It just occurred to me you might want to check out the book, Promise & Fulfillment by Christopher Stafferton
Second book in this list
He uses many different grains and sourdough leavening, gluten free.
I don’t own the book myself but I see his posts on Instagram like this one, which is millet and brown rice
Thank you so much Melissa. That loaf you’ve tagged looks amazing and it’s gluten free! Millet and Brown Rice sounds like a lovely paring too. I’m going to look into it!
Got a buckwheat sourdough in the oven as I type this.
I finally had the time and opportunity to try this bread which I made with locally grown home milled organic purple corn and danko rye. It was an interesting bread. I needed to add considerably more water than you used, Melissa, to get a similar hydration. My corn was very thirsty. The texture is quite close as you would expect with corn and rye flour, it was also very moist, almost too moist. The flavor was ok, but to be honest, not my favorite bread. I suspect that some of that was due to the corn I used which I have found lacking in corn flavor and sweetness in other recipes. It was so simple and fun to make, I may try it again with another corn meal.
I thought I would post a photo just to show the crazy color that the purple corn produced. I didn’t get as much oven spring as this photo suggests; I sliced it on the diagonal.
What a cool color! I’m glad you enjoyed the fun of this recipe and bummed the flavor wasn’t super appealing. I see what you’re saying about the bread needing some of that corn sweetness.
Lately I’ve been making a spoon bread with the yellow dent corn. Curiously, it smells a little sweet even though the flavor isn’t sweet.
I am going to make this recipe as soon as I can get Rye flour! Two questions: A. do you add steam in the oven? 2. Would Masa Harina work? I’ve been experimenting and enjoy the slight taste difference in my cornbread muffins. They are my wife’s favorite baked good I make. In fact, I suspect that is the main reason she hasn’t gotten rid of me! Seriously what do you think of the Harina idea?
I have never worked with Masa Harina but logically I would think it’ll be ok. It’s not like swapping out a gluten flour for a non gluten flour. Both are different types of corn “flour” and don’t have gluten. So from that point of view it’s not going to alter the structure of the bread. The only thing you might need to look out for is hydration. Do they both absorb water the same way? Other then that it’s worth a try. Just bear in mind that while i’m sure you’ll make a delicious bread it’s not going to be exactly the same a Broa de Milho. Rather it will be inspired by.
I’ve just looked up the difference and masa harina is much finer and prepared by soaking in an alkaline solution. So something tells me you’ll get a different crumb and it’ll have a different absorbency. So watch out for that. Always better to not add all the water at once but slowly till it feels right. But that’s not what concerns me the most. It’s the alkaline nature of masa harina which might work against the acidic nature of sourdough. It might be fine, your starter will “do it’s thing” and sort it out. You won’t know till you try. It might need longer to work its magic or for assurance you could add a pinch of dried yeast to the main dough. And as always watch the dough and not the clock.
I’m leaning towards it’ll work but just expect it might take longer. The sourdough will have more work to break down through the buffer. What say you @Benito?
I think it will really depend on how potent the alkaline solution is. If it is just weakly alkaline, then I would imagine that the acids produced by the LAB will eventually overcome the buffering ability of the flour along with the alkalinity of the masa harina and the pH will fall nicely. I suppose if it is a potent alkali then it may be hard for the LAB to overcome the alkalinity.
I looked up what his process was and I think it refers to
Nixtamalization (/nɪʃtəməlaɪˈzeɪʃən/) is a process for the preparation of maize (corn), or other grain, in which the corn is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater (but sometimes aqueous potassium carbonate[1]), washed, and then hulled. This process removes up to 97%–100% of aflatoxins from mycotoxin-contaminated corn.
Other than taking a pH reading, I guess the only way to find out is just to try it. I have no idea how well LAB or wild yeast grow in an alkaline solution. This is something I’ve never read up on, perhaps @Fermentada knows as she has worked with corn a fair bit I believe.
Thank you Benny. Perhaps they’ll do ok but might need more time. What do you think about adding a bit of acidity to the scald? Something like lemon juice. Or pre-fermenting the rest of the flours so there’s a higher ratio of starter. I suppose @Hornsmith could also try fermenting a few grams of Masa Harina first as an experiment, e.g. 10g starter + 20g water + 20g Masa Harina and see how it fares. It won’t rise but there should still be bubbles. Also taking notes on how long it takes.
It would sure be interesting to know what the pH of the masa harina is, just mixed with a bit of water. I don’t see any harm in adding some lemon juice it would probably add a nice flavour to the bread and might bring the pH down to a level that the LAB and yeast are happier with. It would be great to know how alkaline tolerant our microbes in our starters are…
Just went out to try and find some Masa Harina to experiment with but couldn’t find any. Did find some corn flour though. Can you guess what my next bake will be? Have an idea to swap the AP flour with wholegrain spelt. Think the corn flour, rye and spelt will make a very nice mix.
