Gladys Taber's Anadama Bread

Gladys Taber's Anadama Bread

Pour 2 cups boiling water over this mixture in the Kitchen Aid mixer.

1/2 cup cornmeal
2 T. butter
1/2 cup molasses
1 T. salt

When this mixture has cooled, and cornmeal is smooth, begin adding flour. Add an egg.

In separate bowl or measuring cup, put about 1 1/2 T. baking yeast into 1/2 cup warm water. Add a little sugar and a bit of flour (probably about a T. each). Let rise until doubled and bubbly. Add this to flour mixture. Add more flour. I'd say I use about six cups, and that's whole wheat, so white might be different. All this time the Kitchen Aid is on, beating away with that lovely dough hook.

Remove the bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place until it almost reaches the top. I then preheat the oven to 365º F.

I spoon it out onto a floured marble board. I make it into four balls, and place two each into a loaf pan greased with cooking spray. The reason I use four balls is well, because my mother did, :<) but also because I've found it eliminates the droop in the middle which happens sometimes to homemade bread.

Cover with the cloth, and let these four balls rise until almost to the top of bread pans. I put the pans on top of the stove, and the preheating oven provides just the right warmth.

Bake for about 40 minutes. You may note my loaves are quite dark. There are three reasons: one- I use just whole wheat flour, two- the molasses makes a darker loaf, and three- I bake it maybe longer than most because I think it tastes better.

And these loaves are out of this world delicious!