How to Use Polenta in Baking: Cakes, Crumbs and Crust

Polenta is usually a pot of cornmeal stirred into porridge, but the same bag of meal works in the oven. In a cake it gives a golden crumb with a little crunch. Under a loaf or a pizza it gives a crisp base. On top of baked fruit it gives a crumble that stays crisp. This guide covers how to use polenta in baking: which grind to choose, an olive oil polenta cake by weight, a crumb topping, a crust, how much flour to swap out, and what to change at Denver's altitude.

Fine or coarse: the grind decides the texture

Corn meal is sold by grind, and in baking the grind matters more than anything else on the bag. Moretti, the Bergamo mill, sells its polenta meals by grind. Fioretto is its fine meal, which it describes as giving a soft polenta. Bramata is its coarse meal of the Bergamo tradition, which Moretti describes as robust in flavor.

American labels follow federal standards that set the grind by sieve. Under 21 CFR 137.250, white corn meal must be fine enough that at least 95 percent passes a No. 12 sieve. Under 21 CFR 137.265, degerminated white corn meal has the bran and germ removed and must pass a No. 20 sieve, which has smaller openings. Yellow corn meal follows the same rules as white.

Here is what each grind does in a bake.

Moretti's bramata is a coarse meal, and its listing says the corn is dried in temperature-controlled ovens and stone ground with the hull and germ (shop Moretti Bramata Polenta). To use it where a recipe wants fine meal, pulse it in a spice grinder or blender for 20 to 30 seconds, then sift out what stays coarse and keep it for a crust.

Soak coarse polenta before it goes in a batter

Coarse meal baked straight into a cake stays hard. The grains need time to take on water first. Stir the polenta into the liquid in the recipe (milk, yogurt or juice) and let it stand 30 minutes before you mix the batter. Fine meal can go in dry with the flour.

An olive oil polenta cake, by weight

This cake is a little more flour than polenta, about 55 to 45 by weight, which keeps it light enough to slice cleanly while the corn still shows. It uses olive oil in place of butter, so it stays moist for days.

For a 9-inch round pan:

• 100 g polenta (about 2/3 cup), ground fine or soaked as above
• 120 g whole milk or plain yogurt (1/2 cup)
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange, and 2 tablespoons of its juice
• 3 large eggs
• 150 g sugar (3/4 cup)
• 110 g extra virgin olive oil (1/2 cup)
• 120 g all-purpose flour (1 cup)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Oil the pan and line the base with a round of parchment.
2. Stir the polenta into the milk or yogurt with the orange juice and let it stand 30 minutes.
3. Whisk the eggs, sugar and zest until pale and thick, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the olive oil in a thin stream.
4. Stir in the soaked polenta. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together and fold them in until no dry flour shows.
5. Scrape into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer comes out clean.
6. Cool 15 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a rack.

Use an oil you like the taste of raw, because the cake tastes of it. To finish, warm 2 tablespoons of honey with a tablespoon of orange juice and brush it over the warm top. Bee Squared Apiaries, according to its listing, keeps its hives along Colorado's Front Range (shop Bee Squared Alfalfa Wildflower Honey). To serve, scatter a few flakes of salt over each slice; Maldon has made its sea salt in the coastal town of Maldon since 1882 (shop Maldon Sea Salt). For a peppery note, add a thread of early harvest oil over each slice at the table. Graza picks the olives for Drizzle in October and says it is made for eating, never heating, so it goes on after the bake, not in it (shop Graza Drizzle).

A polenta crumb topping

For a crumble over fruit, rub together 50 g cold butter, 50 g flour, 40 g coarse polenta, 40 g sugar and a pinch of salt until it forms clumps. Scatter it over sliced apples, pears or plums in a baking dish and bake at 375°F for 35 to 45 minutes, until the fruit bubbles at the edges. Coarse meal works dry here: the butter and sugar bind it, and it bakes into a crisp, sandy layer.

Polenta as a crust under bread and pizza

A handful of coarse polenta on the peel or the baking sheet lets the dough slide and bakes into a crunchy base. Scatter a thin, even layer, set the shaped dough on it, and bake as usual. Use the coarse grind: fine meal scorches faster and gives little crunch. For a loaf baked in a Dutch oven, dust the parchment under the dough the same way.

Swapping polenta for flour

Corn meal has no gluten, so it cannot replace all the flour in a wheat recipe without changing the bake. In muffins, quick breads and shortbread, start by replacing a quarter of the flour by weight with fine polenta. Go to a third for more crunch. Past half, a cake loses structure and crumbles, unless the recipe was written for it, as the cake above was.

Coeliac UK lists corn and polenta as gluten free, but it cautions that naturally gluten-free flours can be milled where wheat is milled, and advises people with coeliac disease to look for flours labeled gluten free. The cake above contains wheat flour.

Baking with polenta in Denver

Colorado State University Extension gives adjustments for cakes and quick breads at elevation. Between 3,500 and 6,500 feet, it suggests reducing each teaspoon of baking powder by 1/8 teaspoon, reducing sugar by up to 1 tablespoon per cup, adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of liquid per cup, and raising the oven by 15 to 25°F, with an earlier check on doneness.

For the cake above in Denver, that means 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder, an extra tablespoon of milk in the soak, and an oven at 365°F to 375°F. Start checking at 30 minutes. Soaked coarse meal helps at altitude too, because dry air takes moisture from a batter during the bake.

Storing polenta for baking

A meal stone ground with the germ, like bramata, carries the oil of the corn, so keep the bag folded tight or move the meal to a jar, away from the stove. The polenta complete guide covers how long whole-grain meals keep, the corns, and how to cook polenta on the stove. For a first pot, start with the polenta recipe to learn first.

Questions

Can you use polenta instead of cornmeal in baking? Yes. Polenta is corn meal sold for polenta, usually in a coarse grind. Grind it finer or soak it when a recipe calls for fine cornmeal.

Does polenta cake need to be soaked? Coarse polenta does, for about 30 minutes in the recipe's liquid. Fine polenta can go in dry.

How much flour can polenta replace? A quarter to a third of the flour by weight in a wheat recipe; go higher in a recipe written for it.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com.

Sources & Further Reading

• 21 CFR 137.250: White corn meal
• 21 CFR 137.265: Degerminated white corn meal
• Farine Moretti: corn meals for traditional polenta, the range
• Colorado State University Extension: High Elevation Food Preparation Guide
• Coeliac UK: Grains