Tonight I made a loaf of Corn Grits Bread from the recipe book I got so long ago from friends. This was not an easy loaf to pull off.
1st, I had to cook the grits aka Polenta. I could do it traditional Southern way in just water but I thought why not add 20 grams of dry milk powder (enough to mix 1 cup of milk) & see how it goes. And it was fine. Only thing is I used the pot I had used for Spanish Rice & it had dried out sitting around unwashed & the grits picked up the flavor (& cleaned it off!).
Medium loaf used 1.5 cups of freshly cooked (warm) grits. Then I adjusted the rest. 1.5 tablespoons margarine was reduced to 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (saved from a fresh mozzarella container) since the grits already had added margarine at the end. I wasn't going to add more salt since the grits had some added when it was cooked but after a kneading I added 1 teaspoon. 1 tablespoon sugar & then only 1 teaspoon yeast.
Flour was supposed to be 2 & 1/4 cups but after watching it knead up & needing 1/2 cup of warm water & then still hadn't set up a dough ball after the 1st kneading cycle, I kept adding small amounts & restarting until I got minimally tacky (like pizza dough) & probably would do well. I had to restart at least 4 more times. So maybe this recipe needs 2 & 3/4 cups? These recipes always seem to need more flour.
And I was right! Went out to check & got a dense loaf perfectly shaped & didn't collapse. Since the grits & oil had extra seasoning, I'm interested in how this loaf tastes.
