Yeasted Corn Bread

This is one of those recipes that ended up with so many substitutions that it became something totally new, but still really delicious.  It uses the method from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, although it's not as full of whole grains as the recipes in that book since we'd run out of whole wheat flour.  Feel free to substitute the barley flour here with more all purpose flour or whatever other interesting flour you have sitting around - I had a bag open from making strawberry barley scones, so I threw some in. Either way, I definitely recommend this bread.  It's flavorful but super easy to make (though it does require some resting time), and making corn bread with yeast rather than chemical leavening means you don't need any added fat to make the bread soft and flavorful.  This bread is very tasty alongside Mexican food (we had it with enchiladas), topped with barbecued meat, or just spread with honey or jam.

Yeasted Corn Bread

3/4 cup masa harina
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 T wheat germ
2 T barley flour
2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1-1/2 tsp sea salt
1-1/2 plus 2 T lukewarm water
1/4 cup shagback hickory syrup (or substitute maple syrup, molasses, honey, etc.)

1. Whisk together the masa, flour, wheat germ, barkley flour, yeast, and salt.
2. Whisk together the water and syrup in a separate bowl, and then stir into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula.
3. Cover and let rise until the dough rises and collapses, about 2 hours.
4. Use immediately, or chill up to one week before baking.
5. Dust hands and a work surface with flour, and shape the dough into two equal-sized balls.  Allow to rest on a foil-lined baking sheet 40-90 minutes (40 for room temperature dough or 90 for chilled dough).  Thirty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
6. Just before baking, brush the top crust with water and slash the dough with a knife.  Bake 30 minutes, or until browned and firm.  Allow to cool before slicing.

I'm submitting this bread to Yeastspotting...check out all the other fantastic yeast breads!