First bread for the BBA Challenge 2011! This is the Anadama Bread, a standard white-flour loaf enhanced with some cornmeal and flavored with molasses. The cornmeal is soaked overnight (thus it's, logically, a "soaker" in this bread-baking terminology I'm learning to use)--that was different from anadama bread I've made in the past where the cornmeal was just added to the flour. Reinhart's version calls for polenta grind cornmeal.Notes:
I used garden-variety "Grandma's" molasses, that being all I had on hand. I think I'd prefer this loaf with the lighter molasses Reinhart recommends--the molasses flavor was a little too strong. Or maybe I should have tried that leftover pomegranate molasses...not sure what the relative sweetness levels are, though.
I mixed and kneaded in the KitchenAid (I may do a post on 'how I do bread' to cover my level of experience and my usual methods), and found as others did that the recipe needed more flour than the recipe called for to get past a quite sticky dough to merely tacky.
I did a half recipe (one loaf) and used the slightly oversized 10 x 5" corrugated loaf pan purchased from King Arthur. The loaf took quite a while for the second rise, then I forgot it and let it over-proof slightly. I still got some oven spring, so perhaps it was no big deal.The bread had a nice texture, very light. The molasses and cornmeal combo, though, just doesn't do much for my taste buds, so I suspect I won't repeat this one.
What a beautiful loaf! Try barley malt syrup for some of the molasses. I just made a 100% whole wheat bread from KAF (just posted it on my blog) and used a combination of barley malt syrup and honey. Also, I like to make my dough in the bread machine's Dough cycle which does the kneading + first rise.
ReplyDeleteNice loaf, Nancy. Reinhart's recommended molasses works well - it's not overwhelming at all.
ReplyDeleteA number of us had the same observation on the flour amount - the book is clearly under what is needed. I added 2oz more (as did Geraint, if I remember).
It's an okay recipe, good for sandwiches, but clearly not a knockout "must have" bread!
Very nice loaf. I like how high yours rose. I liked the taste of it, much better than normal cornbread. It's one I would make to go with chili maybe, but I thought it only really worked for peanut butter sandwiches and butter with honey. Happy baking....
ReplyDeleteJoanne