Bread-biscuit
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, mix the flour and cornmeal together.
Add water gradually until a dough forms.
Knead the dough until smooth, then roll it out into flat cakes about 12 times the size of a regular biscuit.
Bake and store
Place the cakes on a baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown and dry.
Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure, forming the gluten network that holds the dough together.
- Cornmeal
- Gives the cakes their gritty texture and corn flavor while adding little gluten structure.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour and cornmeal so they bind into a cohesive dough.
The step that matters
Baking until golden brown and dry. The cakes must bake long enough to dry out fully, since moisture left inside makes them soft and prone to spoiling. Browning comes from Maillard reactions at the surface, so watch colour as well as time.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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