Brown corn bread baked in clay pots

July 13, 2014 (Last Updated: January 11, 2019)

Brown corn bread baked in clay pots

Serves: 4 single-serving pots
Cooking Time: 2 hours 15 minutes + 2 hours, to prove

Ingredients

  • 400g brown bread flour
  • 100g cake flour
  • 7g sachet yeast
  • 7,5ml (1½ tsp) salt
  • 15ml (1 tbsp) soft butter
  • 160g (1 cup) cooked whole corn kernels
  • 300ml lukewarm water
  • 25ml olive oil

Instructions

1

Mix the brown bread flour with the cake flour, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2

Add butter and rub it into flour mixture. Stir in corn kernels.

3

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in almost all of the lukewarm water.

4

Fold the flour into the water to start making a dough. Add the remaining water (and a bit more, if needed) to gather up any dry bits in the bottom of the bowl and until the mixture comes together as a soft but not-too-sticky dough. Gather it into a ball with your hands.

5

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and knead for 8 – 10 minutes until it feels smooth and elastic, only adding the minimum of extra flour if necessary to prevent the dough sticking to the surface.

6

Place the ball of dough on a lightly floured work surface and cover with an upturned, clean, large glass bowl. Leave for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until doubled in size and light and springy. (Timing will depend on the warmth of the room.)

7

Knock back the dough by lightly kneading it just 3 or 4 times. You only want to knock out any large air bubbles, so too much handling at this stage will lose the dough’s lightness. Shape into a ball. Cover with the glass bowl and leave for a further 15 minutes.

8

Divide the dough into equal balls to fit halfway up the inside of the clay pots. Lightly oil the inside of each pot and line with baking sheets.

9

Using your knuckles, flatten the dough and fold both ends into the centre. Leave for 40 – 45 minutes or until risen to just above the top of the pots.

10

Preheat a Weber gas braai or the oven to 180°C and bake for 30 minutes or until golden. A skewer inserted into the centre of the bread should come out clean.

11

Remove from Weber or oven and leave in pots for 2 – 3 minutes before removing breads from pots and placing on a wire rack to cool.

Notes

Cover the bread with foil for the last 5 minutes of baking if it starts browning too quickly.

 

Send this to a friend