The Cornbread Gospels (21 page)
Read The Cornbread Gospels Online
Authors: Crescent Dragonwagon
And finally, we come to crackers. It’s a pity so few of us make crackers from scratch at home. They are delicious, in a whole other
category than packaged varieties, and no harder to fix than pie crust or cookies; in fact, some varieties are easier. (Of course, it is also true that many people no longer make pie crusts or cookies at home, either, another real pity—but don’t get me started.)
Because of their rarity and rusticity (they definitely don’t look like a factory made ’em), from-scratch crackers always attract attention. Serve them with all the savory things you can think of: dips and spreads, cheeses, olives. Tasty, inviting, their nonuniformity, to my eye, gives an extra measure of heart and soul.
Crackers, cornsticks, muffins, gems. These babycakes are quite different from each other. Some are sweet, some savory; some are moist and others crackly; some are Best Dressed, others Most Popular—but all are joy-inducing, indulgent, and very, very Likely to Succeed.
IMPLY
C
ORN
M
UFFINS
M
AKES
12
MUFFINS
A classic. It accompanies almost anything, is receptive to a thousand variations, and is invariably well received. If you mastered only this recipe and Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread (
page 12
), and took either to a few neighborhood get-togethers, you would find yourself queen or king of the potluck.
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1¼ cups buttermilk
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
¼ to ⅓ cup sugar, preferably unrefined (see Pantry,
page 356
)
⅓ cup melted butter or mild vegetable oil
1.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with oil, or line with muffin papers.
2.
Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl, stirring well. Set aside.
3.
Whisk together the buttermilk and baking soda in a medium bowl until the baking soda is dissolved. Whisk in the eggs, sugar, and melted butter or oil.
4.
Stir the combined wet ingredients into the dry until the mixture is just barely combined. Spoon into the prepared muffin tin.
5.
Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm.
ARIATIONS
:
S
WEET
M
ILK
C
ORN
M
UFFINS
Although I love the slight tang buttermilk gives to these muffins, they’re also excellent made with regular milk. Simply substitute an equal amount of milk for the buttermilk, and omit the baking soda.
OUBLE
-C
ORN
B
ASIC
C
ORN
M
UFFINS
Use either the buttermilk or sweet milk version of the muffin. When you have just combined the wet and dry ingredients, stir in, with a couple of strokes, ½ to 1 cup raw, cooked, or thawed frozen corn kernels. (If using fresh corn, you will need 1 to 2 ears; see Shuck and Jive,
page 49
.)
EDUCED
-F
AT
S
IMPLY
C
ORN
M
UFFINS
WITH
C
ARROT
If you keep track of fat grams, you’ll be pleased to know that you can cut the melted butter back to a mere 2 tablespoons and add 1 carrot, grated, and still end up with yet another delicious muffin, albeit one that won’t keep as long.
M
UFFIN
-M
AKING
M
AGIC
M
IXING
:
As with most cornbreads, the as-few-strokes-as-possible rule applies: Overbeaten muffins are rubbery, tough, and have an off-center bump on otherwise flat tops.
A
DJUSTING FOR
S
IZE
:
Any muffin can be made in any type of muffin pan. Just adjust the timing: The smaller the muffin, the more quickly it bakes. Mini-muffins, which take about a tablespoon of batter each, bake in 10 to 12 minutes. Regular muffins take 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of batter each and bake in 15 to 18 minutes. Giant mega-maxi-muffins take ½ to ⅔ cup of batter, and bake in 22 to 25 minutes. Muffin tops, taking 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter, bake in 13 to 16 minutes. (If using a muffin-top pan for a recipe with streusel, make a double batch of streusel to cover the greater surface.)
H
EAT
:
Preheat the oven for at least 20 minutes so the muffins will bake in a timely fashion and have a nice crisp crust.
C
AKEY VS
. B
READY
:
You can make very delicious muffins, a bit more on the bready than cakey side, with a minimum of fat—¼ cup or so—and relatively little sugar. However, this only works if you’re planning on eating the muffins immediately. If you want your muffins to keep for a while, choose a higher-fat, sweeter muffin recipe.
O
N
S
TICKING
:
There’s no reason for a muffin to ever, ever stick. If you have old, beat-up muffin tins, use paper liners. If your muffin pans are in relatively good shape, use liners or spray well with vegetable oil cooking spray. And if you have new, heavy-gauge nonstick, well, no worries.
