BBA #1: Anadama Bread

It is true. I've joined yet another baking group. The thing of it is thought that it is all about breads this time. The book The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart in fact.


When Nicole at Pinch My Salt announced on Twitter that she was going to bake her way through the entire book, in order, and asked if anyone wanted to join in the fun, it didn't take me too long to decide to go for it. So, over the next 40+ weeks, I, along with 199 others have committed to the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge - seriously, who couldn't go with some kind of homemade bread every week. Nicole has even created a map that shows where we are all scattered around the globe.

Nicole plans to post her breads on Mondays, and since that seems like a good day to me, I plan to try to just post them around the same time, or at least one each week. Since it is an amazing book with so much more information than just a recipe though, we won't be posting the recipes on our blogs - you should really get the book!

Thank you Nicole for such a great idea!!

I actually love making breads, probably just as much as I like making desserts, which for me is saying a lot. The book is the perfect choice for learning how to work with yeast and bread making since it is chock full of great information, while still being accessible to a beginner. I figure since I have been working with yeast and making bread for several years but don't know a whole lot about the mechanics or science of how it all works it puts me somewhere in between.

The first bread in the book was Anadama Bread. I've heard of this before, but never had or made it. It is a fairly soft loaf made with bread flour, coarse cornmeal or polenta and inclues molasses as well. They are all ingredients I like, so no problem there!

There are several explanations about the source for the bread's strange name, some of which are explained here.

I made a simple chicken salad for sandwiches with my bread - just some shredded roast chicken, mayo, a little Dijon mustard and some chopped walnuts. Very yummy!