BBA #1: Anadama

I joined another online cooking thingy. Groan says the husband, until I tell him the details.

For the BBA Challenge, 200 bakers worldwide will be baking every recipe in Peter Reinhardt's The Bread Baking Apprentice over the next year or so. It was this book that really got me to start baking bread, and I've loved everything I've made from it, so it seemed like an appropriate challenge.

This group is communicating in like 7 different ways, including Twitter, Facebook, Google and everyone's individual blog. I am trying to tweet along, but I still don't quite get it. I put a Twitter link up in case you want to talk to me INSTANTLY, or be my Twend, but I figure good "old-fashioned" blogging will work too.

Our first joint task is Anadama Bread, which Reinhardt says is a New England classic, though I never heard of it in my Boston days. It is enriched with cornmeal and molasses, which gives it a satisfying crunch, and an underlying hint of sweetness. It is made with an overnight cornmeal soaker, to elicit every last bit of sugar, but is otherwise a direct method bread. It is very delicious plain with butter, and I can't wait to make sandwiches with it all weekend. I have a feeling it will make a mean BLAT (A=avocado).