Happy Sunday Bread Heads!
This week you’re going to get two recipes for corn bread. Why? Because one of the Bread Heads doesn’t have a stand mixer and can’t knead bread with his hands and asked for more than one cornbread recipe that he could make. Since we’re going to be moving on from cornbread this week, that means two recipes for the price of one!
We’ll be making two of my favorite American style cornbreads this week. What I call Regular Cornbread and Jalapeno Cornbread. The Jalapeno bread features not only the spicy peppers but onions, cheddar cheese and creamed corn. You can make them as loaves but I like to make them as muffins. They turn out just slightly spicy and a little bit sweet, with great texture and a complex flavor.
The Regular Corn bread is rich and moist using cream, milk and butter in the mixture. It is moist enough not crumble but still firm enough to serve with stews or chili.
Now that I’ve got your mouths watering, let’s bake!
Jalapeno Cornbread:
Ingredients:
2 ½ cups cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder (usually I’d tell you to cut this down over 5000 feet, but for this recipe use it all)
½ cup butter milk
3 eggs at room temperature
½ cup cooking oil
1 ½ cups warm (105-115 degrees) water
1 16oz cream style corn
6 jalapeno peppers (when I can find them I like to use half red and half green for color), about 2 cups diced
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 large red onion grated, about one cup
Pans – 2 12 cup muffin tins or 2 loaf pans or 2 8”x8” casserole dishes.
Method:
Before we start we should talk about handling Jalapeno peppers. You need to be really careful when working with these or any hot pepper. You have not had as bad a day in your life as the day you go to push some hair out of your eyes and rub Jalapeno juice into them. Trust me on this! So, being careful not to touch your face or eyes while working with them is key. Also as soon as you are done, wash your hands thoroughly as the juice will stay on your hands and catch you when you are not being careful.
Now that we’ve taken care of that we want to get the peppers ready. I remove the seeds and the internal membranes to crank the heat down on these. Even if you have a cast iron stomach like I do, you don’t want these peppers to be so hot they overwhelm the whole bread.
Chop off the ends and then cut the peppers lengthwise. Using a pairing knife cut out the ribs that hold up the seeds and discard them. All you want is the outer tube of the pepper. Then chop them into a fine dice. Place the peppers in a bowl and set aside.
Now it is time to grate your onion. You can use a food processor if you have one, but for this I like to use a standard box grater. Place it on a plate rather than on the cutting board you want to capture all onion juice, you’ll want it for the bread. The best way to do this is cut the ends off of the onion and then start grating. When you get about half way through, flip the onion over so you are once again starting with the small side. Be careful not to grate your fingers!
Now that you have your onions and jalapenos, go ahead and grate your sharp cheddar cheese. Please don’t by the pre-grated cheese. It just oxidizes faster and you loose a lot of the sharpness you paid extra for!
You are finally ready to make your bread. Set a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat it to 425 degrees.
In your large mixing bowl, measure out the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Whisk to combine.
In another bowl whisk the eggs together. Then add the butter milk, water and oil. Whisk to combine. Pour the egg mixture into the cornmeal mixture and using a wooden spoon stir to combine.
Add the jalapenos, cream corn, cheese and onion to the mixture and stir vigorously for 2 minutes.
For muffins; coat the tins liberally with cooking spray. Spoon in the batter to just below the rim of each cup. Place in the hot oven for 30 minutes. Test doneness by putting a tooth pick into the center of a couple of the muffins, if it comes out clean they are done.
Liberally coat the pans with cooking spray (even if they are Teflon) and then divide the batter equally between the pans. Place in the oven for 40 minutes. Test doneness by using a tooth pick. Be careful here, the tooth pick needs to not only come out clean but dry. If it is wet, then give the bread 10 more minutes. You don’t want a loaf with a liquid core, trust me!
Turn the bread or muffins out onto a wire rack and allow to cool. Your kitchen will be filled with the aroma of roasted jalapenos and cheese. This bread almost a meal in and of itself, a couple of slices and an apple had held me over to dinner many a day.
If you are truly terrified of jalapenos (you shouldn’t be, being cooked in the bread really takes a lot of the heat out of them) you can use two Anaheim peppers instead. But really you should try it this way first it is not hot just mildly spicy and sweet.
Now for recipe two
Regular Cornbread:
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups cornmeal
½ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk
3 eggs at room temperature
¼ cup heavy cream at room temperature
¼ cup ( ½ stick) butter, melted
Baking pans: 1 9”x13” baking pan.
Method:
Set a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat it to 400 degrees.
In your large mixing bowl, measure out the cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Whisk to combine.
In a small bowl lightly beat the eggs, then pour in the milk and beat to combine. Add the butter and cream and once again beat until thoroughly combined. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and with a wooden spoon stir vigorously until it is evenly mixed.
Pour into your baking dish and slip into the hot over. Bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden brown and crisp. Test with a tooth pick and be sure that it comes out clean and dry. If it does the bread is ready.
Serve hot from the pan in 2”x2” squares.
So there you have it Bread Heads, two great cornbread recipes to end (for now) our exploration of this type of bread. Next week we’ll be making a French style black bread.
The flour is yours.