Homemade bread, there is nothing like it!  This loaf is made with wheat flour and polenta, which adds a nice texture to this bread.  Simply delicious served fresh out of the oven with artesian cheese and wine.

The next day it was transformed into a Grilled, Jalapeno Cheddar, Polenta sandwich for Wilson's lunch.

Polenta Bread

2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 pkg)

1 ⅓ cup warm water 105-115

3 cups all purpose flour

½ cup polenta (med grind cornmeal OK)

2 T olive oil

1 ½ teaspoons sea salt

Sprinkle yeast over warm water in a small mixer bowl, whisk in and let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in four, cornmeal, olive oil and salt. Use mixer with paddle attachment to combine until dough forms. Change to dough hook and knead about 5 minutes, until the dough is firm and slightly sticky.  

Note: You can certainly knead by hand or in my case I have an ancient Sunbeam mix-master and use the bread hooks on low.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it tightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled – about 1 ½ - 2 hours.  

Pour dough onto very lightly floured board. Slightly flatten with flour coated hands, cover with plastic wrap and let rest up to 15 minutes.

Shape into a ball by following any technique you are familiar with.  Ideally you want to achieve good surface tension so the bread will rise up instead of out.  Place on flour coated parchment paper, dust with flour, cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven (and a La Cloche or pizza stone if using) to 450.  You can certainly just bake your bread on a baking sheet.

Sprinkle with sea salt if desired and gently lift the dough by grasping the parchment paper and place in the hot La Cloche/pizza stone or just bake on the baking sheet. Place in oven and lower the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes or until internal temperature is about 200 degrees.

For Focaccia -

Generously coat a 10 1/2 X 15 1/2 inch baking pan with extra virgin olive oil.  Place the dough into the pan and gently push to flatten and stretch the dough as far as you can toward the edge. Cover with towel and leave 10 minutes.  Stretch dough again until it fills the bottom of the pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Drizzle the dough generously with extra virgin olive oil, and use your fingers to dimple dough.  Top your focaccia in any manner you please.  Simple sprinkled with coarse sea salt is always nice or you can add items like fresh spinach, roasted bell peppers, hard cheese, etc.

Spritz water over focaccia and oven walls once, to create steam. Bake about 15 minutes or until almost done. Remove from pan and place directly on rack to finish baking for another 5 minutes. (total of 20)

I have also prepared a similar polenta bread using the no-knead bread recipe.