Portuguese Peasant Bread
This dense bread is called broa in Portugal. The "secret" ingredient for
its unusual flavor and texture: barley cereal for babies! The loaves are
also sprayed with water during baking to help give them the characteristic
crisp and chewy crust.
Yields: 2 loaves, 12 servings each
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 packages active dry yeast
1 package (8 ounces) barley baby cereal (about 4 1/2 cups), uncooked
2 1/2 cups stone-ground cornmeal, preferably white
4 teaspoons salt
about 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1. In small bowl, stir sugar and yeast into 1/2 cup warm water (105 to 115
F.); let stand until yeast mixture foams, about 5 minutes.
2. In large bowl, combine barley cereal, cornmeal, salt, and 4 cups flour.
With wooden spoon, stir in yeast mixture and 2 1/2 cups warm water (105 to
115 degrees F.) until combined. With floured hands, shape dough into a ball
in bowl.
3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place (80 to 85 F.)
until doubled, about 1 hour.
4. Punch down dough and turn onto well-floured surface. Knead dough until
smooth, about 5 minutes, working in more flour (about 3/4 cup) as necessary
while kneading.
5. Grease large cookie sheet. Cut dough in half and shape each half into a
6-inch round. Coat each round with flour; place on cookie sheet. Cover
loaves with towel and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake loaves until golden brown, a total
of about 35 minutes, using spray bottle to spritz loaves with water after
first 5 minutes of baking, and again 10 minutes later. Cool on wire racks.
Nutrition information: Each serving: About 170 calories, 5 g protein, 36 g
carbohydrate, 1 g total fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 360 mg sodium.
Note: I have not tried this yet, but it looked so good that I wanted to
pass it along right away. I found it at a Portuguese recipes site while
searching for a bread called mealheda comprido.
Bob the Tarheel Baker