January 24, 2007
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Best Thing is Sliced Bread

Anadama Bread, an American original dating from the Colonial era, is perfect for cold days and hot soup. It combines European wheat and whole wheat with America's primary native grain, corn. A drizzle of molasses for color and flavor and a bit of spice and you have a fine-grained, delicious bread, excellent with hearty soups-particularly the Three Onion Potato Soup from our last e-letter.

What of its peculiar name? A highly suspect legend says a disgruntled farmer, disgusted with his slatternly wife, Anna, mixed up a dough of whatever was on hand, and said, "Take this to Anna, damn her, and tell her to bake it." But to whom did he utter these words? And what was this farmer's name? And where and when did this unhappy couple live? As the authors of the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book say, "This fine combination could never have been born of anger; it is just too good."

Anadama Bread printer friendly version What is its mysterious, delicious undernote of flavor? Nutmeg, though you don't detect the spice as such. This recipe is courtesy of Diane Kellner, owner of Gap Mountain Bakery & Café, in Keene, N.H. Try it toasted with butter. Ingredients 2 packages yeast 2 cups lukewarm water 3 tablespoons blackstrap molasses 2 tablespoons canola oil 1 cup yellow cornmeal 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg 3 1/2 to 4 cups unbleached white flour 1 3/4 to 2 cups whole-wheat flour 2 teaspoons salt Relish Cookbook Over 75 recipes in a snazzy paint-chip style format. Looking for more recipes? Try searching our database of recipes. Instructions 1. Combine yeast, warm water and molasses in a large bowl. Let stand until the yeast dissolves and bubbles, about 10 minutes. 2. Stir in oil, cornmeal, nutmeg, 3 1/2 cups white flour and 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour. 3. Beat with a wooden spoon until dough is sticky. Knead dough thoroughly on a clean, floured surface, for about 5 minutes, adding more flour if needed, but not too much as this should be a somewhat sticky dough. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a clean cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and allow dough to rise a second time, about 45 to 50 minutes, again until doubled. 4. Punch dough down a third time and divide it in half. Form into loaves and place in sprayed 9 x 5 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pans. Let rise a third time, covered, for 30 to 35 minutes or until almost doubled in bulk. Towards the end of this rising, preheat oven to 350 F. 5. Bake loaves about 45 to 55 minutes or until brown and crusty on both tops and bottoms. Remove loaves from pans and let cool on a rack. Makes two loaves, 12 slices per loaf. Nutritional Information Per slice: 120 calories, 2g fat, 4g prot., 25g carbs., 2g fiber, 200mg sodium. Other Recipe Suggestions White Bean Soup with Swiss Chard and Gruyère Croutons Three Onion Potato Soup Bean Soup Dressed-Up Tomato Soup Irish Potato Soup with Cheese and Red Ale Chunky Black Bean Soup   If you liked this newsletter, give our website a try at http://www.relishmag.com.   If you would like to not receive future mailings of our newsletter, you can be removed from our list by using this link. Relish is a division of Publishing Group of America, Inc. All content within this site is ©2006 of Publishing Group of America unless otherwise noted.