Mexican Cornbread, Please

Mexican Cornbread

Since discovering how to grind my own cornmeal from popcorn, I’ve wanted to try my hand at Mexican Cornbread from some of my freshly ground cornmeal.  I purchased a 14-cup Cuisinart Food Processor a couple of years ago and I’ve had it just sitting on my counter top, unused.  I’ve looked at it several times and actually wondered why I purchased a machine so complex and intimidating rather than one that is simple enough to just plug in and process.  The recipe calls for grated cheddar cheese and I decided that I wanted to try-out this food processor to grate the cheese.  I was totally blown away with the ease in which it grated that cheese.  No longer intimidated, I’m looking forward to using it again real soon.  I think I may try making a batch of cookies real soon using the dough blade.

Mexican Cornbread

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 15-oz can cream style corn
• 1/2 cup chopped jalapeño peppers
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Grind the popcorn to make enough cornmeal to equal 1 1/2 cups
2. Grate the cheese in the food processor (to equal 1 cup ... a little over will not hurt)
3. Chop the jalapeño peppers (either fresh or canned)
4. Combine dry ingredients together in medium mixing bowl
5. Add eggs, vegetable oil, and corn and mix well
6. Fold in jalapeño peppers and cheese
7. Spoon into hot prepared pans
8. Bake at 350 F 30 minutes or until done.

Old-School Cornbread

I don't particularly care for cornbread made from self-rising or Jiffy cornbread mix.  I started making my cornbread using plain yellow cornmeal a few years back but it has become increasingly difficult to find the plain yellow cornmeal in stores.  On the occasions when I do find it, it is usually the 2-pound bag of white cornmeal.  I always buy the 5-pound bag because I cook it quite often because hubby and I usually have some with our dinner, especially with fresh vegetables (collard greens, turnip greens, green beans, rutabagas, peas, beans, etc.).

I was told at one of the stores that they had started removing the plain cornmeal from the shelves because there is no longer a great demand for it.  I was crushed!!! What about those of us who still use it???

Later I remembered that when I was a child, my parents would take dried corn to the mill to be ground into cornmeal so I decided to go to YouTube for directions on making my own cornmeal.  Pay dirt!!! YouTube ROCKS!!! You can find instructions/directions for almost everything  there.  After my YouTube search, I found that all I needed to make my own cornmeal was un-popped popcorn and my blender to grind it.  I ground my first batch of cornmeal, baked some cornbread muffins and they turned out perfect!!!  Here is  my recipe:

Cornbread

1 large scoop of cornmeal from ground popcorn (approximately 1 1/2 cups)
1 large scoop of all-purpose flour (approximately 1 1/2 cups)
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 stick softened or melted butter
2 eggs
1 to 1 1/2 cups whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.  Grease pans.
2. Grind the corn in a blender or food processor, then sift using a strainer (I grind 2 cups of popcorn in order to yield enough for me).  After sifting cornmeal into your bowl, the residuals left in your strainer can be discarded. 
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar until thoroughly blended.
4. Add milk, eggs, and butter and stir or whisk until thoroughly mixed together.
5. Pour batter into greased pan or muffin tins
6. Bake until done (10-12 minutes in my cast iron muffin pans)

Note:  Add 1/2 tsp baking soda with the dry ingredient if using buttermilk

Food Processor Biscuits

For years I've tried to perfect homemade biscuits but was never able to get them to look or taste like the ones my mother made.  She has this big bowl that she keeps her self-rising flour in, makes a well in the center and puts a chunk of lard and milk in it to work it into a dough.  After her dough comes together, she kneads it a few times, then pinches the dough into little clumps, then rolls each one into balls, flattens them into discs, places them in a greased biscuit pan. After she has placed them all in the pan, she takes her hand and gives them another press down, places them in a 450 degre oven and bakes them.  During the last couple of minutes in the oven, she turns the oven to broil to brown them.

I love watching cooking shows on TV and YouTube and ran across a YouTube Video with instructions for making biscuits in a food processor.  I followed the instructions and loved the results.

Buttermilk Biscuits

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 6 tbsp of butter
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 
  

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Add dry ingredients to food processor and pulse 4-5 times to combine.
3. Cut butter into pats and place on top of flour mixture in food processor. Pulse 5-6 times to incorporate. Do not over mix. 
4. Add buttermilk and pulse just until dough forms... About 9-10 pulses... Do not over-mix. 
5. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Shape into a ball and roll to desired thickness. 
6. I used my cookie cutter to cut out the biscuits then re-worked the remaining dough and made a bread stick. 
7.  Place biscuits on a lightly greased pan (I use a parchment paper lined pan instead). 

I probably left my biscuits under the broiler a tad too long but I do like my biscuits brown.  They were still good and my husband loved them.

Update: The recipe above calls for buttermilk and I don't always have buttermilk in my fridge.  I decided to purchase a container of the powdered buttermilk and try it.  There is a definite difference in the final outcome.  I added 3 tablespoons of the buttermilk powder to the dry ingredients in the food processor and added 3/4 cups of water in step 4.  I think I will add a little less water the next time because my dough was a bit too sticky and I had to incorporate more flour than I wanted to.  When I finally got the dough to the consistency that I wanted.  I squeezed off clumps of dough (just like my mother does), rolled them into balls, patted them into discs and placed on a parchment paper lined cast iron pan.  

Again, I left the biscuits under the broiler a tad too long but they, other than that, they were tender, soft and delicious. I don't know whether the powdered buttermilk made the difference or not.  I'll have to give each method another try to see but, as I stated earlier, I will use less water when using the powdered buttermilk.  

Breakfast at Home

There was a time when I really dreaded cooking but now I love it.  I ran across a recipe for homemade biscuits using my food processor and it is a really great recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
6 Tbsps cold butter cut into 3/4" pieces
3/4 cup cold buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425.  Lightly grease baking pan or line baking pan with parchment paper.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to food processor and pulse 4-5 times.
Add butter to dry mixture and
pulse 5-6 times (about 1 second per
pulse).
Add buttermilk and process until it forms a ball (about 9-10 pulses... do not over process).
On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to about 3/4" thick and cut out using cookie cutter
Place biscuits on baking sheet and bake until golden brown (10-12 minutes).