Super Anadama Bread (best for toast)

When I was a boy, my mother loved anadama bread, a New England yeast bread made with cornmeal, butter, and molasses. I decided to try out her recipe to see just what she loved about it so much. Well, partway through the process, I took a taste of the cornmeal, butter, molasses mix. Wow! Those three ingredients together are like magic!

I baked the bread and loved it, but I wondered if I could make it richer and more moist by increasing the quantity of cornmeal, molasses, and butter, and then adjusting the other ingredients so the dough would be workable. Well, it was a success.

Super anadama bread

I call this super anadama bread because it tastes amazing. It's not bread with just a hint of cornmeal, molasses, and butter in the taste; it's a soft, moist loaf loaded with flavor.

The recipe was created for the toaster, but when you slice it, be sure to use a sawing motion. If you don't, you may squish down the loaf. Because it's so moist, I have to set my toaster on high, and usually I have to put it through for part of another toast cycle. When you bite into a freshly buttered piece, it has a substantial, but light texture unlike any other bread, well, except for my super oatmeal, which I created after this with the same goal in mind.

Here's there recipe for two loaves. Because I usually bake four loaves at a time, I've included that recipe at the bottom.

For two loaves
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup water
2/3 sticks butter
2 tsp salt
7/8 cups cornmeal
2/3 cup molasses
1 T bread yeast
5 cups of flour or more including the starting cup (more may be needed for the board)

Bring the milk, water, butter, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan, then take it off the heat.
Whisk in the cornmeal slowly to keep it from clumping.

After the mixture cools to lukewarm, stir in the molasses, yeast, and 1 cup of the flour. It may take a hand beater or electric beater to mix this well, as the cornmeal mixture will already be a bit like pudding.
At this point, I transfer the mixture from the pan to a huge bowl I use for making bread, where I add more flour, but you could also just add flour to the mixture in the cooking pan, then move it to a board when it's workable. I find it easy enough to knead the dough in the bowl, but if you don't have one, just follow the more traditional method outlined below.

Gradually stir in more flour till the dough is firm enough to move to a floured board, where you should knead in the rest of the flour. This kneading process should take about 10 minutes. With drier bread recipes, you can knead until the dough does not stick you your hands at all, but with this one, it may still stick a bit. Shape the dough into a ball and put in an oiled bowl at room temperature. I usually press it down so that I can gauge the volume better and more clearly know when it has doubled. Cover with a wet towel, or plastic and a towel, and let rise till double.

The rise should not be rushed. I usually leave it in temps in the mid 60s, and it takes 60-90 minutes. It might be tempting to keep it someplace warmer, but the longer the dough takes to rise, the more flavor will develop in the wheat flour.

When the dough has doubled in volume, punch it down, knead it to redistribute the yeast, and divide it into two portions. Roll out each portion to the length of the bread pan till you have a large, flat sheet of dough. Roll it up, pinching to create a seam, then put it in an oiled bread pan. Cover with the wet towel or plastic and a towel, then let rise till double.

As it gets almost to double, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake both loaves for 40-50 minutes, or till they sounds hollow when you thump them. Remove the bread from the pans onto a cooling rack. Cool them completely before slicing or freezing.

There's a similarly super-rich oatmeal bread recipe here.

Here are the quantities for four loaves.
4 cups of milk
1 cup water
1 and 1/3 sticks butter
4 tsp salt
1 and 3/4 cups cornmeal
1 and 1/3 cups molasses
2 T bread yeast
10 cups of flour or more including the starting cup