IngredientBeginner
Cornmeal
Ground dried corn; gluten-free, used for cornbread and dusting.
Dried corn ground into a coarse, medium, or fine meal. Corn has no gluten-forming proteins, so cornmeal can't build a dough on its own. Bakers use it for cornbread, for dusting peels and pans so loaves slide and don't stick, and in breads like New England anadama, made with cornmeal and molasses. Masa harina is different: the corn is nixtamalized, cooked and soaked in an alkaline solution, which changes it so it forms a pliable dough for tortillas.
By Henry Hunter · Updated
Henry's notes from the bench
- For dusting a peel, I like a mix of cornmeal and semolina or rice flour. It rolls like ball bearings and the dough slides right off.
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