If you are able to find any Masa Harina Benny then it would be nice to see a write-up of an experiment. Would be very interesting to know how it fares as a sourdough and you have the means of measuring the pH level at each stage.
I’ll look for it but currently I am in an oversupply situation with flours since I got that shipment from Anita’s which wasn’t expected. I’ll need to keep baking to reduce my supply before buying anything else.
Good idea Abe! I tried it. I made up an experimental levain using Masa Harina. Then I thought I needed a Control. So I made up another with 10g Nicky Parsons, 20g water and 20g Corn Meal! I then headed off to bed! This morning the Corn Meal mix was beginning to bubble well. The Masa mix was not as bubbly but was showing bubbles too. Both had a bit of dome happening.
When I mixed them I noticed that the Masa sucked up the water much more than the Corn Meal. I had to add an extra 10g water to get a similar mix. Not sure how that works out in a full loaf recipe.
Next step, I will make two recipes, one with the Masa and one with Meal. I have used Masa for my World Famous Corn Muffins and have enjoyed the result. I will report further results!
That tells us a fair bit @Hornsmith. Firstly, it does work albeit slower. And secondly, it soaks up more water. So your Broa de Milho with Masa Harina will need more water and a longer ferment, Good idea about the control levain. I look forward to your two bakes and hearing how they compare. Make the cornmeal one first so you know how the dough should feel then you’ll have a better idea of how much extra water is needed for the Masa Harina. And watch that fermentation expecting the Masa Harina to take longer.
P.s. Would be nice if you shared your muffin recipe over on the Readers Recipes section. Unless it’s top secret? And what’s the reason behind your starter’s name? Googled Nicky Parsons and she’s in the Jason Bourne films.
Long time bread baker, recent sourdough baker. I named my first starter, Jason Bourne, for my favorite movie franchise. Probably watch a Bourne movie every month. I grew impatient with Jason and started a second, named Marie Kreutz, for Jason’s late girl friend. That seemed to perk Jason up and so I had two growing starters. Then I hit on the idea of Rye Flour starter and Nicky was born. I probably thought about this too much, but its all in good fun! Thanks for asking!
The Corn Muffin recipe is a poorly kept secret which I will post on Readers Recipes.
Methods:
Cleaned my mill of wheat flour with some corn.
Double-milled 30g yellow dent corn. (It was kinda messy/inefficient because I milled into a tiny bowl. When all was said and done, I had 26g corn flour.)
Mixed in 74g water.
In a second bowl, I mixed 26g masa harina and 74g water.
Here’s a video of the thirstiness difference.
The corn flour solution had a pH of 6.2
The masa harina solution had a pH of 6.37
So there ya go! Minimal pH difference but huge hydration needs difference (which likely is what impacted the speed of fermentation in your test starters).
“Your water vs mine” differences could impact the pHs but not the difference between the two.
A different corn variety might be slightly higher or lower, and home-nixtamalizing might yield a difference too – how aggressively you rinse the corn.
(Yes, we’re having huevos rancheros at my house later this morning 
I combined the tests and added some more masa harina and water to get 4 tortillas.)
Very nicely done Melissa. With some interesting results. Must say, after learning about the process Masa Harina goes through, i’d have expected it to be much more alkaline than ordinary corn flour. That assumption can be put to bed. And what a difference when it comes to absorption.
Thank you for this. Enjoy your tortillas. I’ve never tried Masa Harina before but i’ve seen it at Wholefoods. I’ll have to buy some.
In the middle of Broa de Milho. Bought what looks like a really lovely very fine corn flour. The scald seemed quite dry but didn’t wish to add more water at this stage preferring to alter the hydration at the final dough stage. With a little effort I managed to get all the corn flour hydrated then pressed it into one lump and let it rest overnight while the levain matured. Come morning the texture had changed and it was really nice to work with. No extra water was needed.
Fresh out the oven:
Nice!! I hope you enjoy the flavor. That’s interesting how the dough-feel evolved.
Thank you Melissa. Just enjoyed some toasted and it has very nice flavour. The resulting loaf reminds me of barley bread. Dense but soft and flavoursome. Makes a change from the usual sourdough and can be appreciated in its own right. Shaping was a pleasure with less fuss than usual doughs. Kept the risen dough in the bowl and lightly dusted it with flour. Carefully flipped it over with a dough scraper and lightly dusted the other side. Then shaped in the bowl very easily. One bowl, no messy bench, very little flour needed and quick. I can imagine this will go very nicely with some cheese as a side while having tomato soup. Like one would have a cheese toast with tomato soup. Also goes very nicely with oily fish.
…and now I want tomato soup and oily fish 
I believe traditionally it’s also sometimes baked with fish. Seem to remember seeing a video. Anyway, try it with mackerel in tomato sauce.
