Amazing how an innocent comment on Twitter can get entirely out of hand.  Poor Nicole (of Pinch My Salt)  – just a question if anyone would want to try working their way through The Bread Baker’s Apprentice with her.  Now we are a group of more than 60 people, spending nearly a year trying to bake our way through this great tome.

Beginning at the beginning of the book (and the alphabet), we have Anadama Bread!  A moist, molasses-y loaf with cornmeal, it’s a rustic bread I liked best slathered with butter or cream cheese.  Though the recipe called for coarse cornmeal, I only had fine on hand, and decided to just go with it.  I had a few issues with the rising – it didn’t come up quite as well as I would have liked, giving it a slightly quickbread like texture.  I also had some trouble incorporating all the flour – I wonder if the fine cornmeal soaked up more of the liquid than the polenta would have.

As I’m sure I shall again, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the book – it’s full of great recipes and techniques.

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinheart