Blood Orange Soaked Cornbread
As an after school snack in grade school, my grandmother used to bring over corn muffin tops for her and I to snack on. She loves them! We would toast and smear with butter. So so delicious, even right from the local grocers bakery. So while I believe that we should treat ourselves to something different and calorie filled every so often, it was in my best interest to make fried chicken and test out a new cornbread recipe this weekend. Cornbread could either be really tasty or quite dry and boring, and I have had it both ways.
So here is my proposition. Savory cornbread is best for a dinner of greasy, buttery, tender and juicy fried chicken. You can sop up the leftover juices on your plate with cornbread! In my opinion cornbread is at its best the day of too. After a day it gets super cold and firm unless you toast it, but then you run risk of drying it out. I do believe that day old cornbread is the perfect model for some simple syrup action! Turn a savory carb into a sweeter treat.
A fried chicken side turns itself into an after dinner tea cake.
GATHER THE GOODS
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup walnut milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups medium- grind cornmeal
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
SYRUPED & GLAZED
2 cups filtered water
1 cup sugar such as coconut
2 teaspoons Harney and Sons Blood Orange Tea
MAKE IT
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt 8 tablespoons of butter in a small pot, and let cool.
In a medium bowl whisk the eggs, buttermilk, walnut milk, and slowly stream in the butter.
In a another medium bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
With a wooden spoon or spatula, make a well in the center of the dry ingredient mix and stream in the liquid, mixing simultaneously. Do not over- mix.
Take the cast iron pan out of the oven, brush it one tablespoon of butter and pour in the batter.
Bake the cornbread for about 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch. Remove from the cornbread from the oven, and let cool completely.
MAKE THE SIMPLE SYRUP. In a small sauce pot bring filtered water up to 212 degrees. Add in the tea leaves and steep for about 3 to 4 minutes off heat. Remove the tea leaves, set aside a 1/4 cup of tea, and add sugar into the rest to dissolve.
Brush the simple syrup onto the cornbread. The cornbread should be fairly porous, so the syrup will run through.
MAKE THE GLAZE. In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and no more than 2 tablespoons of the tea. The consistency should coat the back of the spoon creating slow drips.
Cut the cornbread into desired shapes and glaze. Eat with a delicious cup of Blood Orange Tea!
It’s citrus season baby! And I love my citrus. So. I have turned my day old cornbread into a sweet blood orange soaked cake. And! I glazed it with a mixture of powdered sugar and Harney and Sons Blood Orange tea. I garnished it with a beautiful spiral of orange peel that I coated in sugar and fried in olive oil!
I always look forward to my next meal- gratefully so- and I think this is a nice treat to pack for lunch during the work day. A sweet pick me up, and hopefully it doesn’t knock you out ;)