Strawberry Cornbread - by Clare de Boer
If you like the crisp edges of lasagne, the soaked croutons, the whipped cream that gets icy around the chocolate scoop - you’re in the right place.
Hi folks—Strawberry cornbread this week. While I love my recipe, this note is really a cry for you to splurge on freshly-milled, heirloom cornmeal—make anything with it—and revel in its flavor. I’ve baked dozens of cornbreads over the past few weeks, testing recipes with conventional cornmeal and several fresh, locally-milled varieties. My fantasy cornbread—textured, nutty, and truly tasting of corn—has only been brought to life by the latter. Specifically, a mix of two grinds: a medium grind cornmeal for cohesiveness, and a coarsely ground version (which tends to be labeled as polenta) for wholesomeness.
This stuff is expensive. Fresh, small-batch cornmeal runs about ten dollars more than a bag of Indian Head. But if you’re going for something that could’ve been eaten in Little House on the Prairie, it’s a necessary luxury for a few reasons.
Heirloom corn is bred for flavor, whereas mass corn is designed to maximize the crop’s yield. Don’t expect delicious cornbread unless the corn that goes into your cornmeal is delicious in the first place.
Dried corn is a volatile thing because of the quantity of oil in its germ. Commercial cornmeal processors extend shelf-life by getting rid of the germ—and thereby flavor—entirely. But small-batch mills keep the whole grain, often stone grinding it at low temperatures to preserve all the flavor and nutrition. Like with olive oil, cornmeal is best right after milling. A mill-date and short expiry are signs of care.
I made my most delicious cornbread with a combo of Wild Hive Cornmeal and Front Porch Farm Polenta. I also like Maine Grains and Farmer Ground, which are available in Whole foods.
Cornflour, cornmeal, polenta, the one and only Front Porch Farm polenta
This cornbread has a wholesome texture and a sweet, nutty, corn flavor. Mixing two kinds of cornmeal—one that's finely milled and one that's a little coarser—gives texture and sweetness while making something cohesive and sliceable. Mixing two fats—both butter and canola oil—maximizes moistness without smothering the flavor of the corn. Brown butter and spelt flour give a nutty base note that the floral strawberries adore.
I’m not including the measurements in grams here because every kind of cornflour/cornmeal/polenta I tried had wildly different weights for the same volume. My apologies, Brits!
Serves 8-10
1 stick unsalted butter
¾ cups maple syrup
½ cup canola oil
¾ cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 cup cornmeal
⅓ cup coarse grind polenta
1 cup spelt flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1¼ teaspoons salt
8 ounces strawberries, hulls removed and sliced
Heat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit. On the stovetop, in a 9-inch cast iron skillet (or saucepan, if you plan to bake the cornbread in a pie dish), melt the butter over medium heat. Swirl to coat the sides of the skillet. Simmer, whisking constantly, to brown the butter. It can be hard to see the color of the butter in a cast iron, so tune in for toffee smells, and tilt the pan to pool the butter for better visibility. When it’s aromatic and flecked with chestnut, pour it into a large bowl to stop cooking. (Don’t wipe out the pan.)
Whisk the maple syrup, olive oil and buttermilk into the butter. The mixture should be room temperature to the touch; if it’s not, let it cool slightly before whisking in the eggs. When the eggs are fully incorporated, whisk in the cornmeal, polenta, spelt flour, baking powder, and salt.
Scrape the batter back into the pan you used to brown the butter (or a buttered 9-inch pie dish if you used a saucepan), and scatter the strawberries evenly on top. Bake until the surface is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle emerges clean, 40-50 minutes. If at any point the edge of your cornbread is getting too dark, turn the oven down to 325 Fahrenheit and continue to bake until the center has set.
Cool in the skillet for 10 minutes before slicing.
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