Tartine-Style Sourdough Rosemary Polenta Bread

This Tartine-style sourdough rosemary polenta bread has a thick crispy crust and a super flavorful crumb. It's loaded with polenta, rosemary, and pumpkin seeds. While I've made a sourdough polenta bread before, this one has much higher percentage of the polenta.

This Tartine-style sourdough rosemary polenta bread recipe takes the original 75 percent hydration Tartine bread and tosses in a big helping of prepared polenta, along with fresh rosemary and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Because polenta (corn grits) can absorb and then release a lot of water into the dough, this bread can be quite a challenge. Once you have developed the gluten in the dough, you think you're all set. Then when you add the polenta, let the dough rest for 30 minutes, your dough becomes a lot looser.

"What's Tartine bread?" you ask. Tartine is a bakery in San Francisco co-owned by Chad Robertson, and his basic bread is considered pretty much the holy grail for amateur bread bakers. The recipe for the basic bread is over 40 pages long in his book, Tartine.

Once you get past the first recipe, there are so many other delicious variations of the bread in the book. In addition, when you get to page 151, there is the most amazing olive oil brioche recipe.

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are making this bread, introduced by Elizabeth of Blog from Our Kitchen.

A few of the Babes, including Elizabeth, had some issues with the dough once they added the polenta. They reported that the dough became soupy and hard to shape. Because of these experiences, I made couple of adjustments. First, I increased the percentage of the sourdough starter so that the dough would get some extra oomph. In addition, I added a small amount of vital wheat gluten in order to give the dough some extra strength in order to handle the polenta.

I did not get a super airy and lacy crumb, nor did I get a big "ear" with this bread. I was probably shy about slashing the dough after hearing the tales of woe from the rest of the BBBs.

What I did get was a lofty and delicious loaf. It was easy to shape, and emerged from the banneton completely intact.

One step I recommend is pre-shaping the loaf and then letting it sit uncovered for about 10 minutes. This step helps develop a light "skin" on the dough.

I lined my banneton with a towel which I generously sprinkled with a 50/50 mixture of wheat and rice flour.

One of my favorite parts of baking this bread was the preparation of the pumpkin seeds. The minute I stuck them in the oven to roast, they started popping away. I had no idea! How fun is that?

After the recipe, be sure to check out the rest of the participating Babes' takes on this bread.

Yield: one loaf

Tartine-Style Sourdough Rosemary Polenta Bread

prep time: cook time: total time:

ingredients:

• 200 grams active (fed within the last 12 hours) 100 percent hydration starter
• 350 grams warm water
• 450 grams of bread flour
• 50 grams whole wheat flour
• 35 grams vital wheat gluten
• 10 grams salt
• 71 grams raw pumpkin seeds 
• 80 grams polenta/corn grits
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 tablespoon corn or canola oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

instructions:

1. The night before you mix the dough, prepare your starter to make sure it is active. 
2. To make the final dough, in a large bowl, add the starter, the warm water, and the flours, including the vital wheat gluten. Mix by hand until incorporated, cover, and let rest in a warm spot in your kitchen for about 30 to 40 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the salt over the dough. Mix by hand, pinching the dough to dissolve the salt, and stretching and folding the dough over itself. Cover and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
4. In the meantime, make the polenta. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and spread the pumpkin seeds over a baking sheet and bake them until they begin to pop and turn to brown, for about 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool. 
5. Stir the polenta/grits and boiling water together and set aside for 30 minutes. Add the pumpkin seeds, oil, and rosemary. Spread the mixture over a baking sheet or plate to rest. 
6. Let the dough rise for 3 to 5 hours, stretching and folding four times every 30 minutes for the first two hours, until the dough is buoyant and aerated, and doubled in size. Add the polenta mixture during the third stretch and fold. Be sure to pinch the polenta into the dough while performing the stretch and fold. 
7. Once the dough has doubled, using a dough scraper, gently coax the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface.
8. Shape the dough into a boule by gently folding the dough over itself from all "sides." Flip the shaped dough over so that the seam side is on the counter. Using a bench scraper, draw the loaf toward you, and then away from you, to tighten up the top of the dough. Let rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes. In the meantime, dust a towel lined banneton with a 50-50 mixture of wheat and rice flour.
9. After the 10 minutes, flip the dough over, and reshape the loaf one more time. Flip the loaf back over, seam side down, and place the bench scraper under the shaped loaf. Push it around from all four sides against the work surface to create tension and tighten up the loaf. Place the shaped dough into the banneton, seam side up. Pinch the seam a few times to make sure it stays closed. Cover with oiled plastic wrap.
10. You can either let the loaf rise at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours, until puffy, and then bake. Alternatively, you can place the shaped loaf in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours for a more sour flavor.
11. About 30 minutes before baking, place a Dutch oven in the oven and preheat it to 500 degrees F. Remove your loaf from the refrigerator.
12. When ready to bake, pull the Dutch oven out of your oven and, using this method, transfer the loaf to the hot pan. Carefully return the hot lid to the pan, and place it in the oven, and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 450 degrees F.
13. Bake or 30 minutes, remove the lid, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more, until the interior of the loaf reaches about 205 degrees F, and the crust is a deep brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

http://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2018/01/tartine-style-sourdough-rosemary.html

Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth

A Messy Kitchen – Kelly

Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy

Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen

Notitie Van Lien – Lien

Bread Experience - Cathy

Thyme for Cooking - Katie

Feeding My Enthusiasms - Elle