Scald the milk. Put 1 cup of the hot milk in a bowl, and to it add the corn meal, sugar, salt, and olive oil. Stir.
Dissolve the yeast in the remaining 1/4 cup hot milk. Combine the yeasty milk with the corn-meal/milk mixture.
Stir in 3 cups of the flour. Mix to make a loose dough. Add more flour by tablespoons, just enough to make a dough you can knead for 10 minutes, or stretch and fold 8 times.
Don’t make a stiff dough – flour or oil your hands to keep the dough from sticking, to keep added flour to a reasonable minimum. This is good policy for a light, tender crumb any time you bake bread.
Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a greased bowl. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise in a warm place until it’s double in size and light – about an hour.
Knead briefly, and if you like to stretch and fold, do so again, three or four times. Place in a greased pan or, for a free-form loaf, shape and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Allow dough to rise again till doubled. This will take less time – about half an hour. The top of the stove is a good place to leave it, while the oven’s preheating.
Preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C). Bake for 30 minutes, then check for doneness. If the top is crusty but the bottom still soft, flip it gently over and allow to bake another 10 minutes upside down. Check again.
Anadama bread is a good breakfast bread, being enriched with milk. It also makes good toast (wonderful hot and spread with peanut butter), and is delicious as French toast.
Notes
I hardly ever knead bread dough anymore; just a little in the bowl to integrate the flour. Then I stretch and fold – less tedious, better for my back, and results in a lovely crumb each time.My favorite method for checking doneness of bread is the old-fashioned poke with a toothpick, as with cakes. If the toothpick comes out free of crumbs, the bread is done.I baked this on my seasoned clay flowerpot saucer, gently sliding it off parchment paper onto the saucer, which had been liberally sprinkled with corn meal just before baking the bread to prevent it from sticking.