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Cornmeal Stuffing Bread

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Cornmeal stuffing bread is a hearty bread for making cornbread dressing that has actual corn in the mix! Bake it in advance and freeze it ahead of the holiday season to save time.

The sliced bread is on the cutting board next to a bread knife.

While it is traditional in my family to make my mom's Italian sausage stuffing for the holidays, I know that many families around us here in the south vastly prefer a cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving.

Using fresh buttermilk cornbread to make dressing can be a little bit tricky when turning it into stuffing croutons at home.

The best solution?? This hearty cornmeal stuffing bread that has herbs and actual corn right in the mix. Bake it in your bread machine with almost no hands-on work and then freeze it ahead of the season. You'll be able to pull it out and turn it into dressing in no time.

Why This is the Best Recipe

As the author of The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook, I've tested dozens upon dozens of bread machine recipes. I think this is the best cornmeal stuffing bread recipe because:

  1. Hearty and Easy to Slice: This bread is much more stable for slicing than a tender crumbed cornbread. This is an excellent solution for making neatly diced stuffing croutons.
  2. Real Corn in the Mix: Using canned corn adds a touch of corn sweetness to the loaf.
  3. Pre-Seasoned: No need to season your croutons, there's seasoning right in the bread itself!

Ingredients

The ingredients to make the bread machine bread are on the counter.

This easy bread maker recipe only needs a few ingredients:

  • Bread Flour: Bread flour has more protein than all-purpose flour which affects the shape of the baked bread. If you plan to turn it into stuffing croutons, this isn't as essential and you can use all-purpose flour if that's what you already have on hand.
  • White or Yellow Cornmeal: Do not buy the self-rising cornmeal, just plain cornmeal.
  • Canned Corn: You'll be using both the corn kernels themselves AND the packing liquid, so frozen corn will not work for this recipe.
  • Buttermilk: If you don't have buttermilk, you can make your own with a ratio of 1 cup of milk to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar.
  • Honey
  • Olive Oil
  • Poultry Seasoning
  • Fresh Parsley: For the holiday, I love using fresh herbs but you could substitute dried parsley if you prefer.
  • Garlic Powder
  • Kosher Salt
  • Active Dry Yeast: You do not need to buy "bread machine yeast" specifically but if you already have it, it will work just fine.

Bread Machine Tips

As the author of The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook, I'm very passionate about baking homemade bread with a bread maker.

If you're curious and wondering if a bread maker is worth it, not only do I think the answer is yes but I've reviewed the most popular bread machine for beginners.

For this recipe, I used my Cuisinart bread machine.

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How to Measure the Corn

Buying pantry items at the store is tricky business these days with shrinkflation and wide variation among brands. Some store brands will have a different ratio of packing liquid to corn kernels.

You'll be using ALL the corn kernels from your can of corn. More or less of the corn won't affect the bake.

However, the amount of packing liquid absolutely will affect your bread. Do not just dump the entire can of corn into your bread machine.

The can of corn is next to a measuring cup filled with the packing liquid.

Instead, drain the packing liquid from the can of corn into a measuring cup. You'll need just 2/3 cup, discard anything more than that. If your can of corn doesn't produce the full 2/3, you can just make up the difference with water.

Add the Wet Ingredients First

As with all bread machine recipes, we'll start by adding the wet ingredients first.

Add the drained corn kernels, the corn packing liquid, the buttermilk, olive oil, and honey to your bread pan fitted with the bread paddle.

TIP: If you measure the olive oil first, the honey will slide right out of the measuring spoon!

The corn and buttermilk are in the bread machine pan.

Add the Dry Ingredients

Next add the bread flour right on top of the liquid ingredients. Add the cornmeal, parsley, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and kosher salt.

Use a spoon to dig a shallow well in the center of the flour and add the yeast there.

The dry ingredients have been added to the bread pan, the yeast is in a small well in the center.

