Anadama Bread

This bread makes the best toast ever. It also freezes verywell. Legend has it that this bread got its name from a marital dispute. The story goes like this. A newly married fisherman would come home each evening to his wife, Anna, who only cooked corn meal mush with molasses for dinner. He finally got fed up and mixed up the corn meal, molasses, some flour, and yeast and made bread. While he was mixing the bread, he muttered, “Anna, damn her.”

Anadama Bread

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

2 cups water

1/2 cup dark molasses

3-4 Tbsp butter (at room temperature)

1 Tbsp salt

1/2 cup warm water

1 package dry yeast

4 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

Place the cornmeal in a large bowl. Boil the two cups of water. Pour the hot water onto the cornmeal in a bowl. Stir thoroughly and constantly to prevent lumps. Let sit for 30 minutes so that the cornmeal absorbs the liquid.

To the cornmeal mixture, add molasses, salt, and butter.  Stir to combine thoroughly. The cornmeal water will be warm enough to melt the butter.

Put 1/2 cup of warm water (slightly warmer than body temperature) into a small non metal cup or bowl.  Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let sit for a few minutes.  Then stir it to gently combine. Let sit for a few minutes.

Add the yeast and the water to the the cornmeal mixture. Mix thoroughly.  Add the flour, a cup at a time, stirring after each addition. After all the flour is combined, you will end up with a wet sticky mass

Oil two medium-sized loaf pans. Because it is sticky, you will have to spoon the dough into the pan, the best that you can.  Cover with clean dish towel and let rise for several hours (3-4 hours normally), until it doubles in size.

Preheat oven to 350°F and bake loaves for 45-50 minutes, or until a thin knife blade comes out clean. Let the loaves cool for a few minutes, then turn them out onto racks or onto a clean dish towel to continue cooling.  You may have to run a knife around between the loaves and pans to loosen them, but don’t let them cool all the way in the pans or the crust will be damp.  You want a dry crust.