Broa de Milho is a Northern Portugese bread made of corn, rye and wheat. It's one I first noticed here. I asked Azelia, baking friend and super serious bread investigator about it, as she's Portugese. She gave it a go and when I first attempted a translated version I got from Azelia herself, I forgot the salt.
The first attempt seemed so promising, after a short rise in the oven the loaf top revealing the lovely familiar cracks I associate with the bread. But while there was lots of oven-spring, it didn't seem to get any color. That's when I noticed the salt sitting in a cup on my counter. Thinking about it, I also didn't scald the corn as I'd seen in the video and what was clear in the instructions. Needless to say the dough went into the waste bin.
The second attempt was a charm. Once the white corn meal was moistened, I let it cool, then added in the rye, starter, a bit of yeast and wheat flour. This is a rustic loaf, dense, but moist and filled with a sweet rye flavor.
I used medium rye flour, and a white corn meal, in hindsight I would of also left out the yeast for more sourdough, as Azelia also mentions in her report. Using only a single ferment after mixing in the banneton, it was short no more then 45-60 minutes total. Into a hot oven, I steamed it, though I'm not sure it needed it. Quite pleased the second time around and it would go nice with some Caldo Verde or maybe clams and pork, sardines for sure.
Jeremy, would love to try this — care to post the proportions on rye and corn flours?