Recipe Notes: Anadama Bread

11 February 2018

Recipe from Bread Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 106; a similar recipe is available online.

It was only recently that I first  heard of Anadama bread. It originate in New England and is characterized by including both molasses and cornmeal as ingredients. As I continue trying different sandwich loaves I was eager to try this variation of a hearty loaf which promises to have more flavor and character than white bread. Not that I have anything against white bread.

This bread has a short ingredient list and is easy to make. The dry ingredients--flour, cornmeal, yeast, salt--are whisked together. The wet ingredients--water, molasses, melted butter--are whisked together separately. Using a stand mixer with dough hook, the wet ingredients are added to the dry and kneaded. I added an additional few tablespoons of flour to the dough as it was kneading so it would form a cohesive dough. The dough rises until doubled in size, is shaped and placed in a loaf pan, and rises again. The loaf is baked at 350° until done to an internal temperature of 205°. The total time is about 4 hours, most of which is hands off. 

This is a very good, hearty sandwich bread. It makes very good sandwiches and is also good toasted. It freezes well. Like most homemade breads, after a few days at room temperature it starts to get stale and tends to break apart more easily as you eat your sandwich. It doesn't have a strong molasses flavor or corn flavor that I notice. This is a bread to make again and again.