I decided to take part in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge led by Nicole of Pinch My Salt. Each week we will bake a recipe from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice cookbook by Peter Reinhart. We showcase our work via flickr, twitter, and the blogosphere. I am doing this as a challenge to myself. I will stick to the program and learn new skills. I will not be sharing the recipes, for the most part, just the techniques used. I encourage you to buy this book as well. You can find the book here on Google Books – many of the recipes are searchable.
Last week I baked the first bread on the list, the Anadama bread. The Anadama bread is traditional to New England. I started off the bread with a corn meal soaker, turning the corn meal into mush. I have never used or made a soaker before. These are the kinds of recipes that I have always shied away from.
I let the corn meal sit all day – mushing. When the liquid was absorbed, I began to create a yeast and flour based soaker to which the corn meal mush was added. I let the starter ferment for an hour. I then added the rest of the flour and the special ingredient – the molasses.
When I put the dough aside to let it proof, I had to keep myself from peeking under the towel. It doubled in size. I was thrilled. After shaping the loaves, I let it rise some more. Then into the oven it went. It came out perfect. I had to hold back and not eat the whole loaf.
The bread is excellent toasted with butter, or toasted with avocado and turkey. Yum. Check out #BBA on twitter if you would like to follow along with us, or just keep coming back to the blog. Stay tuned for the Artos bread coming soon!
