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I make a delicious masa harina skillet cornbread.  The masa harina vs cornmeal brings a tasty, subtle flavor. because I like it so much, I've been thinking about trying a sourdough bread with masa harina, and now I've tried it.  I was surprised how easy it was.

There have been some other posts on this site about cornmeal or corn flour bread, and now I'm adding my own.  First, some pictures, then the formula.

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All baker's percentages for this formula are based on the added flour not including flour in the starter. This flour added up to 10 oz, a small loaf but good for experimenting.

- Masa harina: 35%

- KA bread flour: 65%

- starter (white, 100% hydration): 20%

- liquid: about 100% (see below)

- salt: 2%

- beaten egg: 15% (1 US large egg)

- sugar: 3%

The hydration is unsure because I started at 85% (masa harina can really soak up the water) and added "enough" more without actually measuring it.  The added liquid was going to be milk, but I didn't have any so I used a mixture of half-and-half with water (for non-US readers, half-and-half is a near-cream with fat content between  light cream and milk).

The egg is there to provide some extra structure to try to make up for the lack of gluten in the masa harina.

Mix by hand, rest 1/2 hour, initial knead and stretch.  3 S&F sessions during the first part of the 5 1/2 hour bulk ferment.  Form the loaf, proof 1 hour, bake with steam at 450 deg, reducing to 430 after 20 minutes.  Baked 36 minutes to an internal temperature of 208 deg F.

This is basically my standard day-in, day-out sourdough process.

I didn't know how long to proof for since with the masa harina in the dough I knew its properties would be different from a wheat bread. In the end, the load depressed without springing back when I gently touched it with my finger, but I thought it could go a little longer so I gave it another 10 or 15 minutes.

You can see the loaf developed fabulous ears and had a good amount of expansion.  The crumb is surprisingly open, although the loaf is on the dense side.  It weighed in at 18 oz, whereas an all-purpose flour loaf of this size would be about 16 oz.  Maybe it's the 1.5 oz of egg...

The bread slices well. It has a mild pleasant taste with the corn obvious but not overwhelming.  The crust is chewy rather than crisp or crunchy (despite its appearance).  The crumb is very chewy (not tough, but it stays in the mouth as you chew) so thin slices would be best.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out, the dough was pleasant and easy to work with, and I will probably increase the masa harina content next time to (gulp) 50%.

I made up a large batch of my Cheddar/Thyme bread Sunday for customers.  I just love this bread!  I find it fun to mix in the inclusions, as it breaks up the monotony of just folding. :)  I had to add an extra baking day this week, as this formula has become quite popular!  My daughter made sure that I baked an extra for us to have, too. :)

Formula (percentages inclusive of flour/water in levain):

Bread Flour (CM ABC+) 60%

AP Flour (Ardent) 30%

CM Red Spring (fresh milled) 5%

CM White Winter (fresh milled) 5%

Sharp Cheddar, shredded 20%

Thyme, dried .5%

Water 77%

Salt 2%

Levain 20%

I mix together everything except the salt until all is moistened, then let rest for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes I add the salt (pinch in with fingers), then stretch/slap fold about 10 times.  Rest 25 minutes, perform coil folds (usually twice around), then rest again for 25 minutes.  If the dough is feeling strong, I'll add inclusions now, otherwise just coil fold again and rest for 25.  Inclusions go in now if not before.  I add the inclusions by covering half the dough, folding over, flatten a bit, cover half the dough, fold over, repeat until all inclusions are in.  This counts as my fold for this time period.  Perform another coil fold or two on 25 minute intervals as needed.

Total bulk on these loaves was just under four hours with a dough temp of ~80-81° (it was hot.)  Divided @ 1kg and pre-shaped.  Rested while I prepped my bannetons, then shaped, rolled in WW flour/rice flour @ 50/50 mix, rested at RT for 30 minutes, then into fridge.  Baked @ 475° after a 16 hour retarded proof, 15 minutes steam, 25 minutes without.

Man this bread always makes the house smell amazing!  The aroma of the baking cheese and thyme is intoxicating!

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Looking to expand my repertoire with something less loafy, so thought I'd give English Muffins a go again after THIS ATTEMPT about 12 years ago! :)  I'm much happier with the results on these, which I will humbly chalk up to my gaining a bit of dough handling and reading experience in the intervening years! :)

I was drooling over kjnits EM recipe, but really wanted to keep this dairy free (a bit of lactose intolerance in the house.)  I borrowed/stole from a few recipes I found and came up with this:

Bread Flour 70%

AP Flour 17%

Whole Wheat Flour (freshly milled) 13%

Honey 1%

Butter 2% (I know, dairy?? Funny thing is I forgot to even put this in!!!)

Water 73%

Salt 1.7%

Levain 23%

I mixed everything together by hand with a brief knead after mixing, then let it rest for about 20 minutes.  Next I did a sort of stretch/slap fold procedure that I probably can't do justice describing, but has become my go-to method until I got some good strength.  Performed 2 sets of coil folds over the next hour, then a cold bulk for the better part of 24 hours.

Today, I divided the dough into 145g balls (thought I was making pizza for a second....small pizza), then let those rise on cornmeal dusted parchment until puffy (which was about 2.5-3 hours today as it was warm!)  I cooked the muffins off in a CI skillet that was ~340° per my IR thermo for 6-7 minutes per side, finishing them in a 350° oven until they hit 208-210° internal temp.

I let them cool, fork split them, and was VERY pleased with the interior crumb!  My prior attempt had a much more closed and doughy interior.  Taste testing says that they need more like 1.9-2.0% salt, and that the honey doesn't add much, so I'll either up that a bit, or just use white sugar.

Anyway, I'm super happy with the direction on these, and plan to make another batch on Wednesday!

Happy baking to you all!

Rich