Anadama Artisan No-Knead Bread Recipe

This recipe will make a large sized sandwich loaf that is as great tasting. The crust is crisp but the inside is moist with a great texture. I just created this version of Anadama bread recently after learning about this interesting bread from a bread forum I joined. It is so easy to make and with little time invested (unless you count the 12+ hours of rising).

You can buy fine or coarse cornmeal from most grocery stores or grind your own in a hand grain mill, I prefer fresh ground popcorn kernels for the better taste. You can grind fine cornmeal meal in all electric grain mills but you will most likely need a hand grain mill to grind course cornmeal.

Anadama Artisan No-Knead Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
• 1 cup cornmeal (course ground cornmeal is preferred by some)
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 cups water

Instructions:

1. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt) in the large bowl and stir with spoon for about 15 seconds.
2. Pour molasses on top.
3. Add water to the bowl and stir for about 1 or 2 minutes (it won’t look that good but that doesn’t matter).
4. Cover the top of the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.
5. Let sit on counter top for about 12 to 16 hours (I ussually do this for about 13 hours), the dough will look all bubbly on the top when done rising.
6. Generously sprinkle cornmeal or flour the top of your clean counter top or a cutting board (don’t worry about using too much, it won’t hurt it).
7. Slowly pour the dough from the bowl on to the floured surface, using the silicone spatula to help it peal off the sides of the bowl.
8. Sprinkle a little cornmeal or flour on top of the dough and rub your hands together with flour.
9. With you hands, gently stretch the dough out to a rectangle shape.
10. Follow instructions below for the cookware you will be using.

Bread Pan Instructions:

1. Roll up the dough from one end to the other.
2. Place the dough into a lightly greased bread pan (seam side down).
3. Let dough rise till it is a bit above the top of the bread pan (about double in size or 1 to 1.5 hours).
4. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
5. Place bread in the oven for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, dump bread out on a cooling rack or your counter top and allow it to cool.
7. Enjoy!

Covered Bakeware Instructions:

1. Fold the left side half way over and then fold the right side over it.
2. Fold the top to the bottom.
3. lightly grease a 3 quart (or larger) bowl and sprinkle flour in it to lightly cover the sides and bottom of bowl.
4. Place the dough into the lightly greased and floured bowl.
5. Let dough rise till it is almost doubled in size (about 1 to 1.5 hours).
6. Place empty bakeware in oven and turn oven to 450 degrees, to pre-heat bakeware for 15 minutes.
7. Open oven, remove bakeware lid, pour dough from the bowl into bakeware, replace lid, and close oven.
8. Let bread bake for 30 minutes, then open oven and remove bakeware lid and close oven.
9. Let bread bake for another 15 minutes without the bakeware lid.
10. Remove from oven, dump bread out on a cooling rack or your counter top and allow it to cool.
11. Enjoy!

French Bread Pan Instructions:

1. Cut the rectangle dough in half.
2. Roll up each dough rectable from one end to the other.
3. Stretch the dough to desired length and place on a lightly greased french bread pan (seam side down).
4. Let dough rise till it is almost doubled in size (about 1 to 1.5 hours).
5. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
6. Place bread in the oven for 30 minutes.
7. Remove from oven, slide the bread out onto a cooling rack or your counter top and allow it to cool.
8. Enjoy!

Note: This bread is best eaten fresh, and you’ll find that it will not last long either. The longer you store it, the softer the crust will get. When it is fresh, the crust will be thin and crunchy and the inside will be moist with great texture.

There some myths about how Anadama Bread got its name, the most common story goes like this:

"A fisherman, angry with his wife, Anna, for serving him nothing but cornmeal and molasses, one day adds flour and yeast to his porridge and eats the resultant bread, while cursing, "Anna, damn her." The neighbors baked it because it was so delicious and coined it Anadama or Anadamy. (see Wikipedia)