We share with you our recipes, reviews, tips and thoughts on building a happy home together through food.
Now that I have recovered fully from two nights of gorging myself on dishes as varied as green chili fritters and sweet pumpkin pie, with only the traditional turkey being left out from the Thanksgiving celebration, I finally figured I would get back to writing about food rather than just eating it.
Even though there was no Turkey for us this year (replaced by my aunt’s wonderful Indian food, so we didn’t feel too badly) I wanted to have atleast a little hint of the traditional Turkey Day cuisine while watching football, so I made a Cheddar Dill Cornbread as one of the dishes we took to the dinner.
This has become one of wifey’s favorite dishes – and it all started with a random episode of Barefoot Contessa we watched one Saturday afternoon. The steps to put this together were so simple that once we realized that we had all the necessary ingredients needed for the bread, it took us under an hour to get the hot, crumbly, cheesy bread out of the over to warm us on a chilly Saturday evening. Perfect as a pot-luck dish, this bread works as a wonderful sponge to soak up everything from turkey gravy to the bean sauces in mexican dishes.
Some folks may not like the sharp, pungent taste of dill – you can replace it with some chopped up sun-dried tomatores or jalapeno’s if you prefer. The bread is just fine with just some cheese in it also, though it can get a bit one-dimensional without an additional flavor in it. We prefer using some sharp cheddar in this dish; freshly grated at home rather than the dry pre-shredded yellow stuff.
Another wonderful quality of this bread is how well it heats up even in a microwave – a perfect little snack along with a bowl of soup which you can always have ready in the fridge. We cut the original BC recipe in half – serves plenty for two, but you want may to double all the ingredients up if you’re serving more.
THE RECIPE
YOU”LL NEED:
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup skim milk (use full-fat for a richer bread)
- 2 medium eggs (or 1 extra-large, 1.5 large if you must) – beaten
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted (pop it in the microwave for 20-30 secs, and keep nuking it a few seconds at a time till it melts)
- 4 ounces aged extra-sharp Cheddar – grated. Keep 1.5 cups of this separate.
- 1/4 cup fresh dill – minced
THE METHOD:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- In separate bowl combine the milk, eggs, and melted butter.
- Stir the wet mixture into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Some lumps will remain – don’t worry and whatever you do, don’t overmix or you’ll end up with tough bread. I use a whisk to mix but you can just use a wooden spoon instead per BC.
- Add in the 1.5 cups of the grated Cheddar and the dill, stir slightly, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
- Prepare a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking pan by spraying with some nonstick spray (if using nonstick baking dishes) or by greasing with some butter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes; you’ll know its done when a toothpick pierced in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Let cool and then cut as desired.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- We serve them as little rectangles warm; the bread is nice at room temperature also/
- Store in a covered container in the fridge; usually lasts us a week.
- The bread can be heated up in the toaster over or the microwave (10-15 secs should suffice – u dont want it piping hot)
