Anadama Bread

According to Wikipedia: Anadama bread is a traditional bread of New England made with white flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour. There are several popular myths about the origin of the name, which mostly take this form:
"A fisherman, angry with his wife, Anna, for serving him nothing but cornmeal and molasses, one day adds flour and yeast to his porridge and eats the resultant bread, while cursing, 'Anna, damn her.'"

Sins I was working on a challenge to make a sandwich that represented where I am from, i decided to try my hand at this. Plus, I had been wanting to try a yeast bread for a while! Maybe not the best sandwich bread, I think its better for toast since its a fairly stiff bread, it was so good!

I used a recipe I found online here. Very yummy! I loved that it had a little nutmeg too (since we CT natives are called "nutmeggers")

For fun, the story of nutmeg and CT: Connecticut gets its nickname ("the Nutmeg State", "Nutmegger") from the legend that some unscrupulous Connecticut traders would whittle "nutmeg" out of wood, creating a "wooden nutmeg" (a term which came to mean any fraud)

Ingredients
2 packages yeast

2 cups lukewarm water

3 tablespoons blackstrap molasses (I used a little more than this)

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 cup yellow cornmeal

¾ teaspoon nutmeg (I used a little more than this)

3 ½ to 4 cups unbleached white flour

1 ¾ to 2 cups whole-wheat flour

2 teaspoons salt

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 ½ cups white flour and 1 ¾ 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. (I used the dough hook on my kitchenaid) 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 ½ hours. Punch down and allow dough to rise a second time, about 45 to 50 minutes, again until doubled. (apparently there is no step 4...)

5. Punch dough down a third time and divide it in half. Form into loaves and place in sprayed 9 x 5 x 2 ½-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.

6. 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. (I sprinkled a little cornmeal on top before baking)

Makes two loaves, 12 slices per loaf.

By Cresecent Dragonwagon, "Relish the American Table," February 26, 2006 Nutritional Information
Per slice: 120 calories, 2g fat, 4g prot., 25g carbs., 2g fiber, 200mg sodium.