cornbread with chilli honey butter
plus a little update on the things we've been baking at Mor
What I’m reading: Strange Flowers, by Donal Ryan. His sixth novel, and maybe my favourite one so far: set in 1970s rural Ireland, poetic and lyrical and utterly captivating.
What I’m listening to: Sohla El-Waylly on ALL the podcasts launching her new cookbook. Notably this one and this one
What I’m eating: fresh marshmallows with hot choc for breakfast at Mor (below) :)
While we’re on the subject, here’s some other fun things we’ve been making at Mor:
I woke up the other day with a very specific craving. I couldn’t really tell you where this craving came from - it’s not like I grew up eating cornbread. I had eaten cornbread maybe once or twice before in my life, and found it to be overwhelmingly underwhelming (you know what I mean), and far too dry. This phantom craving (TM) perhaps came from nostalgia for all the corn I ate in Mexico. It could also be the accompanying warm flavours (brown butter, chilli, honey) that I was craving, and this cornbread just happens to be the perfect vessel.
This cornbread is really easy to make: easier still if you skip the brown butter step (but I personally consider this essential). It doesn’t stay fresh for very long, but freezes well and can be toasted (directions for defrosting follow the recipe).
I ate it the morning after I made it for breakfast with crispy fried eggs, more chilli honey butter and some crispy chilli oil. It made me do that little happy food dance, and if that’s not the goal, I don’t know what is.
You’ll find the recipe for the cornbread below, and the recipe for the chilli honey butter is included after that for paid subscribers. Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know if you make this recipe - I think it’s a good one!
Recipe: cornbread with chilli honey butter
Ingredients
120g butter
175g flour
200g cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
500ml buttermilk
2 eggs
90g honey
410g tin corn
Method
First, brown the butter (if you’re planning on making the chilli honey butter too, you can brown it all at the same time. Brown about 300g in this case).
Place the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Heat until the butter has melted, and starts to boil. Watch carefully, whisking constantly until the butter eventually starts to foam, and the milk solids turn golden brown. It should smell like “beurre noisette” (nutty and sweet) at this point. Take care not to burn the butter - if needs be, remove from the heat and continue whisking until the foam has subsided and you can see the colour of the milk solids.
Set aside 120g of the brown butter for the cornbread and reserve the rest for the chilli honey butter later.
Preheat the oven to 170C. Prepare tin: this amount of mixture should make 1 2lb loaf OR 2 1lb loaves OR 12-16 muffins. For a loaf tin, line with paper. For muffins, grease with oil or line with muffin cases.
Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, black pepper) in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown butter and honey. Add the eggs and buttermilk and whisk.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk thoroughly to ensure no lumps.
Finally, strain the corn and fold this into the mixture.
Pour into the tin and bake - approximately 25 minutes for muffins and 1 hour for loaves.
If you’ve made the chilli honey butter, I recommend glazing once the cornbread comes out of the oven: melt a few tbsp of the butter, and use a pastry brush to liberally brush the top of the muffins or loaf.
Freezing and defrosting
To freeze, slice and then wrap individually - I personally like to wrap two slices, separated with a small piece of baking paper. To defrost, separate your two slices and place them in the microwave. Defrost on the “defrost” setting for about 2-3 minutes, until it is no longer frozen in the middle. Melt some butter in a frying pan, and carefully fry each side for 2 minutes, until golden.
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