Anadama Bread
Anadama bread—we live by it! Eat it fresh out of the oven with slabs of butter or fried in olive oil for cinnamon toast. I always make more than one loaf at a time so there is always some in the freezer. Make garlic croutons for Caesar salad, sandwiches of melted Gruyère, or bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Or mix it into a crumb topping with capers, garlic, and olive oil for salmon.
Ingredients
- 3 cups whole milk
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 10 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
- 1 tablespoon plus 1½ teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1¼ cup cornmeal (use fine or coarse ground, fresh milled if possible)
- ¼ cup flaxseed meal (optional)
- 2 rounded tablespoons granulated yeast
- 8 cups Bob’s Red Mill Organic All-Purpose Flour
Instructions
- In a large pot, bring milk nearly to a boil over medium heat, then whisk in butter, brown sugar, blackstrap molasses, salt, cornmeal, and flaxseed if you are using it.
- Pour into a large ceramic bowl and let sit until cooled to the touch. Stir yeast into 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons lukewarm water. When it is bubbly, mix it gently into the bowl.
- Add flour by the cup until it is too thick to stir.
- Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead until flour is fully integrated. Place dough back in the bowl and cover the surface with flour and a towel.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven to 450° and prepare bread pans with olive oil or baking sheets with parchment paper.
- When the dough has doubled (approximately 1 to 2 hours), punch it down and cut into 2 or 3 pieces, depending on how big you want your loaves to be.
- Form into loaves by pulling the dough from the outside edges into the middle to create tension on the outside of the loaf. Pinch the middle together and turn over.
- If you are using a loaf pan, roll your hand back and forth over the dough to lengthen it to fit the pan. For a round loaf, place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and sprinkled with cornmeal.
- Let rise until soft to the touch, approximately an hour. Slash with a serrated knife and place in the oven.
- Turn the heat down to 350° and bake until browned and hollow sounding, about 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool on rack before slicing.
Notes
Photograph by Mark Loader
