Anadama Bread

Here it is - the very first bread from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice.  Anadama bread is a traditional New England bread made with molasses and corn meal.  It does take two days to make, but the time commitment on the first day is less than five minutes, so it's really a one day bread that takes a tiny bit of forethought and planning. 

Last night, Pibb and I got our soaker going by mixing coarse corn meal and tepid water in a bowl.  We covered it with plastic wrap and left it on the counter overnight.  Seriously simple stuff. 

Today the real work happened!  We started by mixing the soaker with part of the flour, the salt, yeast and additional water.  That mix sat on the counter until it started to bubble a bit, about an hour.  Then we added in the rest of the ingredients and additional flour.  A 10 minute knead and it was ready to rise. 

After about an hour and a half the dough had doubled in size and was ready to be shaped into loaves.  We followed the shaping instructions in the book, which were very simple and easy to follow, although slightly different than my usual method.  The loaves were put on the back of the stove (where it's reasonably warm) and allowed to rise for another hour or so until they were just cresting the top of the loaf pans.

They baked just shy of 45 minutes and then the hardest part - we had to wait a full hour before slicing into them!  But oh, it was worth the wait!  

Pibb is quite proud of his bread and I'm pretty proud of it, too!  He's never made bread before, so it was a whole new experience for him. And while he's seen me make it many times, he's never had the fun of mixing, working the dough, waiting for it to rise and then the satisfaction of that first bite of bread made with his own two hands!

I'm calling this bread a complete success and will very likely work it into my regular rotation.  Bryant has already come out of his office and asked for seconds and all the kids loved their slices!  I think tomorrow I might slice the second loaf, toast it and use it for BLTs for lunch!