BBA#1 Anadama Bread

Glad I successfully completed the first Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge!!  I was this close to give up due to the lack of several ingredients - polenta cornmeal, Brer Rabbit Golden Molasses, instant yeast that the recipe in the BBA book calls for. (Bob was mocking me for coming up with "excuses" for NOT making the bread... hubby knows me well. :)  Nevertheless, I decided to proceed to bake the bread with the ingredients I have at hand - Quaker Yellow Cornmeal, Mother Hubbard Black Strap Molasses, and Fleischmann's Rapid Rise yeast.  The bread turned out beautifully regardless and makes a lovely sandwich bread.  (Here's the bonus - the house is perfumed with the sweet molasses aroma when the bread is baking in the oven!)

Lessons learned:

1. Use windowpane to determine the gluten development of the dough is sufficient, and the dough should register 77F to 81F.
2. The right way to shape dough into loaf (under hubby's supervision!)
3. Bread should register at least 185F to 190F when done baking.
4. What a "Tacky dough" is -  "the easiest way is to press your hand onto the dough and then lift it up. If the dough pulls ups with your hand and then releases (so your hand comes away clean), the dough is tacky." (Thanks to Phyl Divine!)

1. Mix cornmeal (1 cup) and water (1 cup, room temp.) in a bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let sit overnight.
2. The next day, add cornmeal soaker, bread flour (2 cups, unbleached), yeast (2 tsp, active dry), lukewarm water (1 cup, 90F to 100F) in the mixer bowl.  Stir to mix well.  Cover with towel and ferment for an hour or until the sponge begins to bubble.
3. Add the remaining bread flour (2 1/2 cups), kosher salt (2 1/2 tsp), molasses (6 TBS) and unsalted butter (2 TBS, room temp.).  Mix on low speed with paddle attachment for about a minute or two until mixture forms a ball.
4. Replace paddle with dough hook and mix on medium speed for about 10 minutes or until the dough is firm, supple, pliable and no longer sticky.  The dough should pass the window pane test and register 77F to 81F.
5. Lightly oil the mixer bowl and roll the dough to coat with oil evenly.  Cover the bowl with towel and ferment the dough in oven set to proof for about 90 minutes or until it doubles in size.
6. Lightly flour the counter.  Remove the dough from the bowl and put on the counter.  Divide dough into 2 equal pieces of 24 oz.  Shape the dough into loaves and place in two lightly oiled bread pans.  Lightly spray the top of loaves with oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
7. Proof loaves in oven set to proof for 90 minutes or until the loaves crest fully over the tops of the pans.
8. Preheat oven to 350F with oven rack on the middle shelf.  Remove plastic wrap from pans and place pans on a sheet pan.  Mist the tops with water and dust with cornmeal.
9. Place the sheet pan in oven and bake for 20 minutes.  Then rotate the sheet pan for even baking and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and register at least 185F to 190F in the center.
10. When bread is done, remove immediately from pans and cool on rack for half an hour.  Then slice and enjoy it with butter while it is still warm.

Comments

[Susie]

Loved reading through your process. Great loaves. :)
Susie

[Sweetcharity]

Beautiful bread! I really love how your loaves crowned!!

[Phyl Divine]

Great write up. And beautiful loaves! I'm glad you didn't give up. It was obviously worth the time and effort. The great thing about this challenge is that I think it will cause all of us to bake bread that we, for one reason or another, would never have tried.

Keep baking and blogging!

[Sweet and Savory]

You are right Phyl ~ I am one of those people that collect cookbooks primarily for reading, rarely for following the recipes (I prefer recipes found online with user reviews for some reason). We've had BBA book for a few years, and hubby, who is the baker in our home, has tried making some bread (e.g. Brioche) from this book. I, on the other hand, had not tried making any break from this book until now. It certainly helps to have the first triumph!!

[Allison]

These loaves look great! We learn with every bread we bake, don't we? You obviously did a great job. Thank you for the post and the photos.

[Haley J.]

Those are some beautifully formed loaves! Great work!

[Shelley]

Gorgeous photos! We thought the bread was delicious too, even with plain old peanut butter and a glass of milk.