Anadama Bread and Ciabatta

Arriving home from vacation, it was time to restock the freezer with sandwich bread. Usually, I stick with a conventional recipe that involves four or five ingredients (flour, water, salt, honey and maybe honey). But this time I wanted to try out a new recipe from my recent purchase: The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

This is called Anadama Bread. There is a legend behind the name but I suggest either reading it in Bread Baker's Apprentice or Googling it. Any way, you begin with a cornmeal soaker. I didn't think the soaker looked too promising after sitting over night but Peter Reinhart said to do it.
Next, I added it to flour, yeast, and salt, letting it prove for two hours. The batter got nice "eyes".

What I liked about this recipe was the corn soaker. Plus, it is sweetened by molasses. Due to my use of black strap molasses, the loaves turned out quite darker than the picture shown in the bread book.

The crumb wasn't bad and the texture was good even with two cups of cornmeal in it. It was the taste I wasn't too sure about. My brothers loved it though and since the bread is mainly for them I guess that's what matters most.

I was most pleased with the whole wheat ciabatta I made for our pasta dinner. I used soft white wheat for flour. The dough is still dense but it has more holes than hard white wheat four. I love the flavor as it is deeply satisfying. I used the recipe from 100 Great Breads.