The Cornbread Gospels (26 page)

M
AKES
12
LARGE GEMS

Hauntingly delicious, with clear, simple flavors: The good graininess of the white cornmeal comes through wonderfully. As with cornsticks, make sure the pan—in this case a muffin tin—is very hot when you add the batter. This batter is much more liquid than your typical cornbread or muffin. And as with soufflés, don’t open the oven during the early phases of baking, or you will deflate the gems’ puffiness. They’ll still be delicious, but their tops will be much flatter.

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

1¼ cups stone-ground white cornmeal

2 tablespoons brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs, separated

Vegetable oil cooking spray

2½ teaspoons baking powder

1.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2.
Combine ½ cup water with the milk and butter in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat until the liquid is scalding hot and the butter melts.

3.
Meanwhile, place the cornmeal, brown sugar, and salt in a heat-proof bowl. Pour the scalded milk-butter mixture over it, stir or mix well, and let stand for 10 minutes to cool.

4.
Beat the egg yolks into the cooled cornmeal mixture and place the whites in a small, high-sided, very clean bowl (you’ll be beating them shortly, so get out your hand-held beater now, too, and set it up near them). Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with oil and place the tin, unfilled, into the oven to get nice and hot.

5.
Beat the egg whites until they are stiff but not dry (see Beating Egg Whites,
pages 186
–
187
). Sprinkle the baking powder over the cornmeal mixture and add about one third of the egg whites, stirring both in well. Then, gently fold the remaining egg whites into the batter.

6.
Remove the heated muffin tin from the oven and divide the batter among the oil-sprayed, hot muffin cups (it should sizzle slightly as it goes in). The batter is thin enough so that your dividing will be somewhere between pouring and spooning: Don’t worry!

7.
Bake until the tops are rounded, golden brown, and crusty, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove, and let cool slightly before running a knife around the edge of each muffin and turning them out.

M
AKES ABOUT
48
MINIATURE BISCUIT-MUFFINS

Charlisa Cato, my dear long-time friend, had an ace up her sleeve in this, an almost instant, incredibly tasty quick drop bread, somewhere between muffin and biscuit. These wonderful morsels are addictive: rich as sin, savory, and laced with toasted sesame seeds. She shared the recipe with me and countless grateful readers in
Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread.
How, I wondered, would the formula fare with self-rising cornmeal instead of flour?

I don’t use self-rising cornmeal often, as you may have noticed; once you have it on hand for these, you’ll want to try it in Patsy Bruce’s Tennessee Cornbread,
page 23
.

Vegetable oil cooking spray

2 cups self-rising cornmeal (see Pantry,
page 350
)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

1 cup full-fat or reduced-fat sour cream (not fat-free)

½ cup lightly toasted sesame seeds

1 tablespoon paprika (preferably Hungarian sweet)

1.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spray either 2 mini-muffin tins or 2 baking sheets with oil.

2.
Combine the self-rising cornmeal and butter with a fork in a mixing bowl, stirring until barely blended. Add the sour cream, sesame seeds, and paprika, and mix again, very briefly.

3.
Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls either into the muffin tin or onto the baking sheet. Pop the biscuit-muffins into the oven and bake until brown around the edges and deliciously fragrant, about 10 minutes. Watch closely; they burn easily, and they’re so good you wouldn’t want to lose even one to excess browning.

M
AKES
12
LARGE BISCUITS

This toothsome biscuit is based on one I developed for the California Almond Board. Filled with layers of texture and flavor, the outside is crunchy, the inside soft and savory. Serve with a good salad and a tomato soup—a hot one in winter, a gazpacho in summer—for a dinner that will have everyone asking for seconds. (On that tomato soup: If you get really pressed for time, try one of the tomato soups made by Pacific or Imagine Foods. Jazz it up with a little cognac if you wish or make it more hearty with a can of well-drained chickpeas or kidney beans.) Then, assuming you have salad dressing on hand, the only thing you need to fool with are these biscuits.

By the way, these are drop biscuits, ultraeasy in both creation and cleanup: no patting out, no rolling or rolling pin, no floured bread board, no biscuit cutter.

Vegetable oil cooking spray

½ cup slivered almonds

1 tablespoon plus ⅓ cup cold butter or vegetable shortening such as Crisco, or a combination

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, pressed or finely chopped

½ cup stone-ground cornmeal, preferably yellow

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1¼ cups buttermilk

2 tablespoons finely minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon assorted fresh, finely minced herbs (a combination of rosemary, sage, thyme, and just a bit of dill is excellent here)

Additional butter, for serving

1.
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Spray a baking sheet with oil and set aside.

2.
Over medium-high heat, heat a heavy cast-iron skillet. When it’s good and hot, lower the heat slightly and add the almonds. Stirring almost constantly, toast the almonds until they become fragrant and turn golden, then immediately transfer them to a cutting board to cool slightly.

3.
Without bothering to wash it, spray the hot skillet with oil and return it to medium-high heat, adding 1 tablespoon of the butter or
shortening. When it melts, add the onion and sauté, stirring often, until the onion is limp, golden, and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the garlic. Let the onion and garlic remain in the skillet, but off the stove.

4.
As the skillet cools, combine the cornmeal, flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the remaining ⅓ cup butter or shortening until the mixture has the consistency of fine crumbs.

5.
Return to the almonds you toasted earlier, and coarsely chop them on the cutting board.

6.
After the skillet has cooled slightly, pour the buttermilk into it, scraping to get up any little flavorsome bits of onion or garlic that have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Pour this into the cornmeal mixture, stirring with as few strokes as possible to just barely combine the wet and dry, stopping while there are still some dry clumps. Add the reserved almonds and the herbs and give a few more stirs.

7.
Drop the batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with additional butter.

Omit the almonds, onion, garlic, and herbs from the above recipe, and cut the buttermilk back by 2 tablespoons. Beat 1 egg and 2 to 3 tablespoons of sugar and a touch of vanilla into the buttermilk
before
adding it to the dough. At the time when you would have added the onions, instead stir in 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds and ½ cup moist, sweetened coconut flakes. Bake as directed, and serve with butter and honey. (For more on Kwanzaa, see
pages 32
–
33
.)

M
AKES
12
LARGE SCONES

These rich, flavorful scones are perfect rainy-day food, and they are easy to make because they are dropped from a spoon, not rolled. As for the maple glaze: As a child, when asked if I wanted powdered sugar or maple syrup with my French toast, I always replied “Both,” and, with a fork, mashed them into a sweet paste with butter on my plate. This glaze is a grown-up version. Try to get Grade B maple syrup. It’s darker, stronger, and more maple-y than Grade A.

Vegetable oil cooking spray

½ cup slivered almonds

½ cup stone-ground cornmeal, preferably yellow

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon cold butter or vegetable shortening such as Crisco

½ cup buttermilk

½ cup reduced-fat (not fat-free) sour cream

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon pure almond extract

Maple Glaze (
recipe follows
)

1.
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Spray a baking sheet with oil and set aside.

2.
Over medium-high heat, heat a cast-iron skillet for 2 to 3 minutes. When it is good and hot, lower the heat slightly and add the almonds. Stirring almost constantly, toast the almonds until they become fragrant and turn golden, then immediately transfer them to a cutting board to cool slightly. Coarsely chop them.

3.
Sift together into a large bowl the cornmeal, flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the butter or shortening until the mixture has the consistency of fine crumbs.