I’ve explained before how much my family loves Elote. So when we needed cornbread to go with chili one night, I figured I may as well put an Elote spin on it! This recipe also came about, much like these rye scones did, in my efforts to empty out my pantry of all the half-used ingredients. I had a convenient 1 cup of cornmeal leftover, sitting in a bag in my pantry, that I was able to use it up in making this cornbread, while also testing out a new recipe. This is what we in the biz like to call a win-win.
I need to say right off the bat: this cornbread really stretched the abilities of my food photography. A bizarrely off-yellow, brown-ish looking cornbread slice, half the pan eaten at dinner the night before, weak winter lighting out the window… There’s only so much I can do. But this was tasty enough that I want to remember the recipe for the future, so I pushed through and you all will now have to look at it’s homely, humble glory.
I have a very distinct memory of going to Connor Prairie for a field trip in the third grade, when we were studying colonial history. Frankly, I do not remember much of what we were learning about. But I do remember the field trip! Mainly because we broke into groups to churn butter and make cornbread, and then we all got to eat it. After we were forced against our will to do square dancing. We’d been forced to learn square dancing for weeks leading up to the field trip, and I don’t think it takes much imagination to picture how third grad me reacted to being taught a do-si-do. (Not well.) Apparently this is what people were doing back in the 1700s – eating cornbread and dancing in squares. (And then getting gangrene during the Revolutionary War, if my field trip to the history museum later that year was correct!) What a time to be alive, those 1700s.
Needless to say, it sounds like cornbread was the best thing about life in the 1700s. Maybe the freshly churned butter was good too. But they also didn’t have pasteurization, so… maybe that butter wasn’t always good.
I’m getting sidetracked. Point is, now we’ve got spices in abundance, and can throw things like ancho chili powder, paprika, and cotija cheese into our cornbread and really take it to a new level. So you can make this cornbread, top it with butter, and be thankful you don’t need to square dance as your only source of entertainment.
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The base of this comes from Sally’s Baking Addiction
Ingredients
- 1 cup (120g) fine cornmeal
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ancho chile powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup roasted corn
- 1/2 cup cotija cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease and lightly flour a 9-inch square baking pan. Set aside.
- Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter and honey together until completely smooth and thick. Then, whisk in the egg until combined. Finally, whisk in the buttermilk. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Avoid over-mixing.
- Gently fold in the roasted corn and cotija.
- Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top and the center is cooked through. Use a toothpick to test. Edges should be crispy at this point. Allow to slightly cool before slicing and serving. Serve cornbread with butter, honey, jam, or whatever you like.
Wrap leftovers up tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.