Best. Cornbread. Ever.

I've had quite a few versions of cornbread. I grew up with the occasional cakey cornbread and delicious honey butter (I know we mixed our own honey butter, but was the cornbread from a box, Mom?) Now that I'm in the South, I've discovered that cornbread or biscuits are served in most Southern diners/restaurants and everybody has their favorite recipe. Most biscuits are delicious but the cornbread can range from corny and bland to super sweet and cakey.

mmm, look at that golden top

I made the best cornbread of my life on New Years Day. I've made corn bread before, but I've always been vaguely disappointed in it- it was too cakey, too thin, or too much "corn" and not enough bread.  This recipe produced a cornbread that was an ideal 1.5"-2" thick, sweet enough to be eaten by itself (but not too sweet I couldn't slather it in butter and honey), and the perfect texture that walks the line between cakey and flakey.  It was so good, I made it two days in a row and only just stopped myself from making it for dinner on the third. 

I thought I'd made this recipe before.  It's from my New Best Recipe Cookbook, but there are two recipes: Northern and Southern cornbread.  Maybe I tried the Northern one and forgot to notate it.  I distinctly remember trying to make cornbread in my 10" square cast iron years ago and it turning out far too thin and consequently a bit too brown on the bottom to be flavorful, so maybe I made the Southern one.  This time I had the suggested 8" cast iron that we picked up at a thrift store and made the Southern Skillet Cornbread.

Cornbread is a quick bread, meaning it gets its rise from baking soda, baking powder, and/or eggs (in this case, all three) instead of yeast. The difference between Northern and Southern cornbread tends to be how cakey it is.  Northern cornbread uses roughly a 50/50 blend of cornmeal and all purpose flour with butter for the fat while Southern styles use all or mostly all cornmeal with oil/bacon drippings as the fat.  This Southern one uses only cornmeal, so it's gluten free.  My dad is gluten intolerant, so I'm always happy to find something gluten free that tastes this amazing.  It comes together pretty quick, so I can quickly mix it up and stick it in the oven, then have 20 minutes to pull together the rest of dinner. 

I don't want to write out the recipe because of copyright restrictions (blogging is a form of publishing), but I will give the basic gist of how it's put together that can be used on other recipes.  The oil (or bacon drippings) is preheated in the cast iron.  The cornmeal is divided and most of it mixed with the dry ingredients.  The remaining cornmeal is whisked with hot water to form a thick paste, then buttermilk and egg is added.  After folding those together, the hot oil from the cast iron is quickly mixed in.  After baking for about 20 minutes, out comes the best cornbread I've ever had.  

An 8" cast iron pan of deliciousness

So why did I made the cornbread?  Well, the South has a tradition on New Years Day: for good luck in the new year, eat black eyed peas, collards, and fat back (or something porky; we did bacon this year).  While I can finish my plate, I don't particularly like any of these traditional Southern dishes and wanted something that I could look forward to in the meal.  It will now be in constant rotation in our meals. 

bacon, collards, cornbread, and black eyed peas

Sweet Potato Zucchini Bread

[editor's note: I just got an iPhone and I would like to assure those using smartphones that this site looks good in the mobile version. So you know... if you want to visit me more.  Or look up ingredients for recipes. Also, I have discovered that those of you who have liked me on facebook aren't always seeing my new posts pop up in your feed. I believe if you like a couple things on the page or add comments, facebook will "learn" that you like hearing from me and notify you more often. Now, on to the actual post.]


Sweet potatoes were on sale last week and my husband and I got excited because of all the great things that can be made with sweet potatoes- sweet potato pie, sweet potato mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, etc, etc.  Jamie claimed some of the sweet potatoes for a pie and I got the rest to portion out for dinners and this new recipe I found. 

Sweet Potato and Zucchini Bread

Usually I link to where I got recipes and patterns to avoid copyright infringement and give full credit to the original author/publisher.  For this recipe, I took the main idea from an Epicurious recipe and combined it with elements from the zucchini bread recipe in The New Best Recipe Cookbook (hereafter shortened to NBRC).

Whenever I use a recipe off Epicurious, I always check the comments to see how people have changed the recipe.  Usually people have decreased the fat/sugar or suggested adding another spice to really bump up the flavor.  This one was no different.  Most people did some combination of all purpose and whole wheat flour, decreased the sugar, and replaced some of the fat with applesauce.  I also combined whole wheat and all purpose flour, decreased the sugar to NBRC levels, and fully intended to replace some of the oil/butter with the last bit of my applesauce... but I opened the jar and was nearly overpowered by the scent of fermented apples.  So I just cut down on some of the fat [edit: it needed that extra 2 tbs. I put it back in the recipe.]

