Further baking experiments.

Madison.



Better than cornbread? It's a yeasted cornbread, and it's fantastic.¹ I'd commented that I wanted to continue experimenting with the no-knead bread recipe, and I've been at it pretty regularly. The cornmeal variation is, perhaps, the best version so far. Follow that recipe, with the following ingredients:

No-Knead Cornmeal Bread

• 2 cups bread flour
  
• 1 cup cornmeal
  
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
  
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  
• 1 5/8 cups water

It seems that one-third cornmeal is pretty near the breaking point for holding together into a sliceable loaf, without the crumbly nature of the usual quick-style cornbread. The crumb had some definite chew to it, but was soft and weak enough to break apart without much effort, though not under its own weight. Enough gluten had formed to hold it together, and to allow the formation of a series of small air pockets throughout, not unlike in a milk-based bread.

And the flavor was really quite nice, a bread with a balance of sweet corn and yeasty bread flavors. Toasting brought out another layer of crispy, browned goodness, asking just for a little spread of butter to make it perfect.



Of course, a good, buttermilk-based quick cornbread is still a wondrous thing, especially right out of the oven. We've tried numerous recipes around here,² and I've never been particularly thrilled by any, except the one I keep coming back to. I can't recall where I first came across it, a few years ago, but the recipe goes something like this:

Buttermilk Cornbread

Notes: This works best in a nine-inch cast-iron skillet, but also comes out well in muffin form, in a loaf pan, or whatever's handy. Preheating the cast iron, though, gives the best underside crust possible, well-browned and crispy. Also, this is a recipe that takes well to adding stuff, from chopped onions to diced chillis to grated cheddar cheese. If you're using cheese, be sure to save a little to sprinkle across the top.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornmeal
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
  
• ¼ cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat the oven and a nine-inch cast-iron skillet to 425°F.
   
   
2. Mix together the dry ingredients throughly: cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.
   
   
3. Mix together the wet ingredients, whisking to get a uniform texture. Pour over the dry ingredients, and stir together quickly to incorporate.
   
   
4. Pour the batter into the hot skillet, and bake in the oven for fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the top starts to brown. Alternately, you can check the interior with a tootpick; Dry means it's done.
   
   
5. Allow to cool briefly on a rack before serving. As soon as it's cool enough to handle, it's ready to eat.

What makes this so appealing - aside from the fact that it tastes great - is the speed with which you can put it together. Essentially, you can whip this up while the rest of dinner is cooking, and, like pancakes and other quick batters, it's quite forgiving of a cavalier approach to measuring and mixing.

I feel I should also note that both the New York Times and LA Times food sections ran articles on quickbreads last week. Most useful bit of information to be gleaned from these: in lieu of buttermilk, you can use clabbered milk,³ which is simply warm, fresh milk with a little vinegar added. Since we only buy buttermilk when we're planning to make cornbread (or muffins, or whatever), it's good to know there's a handy fallback. I hadn't ever done this before, but Sharon had been baking muffins that way back in high school.

Her baking skills, incidentally, are distinctly superior to mine. In particular, she's got a better knack fr pie crusts than I do. I'm terrible at pie crusts, and I'm always on the lookout for a recipe which'll forgive my incompetence. I just tried another new one last night, which was okay, but not great - though I think it would make an excellent crust for a fresh fruit tart.

This recipe comes from Thomas Keller by way of the LA Times. Now, in the recipe's defense, I suspect that I overworked the dough, resulting in a tasty shortbread-like crust, rather than the flaky pie ideal. And to make it worse, I made a sour cherry pie:



Sour cherry pies, in my experience, tend to be more along the lines of cherry soup in a crust, and, in all cases, overwhelm the crust beneath the pie. This pie, as can be seen in the photo, is probably the driest I've ever made, but even so, the crust gave up the ghost. (Still tastes great.) I modified the recipe slightly, replacing some of the butter with lard, which gives a savory note that I adore. And it is, no doubt, a very easy recipe that would likely work wonders for a tart of fresh custard and strawberries, or any sort of breakfast quiche.

As for that elusive perfect cherry pie crust, I'm still searching.

* * * * *
¹It lasted all of two days around here, which isn't bad, considering that there are only two of us.

²I insist on two things for cornbread. One: there should be no sugar in the ingredients list, although honey or maple syrup after the fact is perfectly fine. Two: buttermilk makes a better cornbread than anything else.

³Approximately 2 tablespoons of vinegar per 1 1/2 cups milk.