Bread Maker Program Settings

Place the bread pan back into your bread machine.

Select the 2-pound loaf size.

Select your desired darkness setting, I used Medium.

Then select the BASIC/WHITE program and press START.

The bread dough is very thick, you can see the corn and fresh parsley.

This will be a very thick dough for your average bread machine to mix, you'll want to keep a little eye on it for the first 5 minutes.

I used a spatula to nudge down some of the dough from the corners and to help the corn get mixed up from the bottom as the dough ball formed.

The loaf will take about 3.5 hours to finish baking. Remove it from the bread pan and allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes before you try to slice it.

Make Ahead Tips

The glorious thing about stuffing is that slightly stale bread works amazing.

I actually baked this loaf 3 days before I made my cornbread dressing out of it. I just kept it in a bread bag on my counter.

You could also pop it into a freezer bag and keep it in the freezer for up to 6 months. Just thaw it in the fridge overnight so it is easier to slice (or slice it before you freeze it.)

The sliced bread is on the cutting board next to a bread knife.

How to Make Stuffing Croutons

Once you've baked your cornmeal stuffing bread, the next step is to turn it into stuffing croutons.

The bread has been ripped into small pieces and spread on two baking sheets.

I chose to hand rip the bread for a more rustic-looking dressing but you could cube it into neat little dices if you prefer.

For full instructions and step-by-step photos on how to do this, you can read my full stuffing croutons recipe here.

Stuffing Recipes

Once you have your stuffing croutons prepped, they're ready to go into the final dish. You could use this to make my corn bread dressing but the croutons would also work in my Crock pot stuffing, air fryer stuffing, and my mom's homemade Italian sausage stuffing if you wanted to try something different.

๐Ÿ“– Recipe

The sliced bread is on the cutting board next to a bread knife.

Cornmeal Stuffing Bread

Please Rate this Recipe
This hearty cornmeal stuffing bread is the best choice for making cornbread dressing since it holds up even better than traditional cornbread when it comes time to make the stuffing croutons.
TOTAL TIME 3 hours 35 minutes
PREP TIME 5 minutes
COOK TIME 3 hours 30 minutes
YIELD 1 2-pound loaf

Ingredients
  

  • 1 (11 oz) can of corn kernels
  • 1/3 cup buttermilk
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 2 3/4 cups (377 g) bread flour
  • 1 1/4 cups (210 g) white or yellow cornmeal not self-rising
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley about 1 handful
  • 1 3/4 tablespoons poultry seasoning
  • 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Instructions

  • Different brands of canned corn may have varying amounts of packing liquid. Before you assemble the bread, open your can of corn and drain the packing liquid into a measuring cup. You will use all of the corn kernels but only use 2/3 cup of the packing liquid. Discard the rest. If your canned corn doesn't have enough liquid to measure the full 2/3 cup, add just enough water to reach that amount.
  • Add the ingredients in the order they are listed to your bread machine baking pan fitted with the paddle attachment. Start by adding all the corn kernels, then pour in the corn liquid, buttermilk, olive oil, and honey. Add the dry ingredients directly on top. Add the bread flour, cornmeal, chopped fresh parsley, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and kosher salt. Dig a shallow well in the top of the flour and add the yeast there.
  • Place the bread pan back into the bread machine and close the lid.
  • Select the 2-pound loaf size.
  • Select your desired darkness setting, I used Medium.
  • Select the Basic/White program and press Start.
  • Keep an eye on the machine as it does the initial mixing of the ingredients. This is a very thick bread dough, especially with all the corn in the mix. You may want to gently scrape the sides and corners of the pans if pockets of flour collect too high for the dough ball to reach as it kneads.
  • The baking program will take about 3.5 hours to complete. Remove the baked cornmeal stuffing bread from the bread pan and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.
COURSEBread
CUISINEAmerican

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The cornmeal stuffing bread has been sliced, the second photo shows the ingredients needed to make it.

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