Vince found a show on TV. I think it’s called “Love of Bread” and I have no idea how we’re watching it. We don’t have cable so, according to Vince, “we stream it”. Sorry I’m no more help but he doesn’t even know the “channel”. But, I could watch that show all day every day. There are some very interesting segments on there with breadmakers from around the world. If you love making bread, I hope you can find that show.
One of the breads I’ve made through the years is Peter Reinhart’s Anadama Bread. It’s in his Bread Baker’s Apprentice book, which I have and love but if you don’t have the book, that recipe can be found on various internet sites. Here’s one.
I’ve had the Bread Baker’s Apprentice book since 2016 and if you have any interest in bread making, I highly recommend it. If you click the Amazon link above, the hard cover book shows to be $18.59. If you do want to order it, check the price before ordering because other places on Amazon, the same book is $30+. Weird.
Anyway, I’ve made the Anadama bread probably since I first ordered that book. Vince loves it and it’s the one bread through the years that when the bread is almost gone, he’ll say “We’re almost out of that bread I like”. We’ll go for a while that I continue to make it and we have it for months and then I’ll move on to another recipe but Vince is always so happy when I have that bread back in the house.
Here’s an accidental improvement I made in the bread. I think it was Friday I was going to make it and wanted to give a loaf to the neighbor. Thursday when I went to make the “soaker”, which is 1 cup cornmeal and 1 cup water stirred together and left to sit out overnight, I was in a hurry and obviously not thinking. The recipe usually makes three loaves but I was thinking since I was giving a loaf to the neighbor, I should make two soakers so I did. The next day, I realized . . I didn’t need to do that. I could have made one soaker and given them a loaf and still had two but instead of throwing out one cup of cornmeal, on Saturday, I stirred up another batch of bread. That worked out great because Jeremy and Angie came by and I gave them a loaf too.
But, as I was mixing up the bread, I could tell it was a much softer loaf than I had ever made before. I wasn’t measuring but I ended up adding more flour to get it to the consistency I wanted and it still felt very soft. Even after adding more flour, I still didn’t feel like I had enough dough for three loaves so I made two and even though the two were somewhat larger than a loaf would have been had I made three loaves, if I had made three loaves, they would have been smaller than normal.
The only thing I can think is that the cornmeal, having sat out an extra night, had turned more into a liquid than a solid.
Vince keeps raving about the texture and how much he likes it. He wants me to make it like that always. IF keeping soaker out an extra night did it, yes, I can make it that way again. If not, I have no idea what the difference was.