Firecracker Cornbread
Yes, yes I know, it’s been too long. And don’t worry, I have plenty of excuses about why I have posted in almost three months. But, the good news is that although I haven’t been writing about bread, I have been making it! Finding the time to make bread hasn’t actually been hard. Well, that is when you can use a bread machine. Some people might consider that I’m “cheating” myself of the wonders of artisan-type bread, however I would argue that I’m simply taking an alternative road to enjoying homemade bread.
My bread machine is a hand-me-down from my grandmother and even with a broken display it works almost perfectly. The real champion in this endeavor has been the cookbook I use. Another gift from the grandmother, this cookbook has recipes adapted to just about bread machine you can find and a great variety of bread types. I’ve grown partial to the honey wheat breads with my favorite probably being the health nut loaf (sunflower seeds are involved!).
Outside of my bread machine experimenting I have been making some other breads. In early October I decided to make some chili, which naturally led me in search of a cornbread recipe. The chili was ok, but the cornbread was unbelievable. I used the Firecracker Cornbread recipe from the site www.101cookbooks.com. The food journal/blog is run by Heidi Swanson who also wrote the cookbook, Super Natural Cooking. Her recipes are all vegetarian and mostly use natural ingredients. She’ll be coming out with a new cookbook, Super Natural Every Day, soon, but in the meantime I’d highly recommend checking out her site. It’s one of the first places I’ll use when searching for meal inspiration.
Just a couple notes…definitely don’t skip out on the “firecracker” part of this recipe. I’m fairly spicy intolerant and was a bit light-handed with the red pepper flakes, but they added a great flavor dimension to the bread. I did however substitute unbleached all-purpose flour for the whole wheat pastry flour like Heidi suggests you can and there were no problems. As for the dish to bake the bread I again lucked out with another hand-me-down from my grandmother—a great enameled pie dish that was perfect for this recipe.
Sorry, no photos, I honestly was so excited about eating it that I forgot. I did freeze some so hopefully I’ll snap a few shots when I enjoy the cornbread next!
