Cornmeal Brownies

First, an apology:  the fonts on this may be messed up on your screen.  For whatever reason, I can't get them to save in anything other than micro type.  I tried a few things, but haven't found a fix.

Cornmeal brownies?  Seriously, yes.  Although the concept may sound a little gross, they are actually pretty good.  I found the recipe one day at Grit magazine's site. I adapted it a bit to make it a more conventional brownie recipe (black walnuts are okay for brownies; peanuts are not so much).  I ended up with this:

1/2 c cocoa powder (I used dark)
1 stick of butter
1/2 c flour (I used white flour)
1/2 c cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c nuts (black walnut, but almost any other nut would be fine--and 1 c will also work with the same baking time as described below)

I mixed it all up and found that I had to bake it longer than the recipe suggested: I left it in for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.


This shows a cutaway view of the first pan (I have now made two)--the flavor is nice.  There's definitely a texture of granularity because of the coarseness of the cornmeal, but what I tried tasted basically like brownies.  Of course, the black walnuts may impact that, too, since they are fairly strongly-flavored.  In the second batch, I used 1 cup of nuts and it worked well.


One other note is that I tried a new cooking fat to grease the dish beforehand: tallow.  I'd read about it and wanted to try some, so hunted down a jar online.  It's definitely pricier than the partially-hydrogenated lard I have been using.

When I opened the jar, I was greeted by a faint, unmistakable, and not necessarily welcome beefy aroma.  It had a slight flavor to it, too.  Crisco and processed lard are very neutral.  I may have more to say about tallow in the future.  It worked and it is no longer perceptible in the finished product.


Overall, this recipe has definite potential.
 

Corn and Rye Bread

A few months ago I discussed cornbread.  I slightly modified the recipe to use whole wheat flour instead of white, and due to a mistake in mixing the ingredients, made some further modifications.  I've used the same recipe ever since.

A family member is visiting who is sensitive to wheat, so I decided to try an alternative.  Instead of 2/3 cup whole wheat flour, I used 2/3 cup whole rye.  I also dropped the vital wheat gluten.  I didn't make any other modifications (either to ingredients or baking time).

The results were good.  The texture is somewhat smoother--rye dough is sticky, and it might be that same quality that transfers into the finished product--and the flavor is slightly different, but certainly okay and in no way inferior to the normal recipe.  I was surprised it rose so well.  I was expecting it to be more compact.

I'm not sure I'll do this routinely, but it's something to have as an option.

Cornbread

I'm not very innovative with recipes.  Usually I just replicate something I find somewhere.  Usually that works fairly well; I can't think of very many disasters I've had in the kitchen.

One recipe that I have altered a little bit with surprising results is what I use for cornbread.  I found this one online:

2 cups cornmeal
2/3 cups flour (not specified, but I assume all-purpose or maybe bread)
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3-4 Tbsp of bacon drippings or oil

Bake at  400 for 25 min.


I modified it to use whole wheat flour and added 2 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten to help the rise (not necessary, but it seemed to be beneficial versus not using it). I also used 3 Tbsp. of sunflower oil, since I don't usually (or ever) have bacon drippings.  The whole wheat flour plus vital wheat gluten required more buttermilk, so I used 2 cups and baked it for 30 min at 400 degrees. I also used an 8" greased Pyrex dish instead of cast iron.  That all worked okay, then one day I made a mistake and dumped 1/2 Tbsp. of baking soda in the bowl.  I decided to essentially switch the soda and powder, and put 3/4 tsp. baking powder in the mix, added a tsp of white vinegar, and kept everything else the same.

It worked.  It was good enough that I made the switch permanently, though I no longer add the vinegar--it does not seem to be necessary.  The flavor is slightly different, but it's fine (as far as I'm concerned).  Plus it rises more when baking and seems to stay moist longer.  It takes me a while to go through the whole dish of cornbread, and the original recipe got rather dry.  The new one is not so affected.  Adding more salt, 1 tsp total, will make it seem moister still.  When I have baked it for others, they liked it saltier. I don't use 1 tsp when baking just for myself, however.

The pictures show the process with Blue Clarage cornmeal (above is two cups of cornmeal; below is the finished product).