The Cornbread Gospels (27 page)

4.
Whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, egg, and vanilla and almond extracts in a medium bowl until smooth. Pour this into the dry mixture, stirring with as few strokes as possible to just barely combine the wet and dry; stop while there are still some dry clumps. Add the reserved almonds and give a few more stirs.

5.
Drop the batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake until golden, 10 to 15 minutes (you can make the glaze as the scones bake). Remove the scones from the oven and let cool, briefly, on a rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle the glaze over each scone, allowing the excess to drip onto the baking sheet. Serve, warm. No butter is needed—these are rich enough.

E
NOUGH FOR
1
BATCH OF DROP SCONES, WITH A BIT LEFT OVER

1⅓ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon pure almond extract

About ⅓ cup pure maple syrup, preferably grade B

Combine the sugar and extracts in a small bowl. Gradually begin stirring in the maple syrup; you want a consistency thin enough to be drizzled onto the scones and drip a little, but not so thin it all rolls away or is just absorbed by the scones.

M
AKES ABOUT FIFTY
1-
INCH DIAMOND-SHAPED CRACKERS

A crisp version of your favorite focaccia: Olive oil and rosemary are an unbeatable combination, and when you add cornmeal’s faint sweetness and crunch, and the savor of Parmesan cheese, you get way into the triple digits of pleasure. These are addictive.

For the rolling-out technique to work, you need rimless baking sheets (a double-insulated type is ideal).

Be sure to serve these in a basket with a large sprig of fresh rosemary tucked in beside them.

½ cup buttermilk, or more as needed

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, finely minced

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons very finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Olive oil cooking spray

1.
Combine the buttermilk and rosemary in a small bowl. Let stand for 1 hour.

2.
Preheat the oven to 375°F.

3.
Sift together the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl. Stir in the Parmesan, olive oil, and butter, then the buttermilk-rosemary mixture, making a dough that is tender and moist but not wet (it has to be roll-out-able). If necessary, add an extra teaspoon or two or three of buttermilk to achieve this texture.

4.
Portion the dough into 2 large balls. Spray two rimless 12-by-18-inch baking sheets with the oil. Allow the dough balls to rest for a few moments (this relaxes the gluten and makes them slightly easier to roll out).

5.
Working with one ball of dough at a time, place it on one of the oiled sheets and press down to flatten it into a thickish oval or circle. Then cover the sheet, and the dough, with wax paper, and start rolling the dough out gently, making an effort to keep the dough of even thickness all over, between ⅛ and 1/16 of an inch. Remove the wax paper and repeat with the second roll of dough.

6.
Score the rolled-out dough, on its sheet, into crackers. I like small diamond shapes, and I
use a pizza wheel for cutting, but any shape and sharp cutting implement will do. (Just don’t press and draw the knife so hard that you cut through the dough completely or scar the baking sheet.)

7.
Bake the first sheet on the middle rack until firmed up but not quite done, 5 to 10 minutes; if colored at all it should be only slightly, around the edges. Remove the sheet from the oven, and replace it with the second sheet. Let the first batch cool on its sheet while the second batch is baking, and just before it’s due to come out of the oven, carefully break apart the crackers of the first batch along the score lines, pulling the crackers apart but leaving them on the sheet.

8.
Return batch one—the crackers separated now—to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes or so, hovering around the kitchen, for at this point they can burn easily. You’ll know they’re done when they’re golden—not dark—brown, and the air is suddenly intoxicatingly fragrant.

9.
Repeat the procedure with the second sheet. Let the crackers cool on the baking sheet, and serve, warm or not. If you’re doing them ahead of time, let them cool completely on a rack before wrapping them up tightly in foil.

V
ARIATION:
Omit the rosemary for a plain cracker, or stir a couple of tablespoons toasted sesame seeds into the dough, using sesame oil instead of olive.

M
AKES ABOUT
100
CHEESE COINS

I don’t think I have ever been to a wedding in the South where some variation of these wasn’t served. They are always very rich (“short,” as the parlance goes, meaning with a lot of shortening), crispy-flaky, and truly addictive.

