One of my personal goals for the year was to conquer my long-standing fear of baking with yeast to make my own bread. We almost never eat grocery store bread, but we do rely quite heavily on our local bakeries and market vendors. And unlike the farm-fresh produce at the market, the baked goods aren’t always up to my organic/GMO-free standards. So when a favorite foodblogger of mine, Nicole of Pinch My Salt, posted a note on Twitter that she was thinking of cooking her way through Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice, it seemed like the perfect time to jump on the “bake your own” bandwagon. Apparently, more than a few other home cooks and bloggers had the same thought, as the list of participants is now 200 people strong! I’ll be making one bread a week (give or take), and you can follow along on the group site if you want to see others’ experiences with the same recipes. (Or follow #BBA on Twitter and see photos at Flickr.)

The first bread, Anadama, is a rustic New England recipe with cornmeal and molasses. The boy ate two slices for dessert tonight, so I think that’s a good sign.

My notes:

• I used dark (unsulphured organic) molasses, which gave the bread a rich, dark brown color; and my local cornmeal (Wye Mill, MD).
• Kneaded in the KitchenAid for 8 minutes.
• Didn’t shape the loaves evenly (need to re-read the shaping instructions before doing it) so they came out slightly lopsided.
• Grilled cheese: I’m envisioning white cheddar and pear on Anadama in the fall … so far we’ve just eaten it warm with farm-fresh butter.

Overall, this was a pretty simple recipe and tasted delicious. Here’s hoping future experiments go as smoothly!

Shared with Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop – check it out for more real food inspiration!