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 ;)
Berry Young Tea Granita
Gather The Goods
1 Cup water
2 T loose tea leaves
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup strawberries
Make It
1. Steep the tea in hot water until a bright fuchsia color develops. Let cool
2. Add all ingredients to a blender, including the tea leaves and blend until smooth.
3. Strain the liquid and pour into a metal pan. Place in the freezer for about 45 minutes to an hour.
4. Scrape and put the mixture back in the freezer for another hour. It should be completely frozen and slushy after two hours.
My Godmother's Sponge Cake
Yield: 2- 9inch round cakes
Total Time: 1.5 hours
gather the goods
2 1/4 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
3/4 C Orange Juice ***
9 Eggs separated
1/4 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 tablespoon Lemon Extract (optional)
make it
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Separate the egg yolks from the whites and beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until soft- to medium peaks form and set aside.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients together and with the mixer running on medium slowly stream in the oil and orange juice until a smooth consistency is reached. Add the egg yolks one at a time until fully incorporated.
3. Add the extracts, mix, and turn off the mixer. Fold in the egg whites (starting from the middle center, out and repeat) in three additions being careful not to deflate the eggs. You want to make sure that there are no whites showing in the batter!
4. Although some bakers tap their cakes before baking, do not do this! You want as many air bubbles as possible for that spongy texture! Bake the cake on the bottom shelf of the oven until lightly golden and springy, about 1 hour.
6. Immediately Invert the cake to prevent deflation and cool before icing!
If you want to fill and assemble the cake as I did, see link below for Bon Appetite's...
Sfogliatella Ricci
gather the goods
Yield: 15-20 mini sfogliatella
Total Time: 12+ hours
500g Manitoba flour
200g water
20g honey
10g salt
150g pork fat
1. Melt honey with water.
2. Melt salt with other half of water.
3. Mix in the mixer with a dough hook for at least 10 minutes at low speed.
4. Make a ball and grease with lard. Wrap in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
***best result is to let rest for 12 hours.
5. Roll dough through a pasta machine or sheeter.
6. Continue rolling the dough until very thin an long. Should almost be see through and fragile.
7. Once it gets too long to hold, roll onto a rolling pin. Do not place the rolling pin on the table as it will seal the layers together.
***best is to use a rolling pin with a rolling body.
8. Hold the rolling pin with dough between on two stands.
9. Brush melted pork fat on the first layer and start rolling up the end. Pull, stretch, and tug under the dough as you roll.
10. Pull, stretch, and tug under the dough as you roll.
11. Make a log 25 cm long and 6 cm wide.
Make it
150 gr semolino (semola)
400 ml milk
15 gr butter
pinch of salt
250 gr sugar
1 orange, zested
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
millefiori water; few drops
1 egg
100 gr small brunoise of candied orange and citrus
1. Boil milk, butter, and salt. Add semolino in a slow stream. Cool down and put in the mixer.
2. Add egg and mix. Then add all ingredients to combine. Let cool.
3. Cut the dough into 1 cm thick slices, flatten by hand and cool down again.
4. Make the shape of a bell and fill each one with the semolina filling.
5. Place on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and bake in pre- heated oven for about 7 minutes at 200 C. Then rotate pastry and lower the oven temp and continue baking at 170 C for about 15 minutes. Should be golden brown on the bottom and top.
Recipe adapted from Chef Odette Fada