Breadbakers Challenge

Some experiences take you close to home, but can still stretch your imagination about different destinations around the world. I recently noticed a Twitter post from Nicole with “Pinch My Salt” who indicated an interest in baking a loaf of bread a week from the book “The Bread Bakers Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart. This intrigued me and I tweeted back that I would like to do that, too. Soon, there were at least 20 people interested and the whole thing turned from a whim into The BBA Challenge. The group now has 200 members from around the world, including New Zealand, India, Malaysia, Sweden, France, Italy, Israel, and Slovakia, as well as throughout North America. We will bake our bread every week and post our results.

baked loaf Anadama bread

Reinhart’s book is intended to teach, and the first third of the book is devoted to method. Therefore the first recipe to bake doesn’t show up until page 108, with Anadama Bread. This bread began with a starter developed the day before baking make with cornmeal and water and left to sit on the counter. The group had detailed discussions about which cornmeal to use and how to obtain if you live in parts of the world where cornmeal isn’t readily available.

The next day I combined my ingredients, including molasses, to make a dough. Some of our bakers had already reported difficulties with the bread rising properly, so I allowed plenty of time. However, I got lucky. Both the first rise and the second rise worked perfectly.

first rise

sliced bread