Pan-Fried Blueberries: Blueberry Blue Cornbread

Blueberry Un-Blues: Blueberry Blue Cornbread

Measure twice, cut once, as the adage goes. Measure once, make it, measure again, remake it, I say. Seeing blueberry cornbread “by the pound” at work made me want to make my own, with whole grain flours. In the first iteration, I used all coarse-grind blue cornmeal to make it truly blue.

Well, it was delicious and the fried crust from the cold batter hitting the hot coconut oil was to die for (but we won’t do that). I had also been working from a recipe for “delicate sour cream cornbread.” Yeah, it was delicate, and I’m trying to get away from using nayo in my recipes. It’s processed and not friendly to all restricted diets. 

I’m going to remake the blueberry tea cake with vegan “buttermilk” and tapioca or more dates since nayo is essentially a thick sour milk kind of vegan egg replacer (even though in real life nayo is eggs and oil. But I digress). I also wanted to make a porridge bread (upcoming post) and had some frozen Bob’s Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal which I incorporated.

The recipe I present to you below may be familiar to my Facebook peeps as it is the Studmuffins recipe redone in a skillet. I went with a tried-and-true cornbread recipe that can take a beating…er, heating. Make sure you preheat the skillet so that the oil is sizzling since you want that fried crust!

Blueberry Blue Cornbread

Basic cornbread: http://www.gothicgranola.com/2011/10/cornbread-lazy-muffins-muffbars.html

Modified from Lady Aelfwynn’s "Momma D's Cornbread"
With crowdsourcing from HM and DL

3 tablespoons warm water

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I’ve used coconut or vanilla almond)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted plus 1/2 tablespoon solid for skillet

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 cup fine grind yellow cornmeal

1/3 cup blue cornmeal

1/3 cup quinoa flour

1/3 cup buckwheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup blueberries, slightly defrosted + 1/2 tablespoon arrowroot or other starch

1 cup cooked fairly dry porridge, cold (I used leftover defrosted Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Add the 1/2 tablespoon of solid coconut oil to the skillet and pop the skillet in the oven.

In a large measuring cup, combine vinegar and non-dairy milk. In a small measuring cup, combine flaxseed and water. In a large bowl, whisk together flours. In another small bowl, whisk together blueberries and arrowroot (if using frozen berries).

Add the flaxseed mixture, melted oil, maple syrup to the curdled non-dairy milk. Remove the skillet from the oven when the oven is preheated (use a thermometer to check; depending on the placement of the oven’s internal thermometer, it can register preheat complete when the actual temperature is 100 degrees off yet). Add the wet to dry, give it a quick mix, and fold in the blueberries and porridge. Mix quickly and well. Pour the batter into the hot skillet. Return to the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the top is cracked and it springs back to the touch (you will probably snag a blueberry if you do the toothpick test and that’s useless doneness data). Cool in the pan for 30 minutes to an hour before inverting and removing to a rack.

Studmuffins variation:

Flours are only--

1 1/3 cups blue cornmeal

2/3 cup quinoa flour

Instead of blueberries--

1 cup raisins

1 cup walnuts (toasted or not is your preference)

Grease 6-well heart muffin pan. In a small bowl, combine water and flaxseed and set aside. In a large measuring cup, combine coconut milk and vinegar and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add oil and maple syrup to milk mixture, then add flax mixture to milk mixture. Pour wet ingredients on top of dry and fold in chunks. Stir until just combined then distribute in pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until slightly cracked on top and they spring back to the touch.

Serve with spread of choice: peanutbutter, craisin-walnut cream cheeze dip, nutella/rawtella, or butter.

Poem from the thesis (2012, written 2011): relevant activity, not relevant subject (object?).

Body of the Bread

A Spell for Missing

I rolled up my sleeves, tied on an apron, and sent up poofs of powdery flours. Smoke signals mask my intent: vaporous. Whisked together cornmeal—not from corn grown anywhere near the site I was summoning, but you never can tell. Gluten-free all-purpose flour—up to no purpose, all purposes were fun, conjuring up that companion. Xanthan gum to keep it sticky, though with plain friendship, things aren’t tricky. Baking soda, baking powder, rise a little higher. Salt for the earth element, cinnamon for the fire.

Agave for sweetness, but not too sweet to spike my blood sugar. Rolling hills transfer energy; no need to punch the gas when on the final approach. Almond milk since it was there, much like what I ate for lunch that day. Pear puree since it’s the direct link and binding agent for the dough, the product of the place. Little bit of canola oil for the necessary fat. Flaxseed and water to replace chicken ovum and keep my brain from shrinking. Hempseed for crunch, the THC-free kind. Raisins since, “You like raisins, don’t you.”

Baked in a square to match the fields I passed. Thirty-seven minutes later and it was time for a snack break. I celebrated with a slice of witch’s cake the sacrament of missing.

Mine tastes so much better than what I’m sure the one at work tastes like!

Secrets of healthy people= portion control. After demolishing the first pan, I learned to use techology. I cut the second pan into eighths and froze them.

The power better not go out anytime soon because my shelf in the freezer is loaded with baked goods, frozen fruit, and frozen meals.