On a whim, I decided to make cornbread.
Okay, it wasn't a whim. It snowed here, in Houston, today. For those of you unfamiliar with Texas weather, let me tell you: it's cold. The northerns are reading this and scoffing, I can hear it, "Cold? It's -40°F... or C, it doesn't matter, it's the same for both Farenheit and Celsius!"
To them, I must reply: When you have weeks of 100°+ with the humidity in the eightieth percentile, you kinda adapt to those temperatures. Also, when it gets cold here, it is still humid. It's the kind of cold that seeps into your bones, no big deal.
The point of this story is that it was cold out today and I wanted some supplemental heat, so I made a fire. The fire does not disperse heat well, so I decided to bake. I have been baking all day. Mostly dehydrating apple chips, but I decided cornbread needed to happen.
I found this recipe because I googled (still not sure that is a word) and this was on the list. The picture on their site is of a lovely, fluffy piece of cornbread. The recipe contained sour cream, so I imagined it would be moist like a delicious scone. Yeah... about that...
Ingredients:
1/4 c. Butter, Softened
3 tbsp Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 c. Sour Cream
1/2 c. Milk
1 c. Gluten Free Flour Blend (different from the one I normally use)
2/3 c. Yellow Cornmeal
2 tsp. Gluten Free Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
Directions:
Okay, it wasn't a whim. It snowed here, in Houston, today. For those of you unfamiliar with Texas weather, let me tell you: it's cold. The northerns are reading this and scoffing, I can hear it, "Cold? It's -40°F... or C, it doesn't matter, it's the same for both Farenheit and Celsius!"
To them, I must reply: When you have weeks of 100°+ with the humidity in the eightieth percentile, you kinda adapt to those temperatures. Also, when it gets cold here, it is still humid. It's the kind of cold that seeps into your bones, no big deal.
The point of this story is that it was cold out today and I wanted some supplemental heat, so I made a fire. The fire does not disperse heat well, so I decided to bake. I have been baking all day. Mostly dehydrating apple chips, but I decided cornbread needed to happen.
I found this recipe because I googled (still not sure that is a word) and this was on the list. The picture on their site is of a lovely, fluffy piece of cornbread. The recipe contained sour cream, so I imagined it would be moist like a delicious scone. Yeah... about that...
Ingredients:
1/4 c. Butter, Softened
3 tbsp Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 c. Sour Cream
1/2 c. Milk
1 c. Gluten Free Flour Blend (different from the one I normally use)
2/3 c. Yellow Cornmeal
2 tsp. Gluten Free Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425°F
- Soften butter and cream with the sugar (to cream butter and sugar is to mix it really well so that the sugar and butter form a nice cream)
- Add eggs and mix well.
- Add sour cream and milk
- Slow down the mixer and add the remaining ingredients
- This is the part where cast iron wins life. So, preheat the pan in the oven. When the pan was nice and hot, pour the batter into the pan and stick it in the oven.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes until cornbread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
| 
So, the toothpick never came out clean. I ended up baking this sucker for about 2 hours (I'm not good at keeping track of time). What I ended up with, after two hours, was a sort of cornbread pudding. I also burned the bottom pretty bad. It tasted great, it was just so soggy. I was totally baffled about what I did wrong. I called people looking for advice. Eventually, I just decided that I had done something wrong and I would give it another go. I blamed the gluten free flour blend I used. To see what the real problem was, read the notes. |
Notes:
The Gluten Free Flour Blend that was recommended for this recipe goes as follows:
2 c. Rice Flour
2/3 c. Potato Starch
1/3 c. Tapioca Starch
1 tsp. Xanthan Gum (used as a thickening agent)
I think this would be a good blend for things that you don't want to be too sweet.
Okay, I know you've been waiting for how I screwed this recipe up. Well, I used coconut milk instead of regular milk. "That shouldn't cause a problem like that!" I know. The problem was that I used a whole can of coconut milk. For some reason, I thought the recipe called for 1.5+ cups of milk. This is the part where you find out that I am actually illiterate and have trained a monkey to transcribe. The person I sought advice from told me that I used too much liquid, but I thought I had read the directions properly. So, she was right. I used too much liquid and I look forward to trying this recipe again... and getting it right this time.
TC prefers his cornbread to be a little spicy, with some jalapenos or something similar. I like my cornbread sweet. Mmm... sweet. He doesn't. Fortunately, I like the combination of spicy and sweet. It's a good compromise.
Review:
This is not a good attempt to review. What we did end up making was tasty, but nowhere near what it should have been. I think the next go will be better. As it stands, I will give it a 2.5 because the consistency was pretty terrible. It was so unlike cornbread that I can't give this a better score. TC is asleep so I can't ask him. He liked it, but it was too sweet for him. I won't guess for him, so you're stuck with my rating. Hopefully, this will end up like Baked Bananas where the second one, Baked Bananas: Part 2 was so much better.
Total Score:
2.5
The Gluten Free Flour Blend that was recommended for this recipe goes as follows:
2 c. Rice Flour
2/3 c. Potato Starch
1/3 c. Tapioca Starch
1 tsp. Xanthan Gum (used as a thickening agent)
I think this would be a good blend for things that you don't want to be too sweet.
Okay, I know you've been waiting for how I screwed this recipe up. Well, I used coconut milk instead of regular milk. "That shouldn't cause a problem like that!" I know. The problem was that I used a whole can of coconut milk. For some reason, I thought the recipe called for 1.5+ cups of milk. This is the part where you find out that I am actually illiterate and have trained a monkey to transcribe. The person I sought advice from told me that I used too much liquid, but I thought I had read the directions properly. So, she was right. I used too much liquid and I look forward to trying this recipe again... and getting it right this time.
TC prefers his cornbread to be a little spicy, with some jalapenos or something similar. I like my cornbread sweet. Mmm... sweet. He doesn't. Fortunately, I like the combination of spicy and sweet. It's a good compromise.
Review:
This is not a good attempt to review. What we did end up making was tasty, but nowhere near what it should have been. I think the next go will be better. As it stands, I will give it a 2.5 because the consistency was pretty terrible. It was so unlike cornbread that I can't give this a better score. TC is asleep so I can't ask him. He liked it, but it was too sweet for him. I won't guess for him, so you're stuck with my rating. Hopefully, this will end up like Baked Bananas where the second one, Baked Bananas: Part 2 was so much better.
Total Score:
2.5
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