The Cornbread Gospels (9 page)
Read The Cornbread Gospels Online
Authors: Crescent Dragonwagon
3.
Measure the butter or oil by tablespoon into a small skillet or saucepan, then, using the same thus-greased tablespoon, measure in the molasses. Place on low heat to thin the molasses and melt the fat.
4.
Beat the eggs into the milk in its measuring cup, and then stir in the warmed molasses and butter.
5.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients with as few strokes as possible (the batter will be much darker than typical cornbread batter). Transfer it to the prepared pan.
6.
Bake the cornbread until it is firm and
deeply brown, with browned edges slightly pulling away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.
ARIATION
:
V
EGAN
“T
HIRDED
” C
ORNBREAD
In addition to the obvious (soy milk for dairy, egg substitute such as Eggscellence,
page 352
, for eggs), add ¼ cup applesauce, which will soften the dense bread.
T
HE
W
ORLD
’
S
M
OST
E
GREGIOUS
C
ORNBREAD
You might think, given the love I hold for cornbreads Northern and Southern, spicy and plain, in loaf, muffin, or pancake form, that I have never met a cornbread I didn’t like. This is almost, but not quite, true.
I witnessed a crime against one of the world’s great foods at a quasi-hip, pseudo-retro New York pancake house. The waiter set down a breadbasket on the table, before I’d even ordered. (
Breadbasket?
At a pancake place? Is that carb overkill or what?)
I unfolded the basket’s napkin. Inside there were large, damp squares of something crumbly and yellow. I guess you could call it “cornbread” after a fashion—but it was very sweet, very, very, very cakey, and dotted with …
chocolate chips.
As Joseph Conrad said, “The horror, the horror!”
A
PPLE
C
IDER
S
YRUP
Apple cider syrup is an old New England sweetener. Sweet, a little tart, extra ordinarily full-flavored, it is nothing more or less than a reduction of apple cider, the water boiled away to leave only the essence of apple. Commercially, it’s made much in the same way maple sap is turned into syrup, in an evaporator, so it’s not surprising that one of the few places it’s produced is in Vermont.
Apple cider syrup has a honey-like consistency. It is excellent used not only in Quasi-Colonial Cornbread but over pancakes, French toast, or ice cream, or in marinades or salad dressings, where it adds a hauntingly delicious flavor.
UASI
-C
OLONIAL
C
ORNBREAD
M
AKES
9
SQUARES
Apple cider syrup gives this cornbread a special flavor note. Depending on what era of “colonial” we are talking about, this probably would have been baked not in an oven as such, its flour might well have been “thirded” (see
page 42
), and it would not have had the optional fresh corn kernels added. Hence, the “quasi” in its name.
Vegetable oil cooking spray
½ cup unbleached white flour
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
⅔ cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons apple cider syrup (see
Note
)
3 tablespoons butter, melted, or mild vegetable oil
Kernels cut from 2 ears of fresh corn, about 1 cup (see Shuck and Jive,
page 49
; optional)
Butter, for serving (optional)
Apple butter, for serving (optional)
1.
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with oil.
2.
Combine the flours, baking powder, cornmeal, and salt in a large bowl and set aside. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and apple cider syrup.
3.
Stir together the wet and dry mixtures along with the melted butter or oil. Mix just enough to combine, stirring in the corn kernels at the end, if using. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
4.
Bake until deeply golden, about 20 minutes. Cool for a few minutes, and cut into squares. Serve, still hot from the oven, with butter and apple butter, if you’d like.
N
OTE
:
If you don’t have commercially made apple cider syrup on hand (see Pantry,
page 346
), thaw 2 large cans of frozen organic apple juice concentrate, and boil them down to half their original volume, until the liquid becomes as thick as honey. As the juice cooks down, transfer it to a smaller pot, because it will grow more and more concentrated, decreasing dramatically in volume.
ARIATION
:
Q
UASI
-C
OLONIAL
C
ORNBREAD WITH
A
PPLES
Substitute 1 cup apples (peeled, cored, and grated—not chopped) for the corn.
