BBA Challenge Bread: Anadama, Bread #1

So because my live isn't busy enough (what's it been, like two weeks since I posted?), I have joined a group of bakers who, led by the fearless Nicole of Pinch My Salt, are baking their way through the Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhardt. (Run on sentence much, Mary?)

The BBA Challenge group is 200 bakers strong. The group is really enthusiastic about getting though the book and has been so supportive of the newer bakers. We're working through the book in order. What's fun about that is the book is laid out alphabetically, so we jump from Anadama to an enriched Easter bread (Artos) to bagels to brioche. We aren't publishing the recipes from the book, so you'll have to pick up a copy if you want to follow along (most libraries carry it if you want to look before you buy).

The first bread we baked is Anadama. The [I am guessing apocryphal] story is that Anadama bread was invented when a man, left behind with no dinner and just a pan of cornmeal mush, cursed his wife, Anna, as he threw some bread together: "Anna, damn her!" I prefer to think differently: that after his lovely wife, Anna, made a lovely bread for supper, the man said: "Anna, damn that's some good bread!" Because it is.

Anadama is a yeast bread that includes cornmeal and molasses. The pictures make it look as if the bread contains whole wheat, but the darker tint of the bread comes from the molasses. The bread isn't too sweet, so it makes great sandwiches, but it has enough sweetness so that it's fabulous with a pat of butter too.