NBRC has some great ideas regarding zucchini bread.  Zucchini, like tomatoes, cucumber, and melons, has a high water content.  Macerating the zucchini in sugar allows it to release it's juices, just like people do with strawberries they want to enjoy on waffles.  Instead of grating the zucchini, I ended up grinding it.  I do not have a box grater appropriate for this (my microplane grates too finely) and my faithful food processor's 30 year-old bowl finally broke (it's been in the process of breaking since a roommate was particularly harsh with it).  So I had a food grinder.  I don't really recommend using it unless the veggies are softer, but it definitely works in a pinch. 

Grinding the zucchini up.  I find most things, once ground, look slightly disgusting.

I've noticed that NBRC tends to add sour cream, plain yogurt, or buttermilk to their quick bread recipes (muffins, sweet breads, etc) because it is an acidic liquid that brightens flavors.  In this one, they preferred yogurt.  I did not have any on hand so I went with their second choice: buttermilk. 

So, I've only had a small slice of this so far, but here are my impressions.  It has a mild sweetness with a subtle flavor of both zucchini and sweet potato.  I think the sweet potato is kind of like the carrot in carrot cake: it lends the sweetness and backbone of a root vegetable, but isn't so intense you can't taste the other flavors.  I think using some allspice and nutmeg would help round out the flavor- just cinnamon is too one dimensional.  Overall, I'm pleased with it.  It's a bread you probably wouldn't bring to a potluck or make for company, but it is the kind you would buy at a coffeeshop.  It's filling and as far as coffeeshop treats go, it's one of your healthier options.  It's actually exactly what I was going for: something healthy-ish my husband could eat with coffee instead of buying something from the coffeeshop. 

not my best photo.  it was not a bright and shiny day. 

Sweet Potato Zucchini Bread

1c. all purpose flour
1c. whole wheat flour
1tsp cinnamon (or 1tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp nutmeg)
1tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

3/4c. sugar
2 eggs
6tbs (3/4 stick) butter, melted and cooled (or replace up to half with applesauce)
1/4c. plain yogurt or buttermilk (or 1 tbs dry buttermilk added to dry ingredients and 1/4 c. water added to wet)
1tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2c. grated zucchini (+ 2tbs sugar)
1 1/2c. peeled, grated sweet potato

1/2c - 1c. chopped walnuts, toasted (opt)

1. grate zucchini and toss with 2tbs sugar.  Put grated zucchini in a strainer over something to catch the juices.  It should drain for about 30minutes or however at least as long as it takes to prepare the rest of the ingredients and heat up the oven.
2. preheat oven to 350 and prepare bread pan or muffin tin
3. mix dry ingredients.
4. grate sweet potato and add wet ingredients to it and mix.  Add the zucchini.  Add the walnuts.
5.  bake for 55min - 1hr 15min at 350degrees.

Lemon-Anise Biscotti

Well, the muffins I made the other week were a bust.  Not because they didn't taste good (they tasted fine), but because I made them on a Thursday before a long weekend.  Apparently, any snack-like baking I do must be on a Sunday to ensure that they get munched on during the week during school instead of languishing on the counter waiting for mid-morning munchies between classes.   

So on Sunday I made biscotti.

lemon-y.  biscotti-y. 

Pizza! Pizza!

Last weekend was my husband's birthday.  I had a particular craft in mind to make and post about: fabric pennant banners.  It would be his present, keep me busy on Friday, and provide Monday's post.

This did not happen.

Poppy Seed Muffins and Beautiful Bread

Costco poppyseed muffins are one of my favorite muffins ever.  They're really big though.  And homemade muffins tend to be a tiny bit too small.  Is there a perfect muffin tin out there??

Anyway, I made poppyseed muffins cuz my husband said he was getting munchy between classes and wanted something so he wouldn't buy food on campus. 

Poppy seed Muffins

knitting needle case, apron, felted gloves

So.... Good to see I haven't forgotten how to procrastinate on this little thing.

knitting
Ok, this isn't technically knitting, but it sort of deals with it. First up, the knitting needle case. Mostly because it includes a picture of my sewing machine (I love that thing). I can't remember the pattern company, but it's a nice little pattern with several other knitting/crochet related stuff. I completed this around May. Maybe.

all finished!

holds (nearly) everything!

sewing
Next up, my apron. Bad picture of me. Ignore that part. Think of me wearing a dress and pearls. I've had several people comment that it could be a (somewhat scandalous) dress by itself. :-) I love the lines it gives me on the front, I always feel so darn domestic when I wear it. I don't want to get it dirty!
Bad news though, I washed it and one of the back ties got a bit detatched from the dress. It's a rough tear, I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to fix it.
(Note to self, pin long strings to apron next time you wash it!)

