• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Form the dough into a ball and place it smooth side up in the bowl. Cover and keep in a warm, draft-free place. After about an hour and a half, gently poke the center of the dough about ½ inch deep with your wet finger. If the hole doesn’t fill in at all or if the dough sighs, it is ready for the next step. Press flat, form into a smooth round, and let the dough rise once more as before. The second rising will take about half as much time as the first.

Press the dough flat and divide in two. Round it and let it rest until relaxed, then deflate and shape into either hearth or pan loaves. Sprinkle the greased baking utensil with rolled oats before placing the shaped loaves in or on them. If desired, use the milk and oat topping described in the Oatmeal Bread recipe. Let rise once more in a warm, draft-free place until the dough slowly returns a gently made fingerprint. Bake the loaves in a preheated 325°F oven for about one hour, or until done.

Anadama

1 cup boiling water (235 ml)

1 cup coarsely ground cornmeal (122 g)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (¼ oz or 7 g)

1 ⅔ cups warm water (395 ml)

4 cups finely ground whole wheat bread flour (600 g)

1 tablespoon salt (16.5 g)

⅓ cup molasses (80 ml)

⅓ cup oil (60 ml)

We simply can’t believe the scurrilous story about the irate backwoodsman and his lazy wife, Anna. This fine combination could never have been born of anger; it is just too good. A sweetly delicious golden bread with a deep brown crust, Anadama keeps well and makes grand toast.

We call for coarsely ground cornmeal. If you use finely ground cornmeal you will have a smaller loaf, but a tasty one.

This is a bread we make often; we are inordinately fond of its chewy texture and full, satisfying flavor. Still, this is a demanding recipe, and the instructions are not to be taken lightly unless you want bread that is as dense as it is tasty.

Boil the water in a heavy saucepan and stir in the cornmeal. When the mixture is smooth, cover and cook gently for a few minutes—just until the corn begins to crackle. Remove from the heat and set aside, still covered, to cool slowly. It is a good idea to do this the night before, particularly with the coarse cornmeal. If you are using finer cornmeal, you can let it sit for as short a time as 15 minutes, and then spread out on a platter to cool quickly. If you are in doubt, bite a tiny bit of the corn; if it is still hard, give it more time.

When the corn is approaching room temperature, dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

Mix the flour and salt, and add the dissolved yeast. Stir together and then knead the dough, developing it very well but being careful, especially with mechanical help, not to overknead. It will have to be very strong to carry so much corn.

Use a fork or your fingers to stir the molasses and oil into the corn, working out all the lumps. Press or roll the kneaded wheat dough out on a tabletop, making a large rectangle. Spread the corn mixture onto the dough, and fold or roll it up. Now, with patience, humor, and determination, knead the corn into the dough. It will be a mess for a while but finally a bumpy dough will form. The dough will become softer as the corn begins acting on the gluten of the wheat, but resist the temptation to add more flour at this point, as the dough will stiffen up in the final stages of rising. Amazing stuff.

Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place (80°F), for an hour and a half or so, until a ½ inch deep hole made by your wet finger does not fill in at all. With wet hands deflate the dough and let it rise in its warm place once more, this time for about 45 minues. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and deflate; divide into two lumps and gently shape them into rounds. Let them rest until they are quite saggy, then form carefully into loaves.

This bread is really at its prettiest baked in greased 1 ½ quart bowls, dusted with fine cornmeal before the rounded loaf is put inside. For best effect, choose a bowl with a