Sunday, November 24, 2013

cornbread

Earlier this fall, Nick wanted cornbread. I had nixed his favorite brand of cornbread because the corn wasn't organic and I dislike GMOs. I bought a bag of organic corn meal and figured I'd find a good recipe online. The first recipe I made was okay...

I went searching for other ideas and I found this cornbread recipe from a fabulous blog that I don't often frequent but need to more often! It was good cornbread--very tasty. However, I really wanted to get rid of the oil. I'm not against fat, but I like to cook with whole, low-processed foods--hence, no oil. After making PPK's recipe a few times, I figured out how I wanted to modify it.  Here's the modified version:



2 cups cornmeal
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3-1/2 cup of cashew cream** (replacing the oil)
3-4 tablespoons maple syrup 
2 cups soymilk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (upping the apple cider vinegar)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350, line a 9×13 baking pan with a parchment paper, a silicone sheet or use a silicone pan--or use a regular pan with a little oil wiped on it so the cornbread doesn't stick.
Mix the soymilk and the vinegar together and set aside.
In a large bowl, add the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt and mix (by hand is fine).
Make a thick cashew cream... For my blender to grind the cashew cream well, I have to make  way more than I use in this recipe. I stick the extra in the refrigerator. I always use it in a day or so; I'm not sure how long it will keep, but I bet it would freeze okay.  

For my cashew cream I used 1 cup of cashews and (almost) 2/3s of a cup of water. Here's what it looked like when done. You can see it's pretty thick.


Add the maple syrup to the soymilk mixture. Stir or whisk for about 2 minutes so it can get more bubbly.
Pour liquid mixture into the dry mix, plus 1/3-1/2 cup of cashew cream and mix well (no need for a mixer, by hand is fine. 

Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and let set for about five minutes before you bake for 20-30 minutes; start checking at 20 minutes because you don't want it to get too dry. In my glass pan it tends to be done in 20 minutes.Test with a knife or a toothpick for doneness.

If you like soft, sweet cornbread, do the 1/2 cup of cashew cream and add 4 tablespoons of maple syrup. The more cashew cream, the softer the bread (I've been known to add more than 1/2 a cup). Obviously, more maple syrup means a sweeter bread. Enjoy!



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