Why It Works
- Utilizing a cornmeal porridge as an alternative of dry cornmeal as the bottom of the dough retains the bread from having a sandy or gritty texture.
- Brushing the baked loaf with butter when it is nonetheless heat softens the crust and offers it a shiny sheen.
New Englanders have an extended custom of reworking easy, thrifty components into cozy, hearty fare. Anadama bread, the basic New England loaf, is a superb instance of any such cooking. It makes use of pantry staples—on this case, flour, cornmeal, and molasses—in a inventive option to make a hearty multi-purpose bread that’s nice as a desk bread or for sandwiches.
Rising up in Maine, I typically loved anadama bread eating out with my household—it was a bread basket-staple at family-style eating places there. I’ve all the time liked the candy taste and barely nubbly texture of anadama bread by itself, and it is even higher when toasted and slathered with salted butter, so I used to be excited to dig into the bread’s historical past and develop my very own recipe for a flavorful, satisfying model of this basic bread.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
Origins of Anadama Bread
In researching the origins of the loaf, I got here throughout many tales of how this bread supposedly received its identify. In a single model of the folklore, a fisherman residing on the North Shore of Massachusetts within the mid-1800s was served a supper of cornmeal mush by his spouse, Anna. Dissatisfied with being served this dinner one too many occasions, the fisherman declared “Anna, rattling her!” and added flour, yeast, and molasses to the cornmeal combination to show it into bread as an alternative. In different tellings of the story, a New England sea captain had a spouse named Anna who was a fantastic baker, and was well-known for her cornmeal and molasses bread. When she died, her husband put up a headstone in her honor studying, “Anna was a stunning bride, however Anna, Rattling’er, up and died.” Thus, the bread grew to become often known as “Annadammer” or “Annadama.”
In actuality, New England bakers have been making breads incorporating cornmeal and molasses, comparable to johnnycakes, because the Colonial period. However, in line with Jonathan Deutsch’s ebook We Eat What? A Cultural Encyclopedia of Uncommon Meals in the USA, in 1850 the identify “Anadama” for this type of bread was patented by a bakery in both Rockport or Gloucester, Massachusetts. An organization named Anadama Mixes, Inc. began advertising the bread to prospects in 1876. My guess is that these apocryphal tales stemmed from advertising supplies trying to show prospects the right way to pronounce the identify of the product. However, we’ll most likely by no means know for positive.
Making a Nice Anadama Loaf
What we do know, nonetheless, is that this bread is (rattling) scrumptious. Staying true to no less than one of many tales, I begin by making a cornmeal porridge on the stovetop. Cooking the cornmeal this fashion hydrates and barely softens it, which helps hold the baked loaf from being dry and gritty. 1 / 4 cup of molasses stirred into the cornmeal provides a lightweight sweetness and caramel shade to the bread with out overpowering it. Step by step working the combination of flour, yeast, and salt into the porridge kinds a stiff dough which turns smooth and pliable because it proves.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
Shaping the dough right into a easy cylinder earlier than tucking it tightly right into a loaf pan offers it a basic sandwich bread form whereas letting it rise till an inch above the pan ensures correct proofing for a fluffy, tender crumb. If you happen to underproof it lower than this, it’s possible the loaf will prove dense and squat.
I end the bread by brushing the highest of the loaf with slightly bit of additional butter for a beautiful, shiny, smooth crust that I simply know would make Anna (if she ever existed) proud.
The Hearty All-American Sandwich Bread I am Baking All Winter Lengthy
Cook dinner Mode
(Hold display awake)
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Cooking spray
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2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (11 1/4 ounces; 320g), plus extra for work floor
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2 teaspoons on the spot or rapid-rise yeast
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2 teaspoons (9g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for desk salt, use half as a lot by quantity
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1 1/4 cups (300ml) water
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1/2 cup effective yellow cornmeal (2 1/2 ounces; 70g)
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1/4 cup molasses (60ml; 80g)
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1 1/2 tablespoons (21g) unsalted butter, divided
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Grease a big bowl with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk collectively flour, yeast, and salt. Put aside.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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In a small saucepan, deliver water to boil over medium warmth. Cut back warmth to medium-low and stream in cornmeal, whisking consistently, till integrated. Cook dinner, whisking typically, till combination thickens into porridge and cornmeal is softened, about 1 minute.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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Off warmth, add molasses and 1 tablespoon butter. Whisk till nicely mixed and butter is melted. Switch to the bowl of a stand mixer or massive bowl and let cool, stirring sometimes, till beneath 110°F (43°C), about 20 minutes. Ensure that the cornmeal combination has cooled to simply heat/beneath 110°F (43°C) earlier than including the flour combination; larger temperatures threat killing the yeast.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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For Making Dough in a Stand Mixer: Match stand mixer with dough hook attachment. Begin mixer on medium-low pace and add flour combination 1/2 cup at a time, mixing till every addition is integrated. After closing addition, proceed mixing on medium-low till cohesive dough kinds and no dry flour stays, about 2 minutes.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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Improve mixer pace to medium. Knead till dough is easy and elastic, about 8 minutes.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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Sprinkle clear work floor evenly with further flour. Use greased dough scraper or rubber spatula to switch dough to floured work floor. Knead by hand for just a few turns to type easy, taut ball.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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For Kneading Dough By Hand: With cornmeal combination in a big bowl, use a rubber spatula to include the primary few additions of the flour combination into dough, then change to kneading the remaining flour combination into the dough along with your palms till all of dry flour is integrated (the dough will appear dry and stiff, however nonetheless add all flour).
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Switch to a clear work floor and knead by hand till easy and elastic, about 20 minutes, including flour to the floor as wanted because the dough turns into stickier. Knead by hand for just a few extra turns to type easy, taut ball.
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For Proofing and Baking: Place dough ball in greased bowl and canopy with plastic wrap or clear kitchen towel. Let dough rise at room temperature till doubled in quantity, 45 to 75 minutes.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Gently deflate dough and switch to evenly floured work floor. Pat dough into 7-inch sq. and type into tight log, pinching seam and ends collectively to shut. Nestle into greased loaf pan, seam-side down, and canopy loosely with greased plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature till middle of loaf reaches 1 inch above rim of pan, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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Close to finish of rising time, modify oven rack to center place and preheat oven to 350°F (275°C). When dough is prepared, take away plastic wrap. Bake till deep golden brown and middle of loaf registers 190°F (88°C), 35 to 40 minutes.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
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Switch loaf pan to wire rack. Let cool for quarter-hour. Use a butter knife or small offset spatula to unfold prime with remaining 1/2 tablespoon butter till melted and evenly coated. Take away bread from pan and let cool for no less than 45 minutes. Serve heat or at room temperature.
Critical Eats / Debbie Wee
Particular Tools
Whisk, instant-read thermometer, stand mixer with dough hook attachment, dough scraper or rubber spatula, 8 1/2 by 4 1/2-inch metallic loaf pan, wire rack, butter knife or small offset spatula
Notes
You should utilize gentle or darkish molasses on this recipe, however don’t use blackstrap molasses, which is able to make the bread too bitter.
Make-Forward and Storage
The absolutely cooled loaf might be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or sealed in a bread bag and saved at room temperature for as much as 3 days or frozen (entire or sliced) wrapped tightly in plastic then aluminum foil for as much as 2 months.
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