longer the dough has risen, the easier this is to do as it will be less sticky. It is also best done quickly, to avoid the dough sticking to your work surface. It doesn’t need to be a perfectly even roll. Close enough is good enough. Press the dough lightly to even it out, making sure both ends of the dough rolls touch the ends of the pans. Cover the dough with the kitchen towel.
Allow the dough to rise until it reaches the edge of the pan or slightly above. Baking it too soon will result in heavy bread, and allowing it to go more than an inch above the pan will result in bread with large air holes and an uneven top.
When the bread is nearly ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° F. Be sure you know the actual temperature of your oven; not all thermostats are reliable. If the oven is too hot, the yeast will die before the bread is sufficiently risen and the crust will be overcooked before the interior is done. Alternatively, if the temperature is too low, the bread will rise too much and become misshapen and structurally unsound.
Bake until the bottom of the loaf is golden brown. Times will vary widely, ranging from half an hour to 45 minutes or more, depending on your oven and the material of your bread pans. My preference is for Pyrex bread pans, as I like to see the color of the bread as it bakes. However, the appetites of my family require larger loaves, so for my household, I double the recipe and bake it in two long pans.
For some, the hardest part is allowing the bread to cool fully (on a rack!) before eating it. In order to develop its full flavor and to for the structure of the bread to develop, it must be allowed to cool to room temperature under a clean kitchen towel (I have several reserved exclusively for covering baked goods) before being sliced.
The bread is soft, tender, and just slightly sweet. Excellent buttered and enjoyed with a cup of tea.
