Anadama Bread

First off, let’s just say that even with the mistakes, I was so happy with how this turned out and that I finally discovered what I’ve been doing all wrong these many years when my attempts at making a loaf of bread have failed. Apparently, I have a heavy hand with a measuring cup. I’ve been adding too much flour, which causes the bread to be too dense. From now on, I will weigh the ingredients.

That being said, the first loaf in the BBA Challenge is called Anadama Bread. It’s made with cornmeal and molasses. The recipe calls for coarse cornmeal (polenta). I had regular grind cornmeal. I live less than an hour SE of Chicago, near a busy shopping district off a major US Highway. One would think finding coarse cornmeal would not need to turn into such a treasure hunt, but it has. I also cannot find SAF Instant Yeast locally. I ordered that from King Arthur Flour and tracked the shipment all over the East Coast (how fun). I may have to order cornmeal as well, but to start the bread, I used what I had.

Now for some of the science of it all:  the weights versus measures dilemma and my ensuing confusion. Mr. Phillips, my HS Chemistry / Driver’s Ed teacher immediately came to mind. Alton Brown would have been a better vision.

The recipe directed me to use 1 cup of cornmeal (6 ounces) and 1 cup of water (8 ounces). Whoa! 1 cup IS 8 ounces, not 6, right? You’d think I hadn’t spent the last 4 months reading the book! I was so confused. Well, I wound up weighing out 8 ounces of cornmeal, which came out to more like 1-1/2 cups. My wires got all kinds of crossed. So there we have mistakes #1 (regular, not coarse cornmeal) and #2 (too much regular cornmeal). I added the water, covered the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it soak overnight.

To resolve my confusion, I turned to pages 27 and 28 in the book and highlighted two areas: “….professional bakers prefer to use weights…,” and “…the weight is always the preferred amount, not the volume.” I made an Excel table of the chart on page 28, laminated it and stuck it to the inside of the cabinet where I keep all my magical baking supplies.

From that point, the rest of the bread making was easy. Until it came for the final proof, or second rise, in the pan. I didn’t spray the top of the dough with oil, and I used a towel to cover the loaves. I forgot to set the timer for the rise time, too, and got busy making vegetable beef soup. I’m really not sure how long the dough had been proofing but I knew it was likely nearing 90 minutes.

The dough had at least doubled in size but had not crested above the pans. I let it go a bit longer. It seemed to be actually shrinking and I was getting a bit worried, so I put it in the oven. I wonder what might have been if I had sprayed with oil, topped with plastic wrap, and set the timer….Maybe not much. I suspect the extra cornmeal was the culprit here.

Although a few mistakes were made, the bread turned out with a really nice crumb and really good flavor and finally, the weights / measures thing sunk in.

Next bread on the BBA Challenge list is Artos:  Greek Celebration Bread. This one looks really good and if it turns out nicely, it would be perfect for the upcoming Holidays! I'm making that this weekend.