When I first saw this recipe, I was a little dubious.  Molasses and cornmeal?  I changed my mind pretty quickly after tasting this delicious bread.  Anadama bread is sweet and the cornmeal gives it an interesting texture.  Plus, I love its dark brown color.

Wondering how the bread got its name? Legend has it that in the early days of New England, a fisherman became frustrated with his wife’s cooking.  The wife, named Anna, consistently made cornmeal porridge for supper.  They at it all the time. One day the husband decided that he couldn’t take it anymore.  In an attempt to get some variety, he added flour and yeast to the kettle of cornmeal porridge.  He mixed it all up and put it in the oven to bake.  While it cooked he was heard to mutter, “Anna, damn her!”  And that is how Anadama Bread came to be.

Anadama Bread – Two Pound Loaf

1 cup water
¼ cup molasses
3 cups bread flour
¼ cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon active dry yeast

Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine in terms of which ingredients to put in the bread machine first.  I use the basic setting with medium crust. Make sure you check on the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading.  It should be a smooth, round ball.