Brown corn bread baked in clay pots

Mix the brown bread flour with the cake flour, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Add butter and rub it into flour mixture. Stir in corn kernels.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in almost all of the lukewarm water.

Fold the flour into the water to start making a dough. Add the remaining water (and a bit more, if needed) to gather up any dry bits in the bottom of the bowl and until the mixture comes together as a soft but not-too-sticky dough. Gather it into a ball with your hands.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and knead for 8 – 10 minutes until it feels smooth and elastic, only adding the minimum of extra flour if necessary to prevent the dough sticking to the surface.

Place the ball of dough on a lightly floured work surface and cover with an upturned, clean, large glass bowl. Leave for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until doubled in size and light and springy. (Timing will depend on the warmth of the room.)

Knock back the dough by lightly kneading it just 3 or 4 times. You only want to knock out any large air bubbles, so too much handling at this stage will lose the dough’s lightness. Shape into a ball. Cover with the glass bowl and leave for a further 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into equal balls to fit halfway up the inside of the clay pots. Lightly oil the inside of each pot and line with baking sheets.

Using your knuckles, flatten the dough and fold both ends into the centre. Leave for 40 – 45 minutes or until risen to just above the top of the pots.

Preheat a Weber gas braai or the oven to 180°C and bake for 30 minutes or until golden. A skewer inserted into the centre of the bread should come out clean.

Remove from Weber or oven and leave in pots for 2 – 3 minutes before removing breads from pots and placing on a wire rack to cool.