Anadama Bread ~~Home Baker's Challenge#4

Anadama bread is a traditional yeast bread of New England in the United states made usually with wheat flour,cornmeal,molasses and sometimes with rye flour. This bread was in my to do list since a long and finally i got an opportunity to make some as Manjula Bharath of Desi Fiesta chosed this bread for this month's  Home Baker's Challenge, yep this month was bread baking. Manjula pulled me to make this anadama bread and trust me i was super happy that this bread came out extremely prefect. This bread goes for molasses, since none at home like molasses also molasses is quite expensive here, i skipped its completely and used homemade dates puree to replace the molasses.

Dates puree in this bread makes this bread seriously very much healthier and the sweetness from the dates puree is quite enough to make a mild sweet Anadama bread. The bread recipe Manjula shared goes for all purpose flour completely which i halved with wheat flour and all purpose flour. If you are trying to make with wheat flour, trust me your bread will be very much dense. Better to halve the all purpose flour with wheat flour.Thanks Manjula, we loved this bread and we couldnt stop having them for our breakfast with nutella and fruit jam.

Dates Puree: Take a cup of chopped dates with half a cup of water and cook in low medium flame,(add water if needed), cook in simmer until the dates gets well cooked. Put off the stove and grind as thick paste, your dates puree is ready.

Recipe Source : Food Network

2/3cup Yellow cornmeal

3/4cup Thick Dates puree or 1/2cup Molasses

100grms Butter +1tsp Melted butter (for brushing)

2+1/4tsp Active dry yeast

2cups Wheat flour

2cups All purpose flour

1/4cup Non fat milk powder

1tsp Salt

Take the cornmeal, a cup of water, dates puree and butter in a pan.

Heat it in simmer and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble after few minutes.

Transfer it to the bowl, let it cool until lukewarm and stir occasionally.

Meanwhile sprinkle the yeast over 1/4cup lukewarm water in a bowl and let it sit for 5minutes until its turns foamy.

Add a cup of flour, milk powder to the cornmeal mixture with a wooden spoon.

Cover it with a kitchen towl and keep in warm place, the dough will increase slightly.

Now add the 3cups of flours, half cup at a time, scrap down the bowl after each addition,until the dough comes together into a firm ball.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floures surface and knead by hand until its forms a smooth pliable dough.

Place the dough in a greasd bwl and keep in warm place for 2 hours.

Once the dough doubled the volume, punch down the dough and turn into a clean surface.

Shape into a smooth 4 by 8 inch loaf and transfer it to a loaf pan, cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and keep it again in a warm place until the loaf rises.

Preheat the oven to 375F, remove the wrap, transfer to the oven..Reduce the temperature to 350F, bake for 35-40minutes and bake until the bread is golden brown,sounds hallow when tapped.

Brush the top with melted butter and let it sit for 10minutes.

Transfer it into a rack and let cool completely before slicing.