Eggless Cornbread

Blogging, in its beautiful entity has opened its doors to multi cultures and cuisines across world. It paves avenues to several dishes and new recipes that one had unheard of in the past, though using common day to day ingredients in various ways. Diverse flavors, myriad tastes, yet that homely touch of basic ingredients go into making of this stupendous cake belonging to another cuisine. Like, I had never known or heard of cornbread before, only until I discovered the joys of culinary blogging and blog-hopping. Makki ka atta or Cornmeal / Maize flour is quite commonly used in our Indian kitchens, especially in the North. You simply can’t miss Makki ki roti with sarson ka saag at a dhaba if you were in Punjab. Yet the same cornmeal used in our very own Makki ki roti is completely renovated to this cornbread, a native to American cuisine, one that most of us here have probably not tasted or heard of. That’s amazing since it gives me yet another healthy breakfast dish to add on to my list of ever hunting recipes for our mornings!

Thanks to the Native Americans, for we’ve got corn bread. But then history has it that its humble beginnings can be traced back to the Indians. We’ve used corn ground into meal and flour for years in our cooking and that became a part of our tradition. Owing to the benefits of corn, Westerners too adopted the practice of making corn bread and is said to have become popular around Civil War time as corn was plentiful and cheap.

Today’s recipe for Cornbread is inspired from a couple of recipes I hunted online. I pinned down a few recipes, tweaked some, attempted to miss out on eggs, aiming at a Cornbread that would result in a light and fluffy eggless Cornbread. The first time I made these, they hung between flavors of sweet and salt, also with a pronounced taste of baking powder. I knew instantly I messed up somewhere. On another attempt I tweaked a few more changes and it came out absolutely delicious. I used only whole wheat flour to keep it healthy. The bread is quite nice and nutty with a heady cornmeal aroma which we loved. And if you have a cast iron skillet, use them… it can’t get better!

Eggless Cornbread

INGREDIENTS

1 cup cornmeal (a little coarser grind if possible)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup honey (replace with maple syrup / sugar for vegan option)
1 cup milk, room temperature (replace with soy milk for vegan option)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Paint the bottom and sides of your cast iron pan with butter or oil. Set aside. In a large bowl, measure out all of the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, salt), and in another smaller bowl, measure out all of the wet ones (honey, milk, oil). Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir them together till just combined. Now pour the whole mixture into your cast iron pan. Bake your cornbread for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.

To make it vegan, replace honey with maple syrup or regular / brown sugar and milk with a vegan milk of your choice. Hope you make this one and enjoy the benefits of corn in your breakfast.