Portuguese Peasant Bread

Total Time: 55 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 24
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 (1/4 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 (8 ounce) package barley nugget cereal, uncooked
• 2 1/2 cups stone-ground cornmeal
• 4 teaspoons salt
• 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Recipe

• 1 in small bowl, stir sugar and yeast into 1/2 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees f); let stand until yeast mixture foams, about 5 minutes.
• 2 in large bowl, combine barley cereal, cornmeal, salt, and 4 cups flour. with wooden spoon, stir in yeast mixture and 2 1/2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees f) until combined. with floured hands, shape dough into a ball in bowl.
• 3 cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees f) until doubled, about 1 hour.
• 4 punch down dough and turn onto well-floured surface. knead dough until smooth, about 5 minutes, working in more flour (about 3/4 cup) as necessary while kneading.
• 5 grease large cookie sheet. cut dough in half and shape each half into a 6-inch round. coat each round with flour; place on cookie sheet. cover loaves with towel and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
• 6 preheat oven to 400 degrees f. bake loaves until golden brown, a total of about 35 minutes, using spray bottle to spritz loaves with water after first 5 minutes of baking, and again 10 minutes later. cool on wire racks.