Anadama Bread and My First Give-Away!!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the kind folks at Tate's Bake Shop.

Not only was I lucky enough to receive a gift box containing their famous Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, but I also got a copy of Kathleen King's new Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook.

While Mountain Man and I feasted on these deliciously crisp and buttery cookies, I got to looking through the cookbook for something fabulous to try. You know it's going to be a good book when Ina Garten is writing the foreword!


Although there are many recipes to get through, I couldn't help but stop at a recipe for Anadama Bread-  I was completely intrigued by the name!

After a quick read up on wikipedia, I learned that the bread got its name from an angry fisherman who was mad at his wife, Anna. She was a lazy wife and served him only cornmeal and molasses for dinner, until one day while she was out, the fisherman decided to add flour and yeast to the porridge and bake it, all the while cursing, "Anna, damn her!" The resultant bread turned out to be delicious and all the neighbors began baking it as well, coining it Anadama.


I don't totally buy the story... mostly because wives are never lazy and maybe the fisherman should have been a better at his job and brought home some fish for dinner if he was going to complain!


Story or not, the bread is quite delicious.

Anadama Bread

from Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook

Rise time: 2 hours total

Bake time: 50 minutes

Oven: 350

Yields 2 loaves

2 cups boiling water

1/2 cup corn meal

1/2 cup molasses

2 TBS salted butter

1 TBS salt

1/2 cup warm water, about 110-115 degrees

Two 1/4 oz. packets of active yeast (or 1/2 oz. yeast)

7-8 cups of flour (I ended up using just about 7)

In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to boil. Transfer to large mixing bowl and add corn meal.

Add molasses, butter and salt. Mix until blended. Allow to cool slightly.

While mixture is cooling, bring 1/2 cup water to 110-115 degrees. Sprinkle yeast over top and lightly whisk to break up yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes or until mixture starts to bubble.

If the yeast mixture doesn't bubble, discard and try again- if your yeast doesn't bubble your bread won't rise.

Add yeast mixture to molasses mixture and stir until combined.

Slowly add flour, 1 cup at a time, and mix until stiff dough is reached.

Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and continue to knead with hands until dough becomes smooth and elastic.*

Transfer dough to lightly oiled mixing bowl, cover with saran wrap and store in a warm place until dough has doubled in size.*

Once dough has doubled in size, lightly beat down and cut in half.

Shape each piece into a loaf, transfer to pans, cover with saran wrap and return to warm place to double in size again.

Once risen, preheat oven to 350 and bake loaves for 40-50 minutes.

*Some Mountain Man dough tips:

When kneading dough- fold and press firmly with hand over and over until smooth, elastic consistency is reached.

When dough is rising- Turn oven on briefly, when temp is about 100 degrees turn oven off and place dough inside closed oven to rise OR place in a warm room, like the garage in direct sunlight if possible OR place inside your car if it's in the sunlight!

According to Kathleen, "All the recipes in the book should take less time to make than it would to go to a store to buy a commercially prepared baked good."  

Maybe this bread took a little longer to bake then it would have for me to run out to the store, but where's the accomplishment in that?! For those of you that have been following my adventures, you know that yeast is something I'm still a little new too.. but even for a yeast amateur, this bread was simple and worth the wait.


But here's the best part... One of YOU can win all these goodies too! Just think about it... three boxes of delicious cookies that you can add to your Christmas cookie selection and a cookbook full of even more cookies you can bake as you please...

All you have to do is leave a comment (or two or three)!

One winner (U.S. only please) will receive a gift box that includes Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, along with Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook.


To enter:

- Leave a comment telling me about your favorite holiday treat


For extra entries: (leave a separate comment for each entry)


- Become a fan of  Tate's Bake Shop on Facebook
- Become a follower of swEEts by e (if you're not already)
- Tweet about the giveaway


The give-away ends this Friday, December 10th so enter now :)


Oh and if you don't win? That's okay, because they're still offering a 15% discount for anything you by online at Tate's Bake Shop. Just use the code "cookies" and just make your purchases before December 31st.

One more plug and then I'm done I promise!

I recently stumbled upon this awesome website, Namely Marly, and participated in Marly's name project. Whereas my passion lies in baking, Marly's passion lies in names.. (but she has some delicious looking recipes to share as well!) Her website is full of all sorts of goodies and name interviews so I highly recommend you go check her out.. oh and there's a little story all about me and my name over there too :) 

Don't forget, the give-away ends Friday!!

 

Happy Baking!!