Cooler days mean mornings perfect for baking bread. Top of my list this year is a loaf of anadama bread. A hearty bread that brings back memories and makes me smile.
I first encountered anadama bread many decades ago on a family road trip to Massachusetts. The sweet and crunchy loaf intrigued us all. Luckily, we found a recipe in the family volume of “The Doubleday Cookbook,” my mother’s go-to recipe source. She added the bread to her repertoire whenever molasses and cornmeal were on hand.
Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna demurely tell us that the bread was created by a fisherman’s wife, Anna, who added cornmeal and molasses to her boring daily bread routine. Time-Life Books’ “The Good Cook” series tells us that Anna lived in Gloucester, Massachusetts. We get more information from “The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America,” edited by Andrew F. Smith. This volume posits that a farmer or a local fisherman grew so tired of the daily cornmeal and molasses mush that his wife served that he dumped flour and yeast into the mush and threw the mixture into the oven, muttering “Anna, damn her.”
The tales, traceable in written form to the 19th century, go on, with some saying her tombstone fondly read, “Anna was a lovely bride, but Anna, damn ’er, up and died.” Restaurants and bakeries on the North shore of Boston serve up their versions with a bit of the lore.
We sought it out everywhere on our recent trip to the area. Our favorite version, served at Scales in Portland, Maine, arrived deeply toasted with pats of local butter and a drizzle of local molasses. New memories to pile onto the old.
At home, I pulled out several American cookbooks to research a recipe for the hearty, slightly sweet, slightly crunchy yeast bread. The recipe that follows is loosely based on the version in “The New Doubleday Cookbook” by Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna (Doubleday, 1985).
For even more nuttiness and flavor, I added a bit of whole wheat flour from our local farmer’s market and some buckwheat flour from Granor Farms in Michigan. The recipe doubles easily to make two loaves; the bread freezes nicely.
This hearty bread tastes best served warm. We also like it for breakfast toasted with a smear of cookie butter or hazelnut spread. Anna would be as pleased as we are to serve it to her husband for dessert topped with butter and molasses.
Anadama Bread
Makes 1 loaf
- 1/2 cup organic yellow cornmeal
- 1/4 cup light molasses
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 envelope (1/4 ounce) dry active yeast
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup buckwheat or rye flour, optional (use more whole wheat flour)
- 1 large egg
- Butter for greasing the bowl
- Cornmeal for pan
Heat 3/4 cup water to boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in cornmeal, molasses, butter, and salt. Stir until butter melts and mixture is thickened. Let cool.
Mix yeast, sugar, and 1/4 cup lukewarm (105 to 115 degrees F) water in a small bowl. Let stand until bubbly (a sign that the yeast has been activated) about 5 minutes. Mix flours in a medium-size bowl.
Put cornmeal mixture, egg, and 1 cup flour of the flour mixture in a large mixer bowl fitted with a flat blade. Beat until smooth. Add yeast mixture. Turn to medium speed and mix until smooth. Change to a dough hook if you have one for the mixer.
Beat in remaining flour mixture, about 1/2 cup at a time, until dough is smooth and elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, 5 to 7 minutes.
Transfer the dough ball to a well-buttered bowl. Turn to coat the top with butter. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Generously grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with vegetable shortening or nonstick spray. Add a couple of tablespoons of cornmeal to the pan and turn pan to coat it on all sides with a fine coating of cornmeal. Shake out excess cornmeal.
Punch down dough and roll gently into a smooth rectangle. Place in prepared loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Meanwhile, heat oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle top of bread with a little cornmeal. Bake until well browned and bottom sounds hollow when tapped, about 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.
Anadama Toast With Butter and Molasses
Makes 2 servings
- 2 slices (a generous 1-inch thick) anadama bread, see recipe
- 2 square pats (about 1 teaspoon each) unsalted butter, chilled
- 2 tablespoons light molasses (or pure cane syrup, sorghum, or maple syrup)
- Coarse (kosher) salt
- Coarse sugar, optional
Toast bread until golden brown and crisp on both sides. Meanwhile, cut butter squares in half on the diagonal to make triangles.
Put one piece of toast on a serving plate. Cut toasted bread crosswise into quarters to make 4 triangles. Place a butter triangle on each bread triangle. Drizzle everything with molasses. Sprinkle with salt and sugar. Serve hot.