ANICE
C
ARR
’
S
M
IXED
-G
RAIN
M
UFFINS
M
AKES
12
MUFFINS
For many years Dr. Leo Carr, a legendary chiropractor with a quietly piquant sense of humor and the body of a twenty-five-year-old up into his seventies (he practiced yoga for three hours each morning and rode his bicycle everywhere), ministered to the spines, shoulders, necks, and sacrums of
tout
Eureka Springs, Arkansas, from an immaculate Victorian house on Spring Street. It was also his home, shared with his partner, Janice.
For many years Janice’s muffins, varied each time with different grain flours but always including cornmeal and unbleached white flour, were what came to mind whenever I thought “muffins.” Thirty years later, I still love them. Her recipe always turns out utterly toothsome, high-rising, crusty-topped perfect muffins and offers a terrific opportunity to experiment with all
the various whole-grain flours we’re always being told to eat.
If you choose to use oat flour as part of the mix and want to make your own, simply buzz oatmeal in a food processor until pulverized (2 parts oatmeal yields 1 part oat flour).
Vegetable oil cooking spray
¾ cup unbleached white flour, plus extra as needed
¾ cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
About 1 cup assorted whole-grain flours, in any proportion (this can include barley, quinoa, rye, rice, millet, or oatmeal flours)
2 tablespoons baking powder (yes, really that much)
1 teaspoon salt
⅓ cup butter, at room temperature
⅓ cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with oil.
2.
Stir together the white flour, cornmeal, whole-grain flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Use a whisk or fork to combine everything well. Set aside.
3.
Cream together the butter and sugar in a slightly smaller bowl, then beat in the egg.
4.
Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients along with the milk, stirring together just until combined. Depending on which flours you’ve selected, you might need to add more flour (either unbleached or one of the whole grains) or cornmeal to achieve proper muffin consistency: moist but still quite thick and a bit shaggy. Be prepared to add up to ⅓ cup additional flour or meal if needed.
5.
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, and pop in the oven. Bake until the muffins are golden brown and crusty, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve them hot, if possible within a few minutes of their emergence from the oven. Now aren’t these
good
?
C
ORN
-
VERSATION
“Oh! A book on cornbread! I love cornbread!” As you already know, I heard this many times while putting this book together, but always from Americans … and after all, cornbread really is our native bread. So when I heard this from an English woman, Diana Howe, my agent’s former assistant, I was surprised.
“You do?” I asked. “Is cornbread eaten in Great Britain?”
“Oh, yes,” said Diana. “Quite a bit, actually.”
“Is it like the American kind? And is it sweet, or not?”
“Rather sweet … it’s sort of like what you serve here, but not. It’s actually more like what I suppose you’d call cornmeal muffins.”
“And did you eat them growing up?”
“Oh, yes, and very happily so.”
“And what were they served with?”
“Chowders, mostly, as I remember.”
“
Fish
chowders?” I said. I was thinking about chowder controversy—Manhattan–style versus New England–style, oyster crackers or saltines, et cetera. To put two such argued-about foods as cornbread and chowder side by side seemed like a dangerous conjunction.
“Oh,
yes,
” said Diana, clearly unaware of the ferment surrounding these two foods. She sounded happy, dreamily rhapsodic, the way people often get recalling the cornbreads of their childhoods. “All
kinds
of fish chowders: clam, haddock, salmon …”
I could just hear my mother, a devotee of salmon served at its absolutely most pristine and simple, saying, in tones of gentle horror, “Salmon—in
chowder
?”
So, chowder-loving cornbread eaters, or cornbread-loving chowder-eaters, try it if you like—but please, don’t let me know what you think. I’m getting
way
out of the way.
·M·E·N·U·
D
OWN
-H
OME
D
INNER WITH THE
P
REACHER
Country-Fried Chicken with Gravy
*
Straight-from-the-Garden Sliced Tomatoes
*
Mashed Potatoes
*
Slow-Cooked Green Beans
*
“Company’s Coming” Rich Corn Muffins or
Countryside Cornsticks
*
Blackberry Cobbler
*
Iced Tea
OMPANY
’
S
C
OMING
” R
ICH
C
ORN
M
UFFINS
M
AKES
18
MUFFINS
Southern in origin, these rich unsweetened muffins fairly proclaim Sunday dinner. In the old days, the liquid called for would have been soured “top milk,” meaning the extra-creamy milk that rose to the top of the bottle. Reduced-fat sour cream (not fat-free) is a good substitute. Or, go ahead and use full-fat … after all, company’s on the way.
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1½ cups stone-ground white cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup (½ stick) butter or solid vegetable shortening such as Crisco (or the natural-foods equivalent made with palm or coconut oil)
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups reduced-fat (not fat-free) sour cream
1.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spray 18 muffin-tin cups with oil.
2.
Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the butter or shortening until the mixture is uniform, with fat in specks smaller than peas.