The BBA Challenge: Anadama Bread

After several months of following the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge that I first discovered on the Pinch My Salt blog, I have finally decided to bake along. This challenge is one that is taking place across many kitchens around the world with one goal in mind: to attempt every singe recipe in Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.

So here was my attempt at the first bread. This is Anadama Bread, which uses a corn meal soaker, or put simply: corn meal soaked in water. I left mine soaking overnight. The next day I mixed the soaker with part of the flour, yeast, and water then let it sit for 1 hour to ferment. Then I mixed in all the remaining ingredients: molasses, flour, salt, and butter. I mixed the dough using a Danish Dough Whisk - Large I ordered through Amazon.com. Then I kneaded the dough by hand using the method from this video. The dough should pass the "window pane test", but I always have a hard time accomplishing this. Most times I just give up and bake it anyway, but I think I got it somewhat right for this bread. Lastly, I let the dough rise until doubled in an oiled bowl for 90 minutes and then proofed it for 60 minutes in a bread pan. Unfortunately, after I removed the plastic wrap from pan, the dough deflated. I'll have to be more careful for the next time. Although the loaves turned out miniature after baking them, they were still very tasty and made great grilled cheese sandwhiches!



Source: For exact ingredients and measurements, see The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.