Holding pattern

I do have to thank BG for picking this book and starting this project when she did because I can't think of better bread baking weather. Even though it would be nice to see the sun again, it does make a cozy house with the smell of bread baking.

I started the process of making the Anadame bread on Tuesday night with the soaker like everyone else. On Wednesday, I proceeded to make the bread according to the recipe, oops, I mean formula but at step #7 "Proofing at room temperature" I took a little detour. Knowing that we were going to have a guest come over for dinner on Thursday night and that I would be busy during the day, I decided to hold back the loaves before the proofing process and stick them in the fridge so I would have fresh baked bread on Thursday rather than Wednesday.

Here are the loaves in their holding pattern or nicely "retarding" in the fridge in my basement:

I took them out four hours before I wanted to bake them (6 hours before dinner to account for the baking and cooling time) and sat them on my counter until they had come back to room temperature and did their proofing:

Overall, we thought the bread was really good. I used the only kind of molasses that my Super Wally World had which was Grandma's Original UnSulphured Molasses. I don't think it was that dark so our bread didn't have a strong molasses flavor. (I do agree with BG and the smell of molasses...whoowhee that's some strong stuff!) The bread was nice and soft and was perfect with butter and for dipping in our Cheese Tortellini and Sausage soup. We ate one loaf with our soup, I froze the other loaf, and the third loaf is making a trip back to the West Coast for the P. household to enjoy.

In the end we gave this bread a thumbs up!