In some versions the dough is rolled out like a crust and cut, in others it’s formed into a cylinder like refrigerator cookie dough, and the coins are sliced off in rounds. Those who care to fuss with
cookie presses sometimes squeeze the dough out into little curled ribbons. This cornmeal variation adds a new dimension to the genre, providing extra crunch and extra savor. It also has a little kick, thanks to the cayenne, which you can amp up or turn down as you wish.

3 cups unbleached white flour

½ cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal

¼ teaspoon salt

1 to 2½ teaspoons cayenne pepper (How hot do you want ’em?)

1½ cups (3 sticks) cold butter, cut into small cubes or grated

4 cups (1 pound) finely grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese

Ice water

1.
Stir the flour, cornmeal, salt, and cayenne together very well in a large bowl.

2.
Then, cut in the butter, as for pie crust, either by hand, using a pastry cutter, or pulsing quickly in a food processor.

3.
Mix in the cheese likewise and, working with your hands, form into a dough that just barely holds together, drizzling in a little ice water if you need to. The texture will be somewhat crumbly, but the dough should hold together when pressed. Form the dough into three cylindrical logs, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight, or until very firm.

4.
Preheat the oven to 375°F, and remove the first cylinder of dough from the fridge. Using a very sharp knife, slice the dough into coins, ⅛ inch thick or so. Place the coins, not touching each other, on an ungreased baking sheet.

5.
Bake, staying in the kitchen (probably preparing the next batch on a second baking sheet). Check at 8 or 9 minutes, although it will likely take more like 10 to 11 minutes per batch; they do burn easily. When done, the coins should just barely have begun to color on their bottoms, and will still be delicate though firmed up. Let the cheese coins cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely. This can be done several days in advance of when you need them, if you let the crackers cool completely and pack them very carefully into tightly covered containers.

6.
Repeat with the remaining dough logs.

• • • • • • • • • •

There is perhaps one point of agreement defining most of the cornbreads in previous chapters—whether from north, south, east, west, or somewhere in between: They are either quick breads, raised with baking powder or baking soda, or altogether unleavened (such as tortillas, pones, and arepas). So what are we to make of
yeast
-risen cornbread, a seeming oxymoron? Wheat, not corn, is the near-universal flour grain for yeast-risen breads, and there’s a good reason for that: gluten. This is the elastic, springy substance created
when two wheat proteins are activated by the addition of liquid and developed by the action of kneading or stirring. It is gluten, which traps the air bubbles created as the dough is made, that provides the structural support and classic texture for yeast-risen bread. Since corn doesn’t have any gluten, a 100-percent cornmeal cornbread cannot be leavened with yeast.

Corn is not alone in its gluten-less-ness: rice, quinoa, and millet are also without this stretchy stuff. And while gluten-less grains can make wonderful breads, they are most often used in quick breads, so called because they are leavened by rapid-acting baking powder or baking soda, as opposed to the more time-consuming yeast. Countless much-loved cornbreads demonstrate the merit of this approach.

So, can one make a good yeast-risen cornbread? Yes. How? First of all, expand your definition of cornbread. Know that a yeasted cornbread will not be “cornbread” as such—not the quick, corn-dominant breads to which most of this book is devoted. Rather,
yeast-raised cornbreads are multigrain breads containing cornmeal.
Once yeast enters the picture, wheat or spelt flour, unbleached or whole, must
always
be added to cornmeal if you want any kind of rise. And sometimes a little extra gluten is needed, too, in the form of a fine, slightly granular powder called gluten flour or vital wheat gluten; it helps give the yeast an additional structural boost.

So why use cornmeal in a yeast-raised bread in the first place? Why not just let cornbreads be quick and wheat breads be
yeasty? Because the addition of cornmeal to a yeast bread dough does something wonderful. That characteristic toothsome, pleasing, irresistible grit makes you feel, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, that there’s a
there
there when you bite into a slice. No one wants a yeast bread that is leaden. But substantial, even dense, may be another matter. Not everyone feels that “light” is the be-all and end-all of bread. I love hearty, hefty, soulful multigrain breads, whether I purchase them or make them myself; it is the rare white bread that really does it for me.