Blue cornbread recipe

Have you ever tried blue corn meal instead of gold corn meal for baking?

I hadn't until yesterday.

What was I thinking?
What was I missing?
Why didn't I understand that my life was not quite complete?

I bought, I made, I ate, I loved.

The taste was a bit milder and the texture a little courser and firmer than regular corn meal. It stood up to honey, butter, and jam. I think it would be awesome with green chilies. And, it was a pretty blue/purple color. Which set off nicely with the yellow/orange of the meatless chorizo cheese souffle beautifully. This made for a terrific Sunday brunch. It didn't take that long so it would make for a lovely Meatless Monday dinner or any day of the week.

Since, I had never used blue corn meal before I went on a hunt for recipes. Pancakes, muffins, fritters, hush puppies, bread, whatever I could get on hands on. Unfortunately, I had to pack up a bundle of my cookbooks with the move so I didn't have those to use as reference. I fell back on my 1930s Joy of Cooking cookbook. Once again, it bailed me out.

While my trusty Joy of Cooking is a wonderful book it didn't have a recipe for blue corn; I went on the assumption that blue corn meal would be like using regular corn meal. I must have assumed right because the bread was lovely.

After the first taste I knew that I needed to share.

Blue cornbread

Preheat over to 425

Grease a 9 X 9 inch pan or a 12 inch cast iron frypan with melted butter. Place it into the oven until sizzling hot. I used my cast iron pan. I store it in the oven anyway, so, I left it in there while the oven heated up and I put together the batter. When everything was ready I melted a couple of tablespoons of butter and poured it into the pan.

Sift together:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour. (I would think you could use something gluten-free if you roll that way)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (I used 2)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups blue corn meal

In a separate bowl beat:

• 1 egg
• 2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter (I melted more than this. The balance I used to grease the pan.
  
• 3/4 cup milk (butter or sour milk would be good)
  

Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients. Combine with a few rapid strokes. Be careful not to over beat the mixture. With any quick bread (one that is made with baking powder, baking soda, or a combination of both) you don't want to beat the crap out of it. It is very easy to beat the leavening out of it. Then you end up with this dry flat thing. Just not real yummy.

Pour leftover melted butter into the hot pan. Spread the batter into the pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a knife stuck into the center comes out clean.

It looks like this:

And tastes like heaven.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Love,
M