·M·E·N·U·
F
ALL
F
ARM
-S
TAND
O
RCHARD
I
DYLL
Salad of Mixed Greens, Red Cabbage Slivers, Scallions, Apples, Maytag Blue Cheese, and Toasted Walnuts, with
Apple Cider Syrup Vinaigrette
*
Chicken or Vegetable Soup with Fresh Corn and Tomatoes
*
Quasi-Colonial Cornbread with Butter and Apple Butter
*
ARROLL
’
S
E
XTRA
-M
OIST
C
ORNBREAD
M
AKES
9
SQUARES
This recipe is from my down-one-hill-and-up-the-side-of-another Vermont neighbor, Carroll Metrick. Carroll says, “The fewer pans, the fewer bowls and spoons, the better. That’s how I cook.” She discovered the prototype for this recipe in
The New York Times
, but she found that version a little too wet for her taste. I tweaked it slightly both method- and ingredients-wise, and now it meets with her approval, retaining its signature rich delicacy, still plenty moist, but less so than the original.
Carroll likes this cornbread split and toasted, with butter and maple syrup; but then, what cornbread wouldn’t be good that way? Myself, the day I came up with the final version, I happened to have some sweet potato and lima bean soup going, and it was terrific with that.
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream (or full-fat, if you prefer)
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup mild vegetable oil
1 cup canned creamed corn (see Pantry,
page 351
)
2 eggs
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with oil.
2.
Place the sour cream in a large bowl and whisk in the baking soda to activate it. Then whisk in the remaining wet ingredients: the oil, creamed corn, and eggs. When thoroughly combined, sprinkle the cornmeal over the top.
3.
Combine the cornstarch, baking powder, and salt in a small dish, and sift over the cornmeal. Stir the whole thing together with as few strokes as possible, to just combine the wet and dry.
4.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Let it stand at room temperature for 20 minutes, then pop it in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 40 minutes.
WEET
C
REAM AND
H
ONEY
C
ORNBREAD
M
AKES
9
SQUARES
Ultrarich, quite sweet (due to both honey and sugar), this is a truly yummy Yankee–style indulgence of a cornbread. Heavy cream is backed up by two eggs and plenty of butter; light it certainly isn’t, but wonderful it is. The honey is warmed so it will combine with the other wet ingredients more readily; just run very hot tap water over the honey jar to liquefy the honey. If you’re used to stripped-down cornbreads, this might be almost too rich for you.
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar, preferably unrefined (see Pantry,
page 356
)
½ cup whipping cream
½ cup milk
4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, at room temperature
¼ cup honey, warmed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a 9-inch square pan with oil.
2.
Combine the flour and cornmeal in a large bowl, then sift in the baking powder and salt.
3.
Beat together the sugar, cream, milk, softened butter, and warmed honey in a smaller bowl. When well mixed, beat in the eggs.
4.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and bake until golden brown and intoxicatingly fragrant, 20 to 25 minutes.
“I lay five kernels of dried corn on every place setting at Thanksgiving dinner to remember the starvation the Pilgrims endured in 1621. That was their daily ration before the first crops came in. When you see it, you know how little it was. Of the one hundred two passengers on the
Mayflower,
only fifty-one survived. I am descended from two of them. So I give thanks to my ancestors, who struggled against all odds.”
—C
AROLINE
L
EWIS
K
ARDELL,
HISTORIAN GENERAL OF THE
G
ENERAL
S
OCIETY OF
M
AYFLOWER
D
ESCENDANTS IN
P
LYMOUTH
, M
ASSACHUSSETTS
AND OF
M
ILK AND
H
ONEY
C
USTARD
-L
AYERED
C
ORNBREAD
M
AKES
12
SQUARES
This is a magical, surprising cornbread. An improbably thin, eggy, milky batter bakes into a tri-part cornbread, with a thin but distinct layer of voluptuous custard sandwiched between a cornbready bottom layer and a light topping of the risen bran and fresh corn kernels.
This is my crossbreeding of two similar recipes from two very different places. The first is from my well-worn, old (1970! And with age spots and drizzles to prove it!)
Tassajara Bread Book
, by Edward Espe Brown. The second is from an almost-as-old and also much-dripped-on handwritten recipe card bearing the recipe I begged from a stranger at a Thanksgiving potluck in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.