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Premium bread machine — dual kneading blades, rectangular loaf
Domed stoneware baker traps steam for artisan crust at home
Professional baker's technical reference — formulas, troubleshooting
Bread baking kit — banneton, lame, liner, dough scraper, whisk
Electric knife — effortless bread slicing, holiday turkey carving
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Mix the cornmeal with the 3/4 cups cold water in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the boiling water and bring to a boil over medium heat. When the cornmeal mixture starts to boil, add the butter, molasses and salt. Cook until the mixture is the consistency of pudding-- stirring constantly. It should take about 7 minutes. Transfer this mixture to a large bowl and let it cool to lukewarm. Don't get impatient with the cooling, because if it's too hot (over 115 degrees farenheit), it will kill the yeast. It will form a skin on the top, but it's no big deal. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small bowl and let it sit until the yeast looks foamy. Stir to dissolve the yeast, then add it to the cornmeal mush. Just an aside about the"warm" definition in case you are a beginning bread-maker without a thermometer. The temperature you want is when you drop water on your wrist, it feels neither cool nor hot-- test it the way you would a baby's bottle. I killed yeast with too-hot water when I was starting out. Now back to the recipe. Mix the all-purpose and wheat flours together and start stirring them into the cornmeal mixture, a cup at a time to make a soft, sticky dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured work service and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. You can add more flour as needed, but don't get carried away. Because of the molasses, the dough will stay sticky. As long as the dough isn't sticking excessively to the board, you have enough flour. I knead this with my stand mixer, and there's always a little"smear" of dough around the edges of the bowl. Form the dough into a ball and put it in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Turn the dough ball to get a little oil all over it. Let rise until double in size, about an hour. Punch the dough down (Really, just pick up the sides and let it collapse on itself. No need to be violent.), cover with a towel, and let rest in the bowl for 10 minutes. Get two 9-x5-inch loaf pans ready by lightly oiling them.