actual knitting
GLOVES. My dad has asked me for a good long while to knit him some nice gloves and a long while ago he bought me the needles, yarn, and book on how to felt. I finally finished his gloves and promptly made myself some as well (mine are a beautiful eggplant color, but not yet felted because I am a slacker). The first photo is of them unfelted, and the second shows the power of the washing machine. I intended to give these to him for Christmas last, but could NOT get the last skein of yarn I needed (and he talked me out of getting originally) when I came home. I found it the first week I was back in Bham. I felted his around Valentine's Day (because I only have access to a coin-op at my apartment) and finished my gloves by spring. I'll probably felt them in October when I come home for some drs appts. Hopefully it won't be too cold before then.

pre-felting

post-felting

food
I made this lovely Italian loaf last February. It was the best loaf of bread I've ever made- just the right texture, flakey on top- mouthgasm just thinking about it.

Of course, it's from my fabulous New Best Recipe Cookbook.

deeeelicious!

knitting again
never quite gave an update on that phone cover, but I did turn it into a flash "how to" project for my New Media class last spring. I'm not a wiz at Flash and have very little interest at mastering the beast (I'm more of a book arts/print production person), but if you're interested, here's the link to my site. I basically ganked the images and what I had written on this site, stylized the photos, added a bit of motion, and called it good. Didn't both to go back and fix a few things after the critique, I didn't care enough.
http://myweb.students.wwu.edu/messinj2/dsgn354/howto/howto.swf

Cookies and biscotti

I have been baking, but got a bit too lazy to take pictures and then too busy to bake a few weeks.

so, a brief foody update and later i'll take some pictures of the string market bag i finished and put those up. Also, an update on that cell phone cover i crocheted later.

NE plus Ultra Cookies
from Martha Stewart's Cookie Book
A few weeks ago, my dad decided to pick up a new cookie book. I've made a couple out of there and this one got rave reviews. They are a slightly cakey cookie, but there is so much goodness in them (raisins, chocolate chips, and walnuts) that it's harder to tell. I intended to put coconut in the mix, but didn't remember til after I baked them. They hit the spot when you want a nice, big, chewy cookie

Cranberry-Walnut Biscotti
also from Martha Stewart's Cookie Book
It originally called for cherries and almonds, but we tend to have cranberries on hand 90% of the time and rarely cherries... and walnuts seemed to go better with the cranberries than almonds. These were liked much more than the spiced biscotti, (though those were pretty good), perhaps because they were a bit softer and more like a cookie. These came out a bit more cake-like, I think because of the butter content. I didn't follow the recipe's directions of simmering the berries in almond liquor, instead I followed a America's Test Kitchen tip: I soaked the cranberries in orange juice for about 15-20 minutes. They plump up and take a bit of the citrus flavor with them but not in an overwhelming way. I question the point of this a bit because biscotti has a bake all the moisture out of them, but it tasted good. They batter rose quite a bit from the baking soda (it was HUGE, much bigger than I expected) and seemed a bit like a buttery shortbread- but it's been forever since I've had shortbread, so don't take my word for it.

I made some of my favorite rosemary whole wheat bread the other day, but it got compromised. I had put it in my warmed oven to give it an ideal place to rise as dinner was being prepared, but then we unexpectedly decided to use the oven to warm some chips and my mom turned the oven on! I didn't realize for a bit and by the time i noticed, the yeast had denatured and wouldn't recover. It rose a tiny bit more, but it had a pretty decent "skin" of too warm/heated/ruined dough on top. The bread came out tasting fine, but only about half the rise as usual. It was a bit disappointing, because it was two loaves instead of one. This week I plan on making a apricot/walnut bread.

Bread, Biscotti, and Bagels

This week's attempts:

Buttermilk Oatmeal Sandwich Bread
a combination of variations in The New Best Recipe Cookbook from America's Test Kitchen
verdict: excellent. I highly approve. I wish I had a bread pan with a lid so I could get a more square shape.


Biscotti
The New Best Recipe Cookbook
verdict: quite good. Biscotti is supposed to have all the moisture baked out of them and therefore they have a quite long shelf life. However, having all the moisture baked out of them means they are super crunchy/dry. Remind me a bit of the texture of a dog biscuit... but would a dog biscuit taste so good when dunked in a convenient cup of tea? I don't think so. The tea (or coffee if one is so inclined) re-hydrated it perfectly to be more a melt in your mouth sort of thing.


Bagels
also from The New Best Recipe Cookbook
verdict: less than stellar. In fact, worst bagel ever: very chewy (like silly putty!), little taste, and the appearance was a little bit disgusting. I think I'm doing something wrong when making the dough. I can't get it smooth like the book says it should be and I kneaded extra (after two nights of failed attempts) this time! I didn't have a lot of hope for these after having so much trouble with the dough, but the pictures are kinda cool. I wish I'd taken a picture before they went in the oven.