corn kamut One lucky summer I spent six hours a week in the car, driving out to bake in Dave Miller’s bakery every Monday and Tuesday. The last time I went, I milled up a bunch of flour to bring back to San Francisco with me. But once I was back in SF, the flour just sat in its sack in my kitchen. I was intimidated by it! After a few weeks of this, I decided enough was enough: It was time for me to use this stuff. I wanted to make a bread with more than just Kamut flour in it, but what? I went poking around my kitchen and quickly found a nice fit— pumpkin seeds. What the heck, let’s throw some of them in and see how it tastes. After a few flips through my bread cookbook library, I decided to add some cornmeal into the mix as well. Since the cornmeal and pumpkin seeds would weigh down this bread, I decided to blend it with some bread flour to lighten it up. I baked it up the next morning and shared it with my buddies Ian and Elicia, and they declared it a wild success. This one’s for you, dudes.
If you’re feeling bold, make this as a hearth loaf, but baking in a loaf pan is a much safer bet. Follow the Kamut bread recipe (see page 127), with the following additions/changes: When preparing your sourdough pre-ferment, also make a cornmeal and pumpkin seed soaker. Put the following in a bowl or jar:
130
Josey Baker Bread
1 LOAF
2 LOAVES
4 LOAVES
cornmeal
1/4
cup/ 40 g
1/2
cup/ 80 g
1 cup/ 160 g
pumpkin seeds
3 Tbsp/ 30 g
1/3 cup/ 55 g
3/4
boiling water
1/3
2/3
1 1/3 cups/ 320 g
cup/ 80 g
cup/ 160 g
cup/ 120 g
When mixing your dough in step 3, add all of the soaker together with the following to your sourdough pre-ferment: 1 LOAF
2 LOAVES
4 LOAVES
lukewarm water (80°F/27°C)
1 1/3 cups/ 320 g
22/3 cups/ 640 g
51/3 cups/ 1,280 g
Kamut flour
1 cup/ 145 g
2 cups/ 290 g
4 cups/ 580 g
bread flour
1 1/2 cups/ 225 g
3 cups/ 450 g
6 cups/ 900 g
sea salt, fine grind
2 tsp/ 12 g
4 tsp/ 24 g
2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp/ 48 g
Follow the procedure in the Kamut bread recipe for mixing, rising, shaping, and baking. When shaping your loaf, use cornmeal instead of flour on the counter, which will lead to a very nice and crunchy cornmeal crust.