Tag Archives: cream

Sweet Cream And Honey Cornbread

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Sweet Cream And Honey Cornbread

Sweet Cream And Honey Cornbread

I generally don’t like sweet corn breads, so when I do make them, it makes the dinner time conversation rather interesting.

Russell (using a really bad Mark Lowry Voice -) “Sugar in the cornbread is cake! When you take a bite of cornbread, it’s supposed to suck 90% of the moisture out of your body!”

Jordan- “If this is cake, can I have whipped cream on it?”

Joshie- “Oooo… cake! Can I have ice cream with it?!”

Yeah… my family is strange. They are also unused to cornbread with sugar. You see, I’m a Yankee by birth and a Southerner by long time geography (well, part genetically too, if that can be genetic 😛 ) and that whole birth thing being the case, one would assume I use a ton of sugar in cornbread. Nahhhh. I’m fine with a touch, if any. I am also enough Southerner at this point that when I see people put sugar on a bowl of grits, I am hard pressed to not walk up to them, say “bless your heart, honey. You’re not supposed to do that”, then hog tie them and drag them behind a mule drawn carriage until they learn the error of their ways. So far, I’ve resisted. But I make no long term promises.

All of that said, I liked this cornbread. Would I want sweet cornbread every time? No. But I was pulled in by the words cream, honey and butter in the recipe.  I mean, everyone loves those words… and by everyone, I mean I me.  There are very few things that can’t be made better with copious amounts of cream and butter. Except maybe liver. There is no hope for liver. And eggplant.

This IS a pretty sweet cornbread. It’s also buttery, rich, tender and moist and quite tasty served with a half cup pat of butter on it. This comes from one of my favorite cornbread cookbooks, The Cornbread Gospels. This book is cornbread lovers nirvana. It’s 358 pages of different corn breads and also ways to use said cornbread, plus a few go-alongs. This particular recipe isn’t one you’d serve with something like chili. In my humble opinion, chili needs an unsweetened cornbread. But this was wonderful with the roast chicken we had for dinner and will be wonderful later my favorite way, which is gently heated, put in a bowl with a ton of butter and some maple syrup. YUMMY!

You know the drill… 🙂

Sweet Cream And Honey Cornbread

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1/4 cup honey, warmed for easier mixing
  • 2 eggs
  1. Butter either a medium (9 or 10 inch) cast iron skillet or a 9 inch square pan and preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.
  3. In another bowl, combine the cream, milk, sugar, honey and butter. Whisk well. You will probably still have some butter pieces; that’s fine.
  4. Beat the eggs into the cream mixture. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
  5. Pour into the prepared pan, drizzle with some extra honey if desired and bake at 400 degrees until it is golden brown and slightly pulled away from the edges of the pan, about 25 minutes.
  6. Serve warm… or room temp… or reheated with butter and maple syrup. 🙂

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That Bread Pudding Thing Again

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I’ve mentioned before my love/hate relationship with bread pudding. I love to hate it. More specifically I love to hate the insipid things that some pass off as bread pudding. Stale white bread from the grocery store mixed with 2%milk (or worse… let’s make bread pudding healthy and use skim. Ummm.. gag?) and a handful of raisins and some cinnamon cooked until it is a hardened pile of gunk. I’ll take Twinkies instead thank you. On that note though, I cringe every time I see recipes for bread pudding that use things like Twinkies or doughnuts. Even I have some health standards (says the woman about to give you a recipe using 3 cups of heavy cream. But hey! If it were also made with Twinkies, it would be even worse! So see? I DO care for your arteries!! I do, I do I do!)

I do though love to play with bread pudding. Not THAT way… get your mind out of the gutter ! I like to take flavors that one typically sees elsewhere (like my apricot white chocolate bread pudding that I more or less based on the idea of white chocolate dipped apricots) and turn them into bread pudding. So many things can be done with a loaf of a sweet bread (or french or Italian in the case of savory bread puddings), some rich custard and simple ingredients. You can take what started out generations ago as a way to use up leftovers and feed people a hearty breakfast (or lunch or dinner or dessert) and turn it into something that even die hard bread pudding haters (such as me) will love.

I decided I wanted to try a take on one of my favorite desserts; Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I didn’t want it inverted though. I wanted the bulk of the pineapple in it as well as the accompanying flavors (brown sugar and butter. YUM!) with the rest of those flavors in a sauce for over the top of it. I think this turned out rather well. I made it in mini spring form pans which technically are big enough for two servings. I say technically because I will stab with my fork anyone who gets near the one I am eating. yes, yes, I AM meek mild and gentle. Why do you ask? Back to the pudding…or…erhmmm, moving on 😀 The edges of these got all crispy and caramelized and sticky from the brown sugar and the natural sugars in the pineapple and that alone makes these oh so good. Add in the caramelly flavor of the pudding itself with the tang of the pineapple pieces then the creamy custard and rich sauce and I was in heaven. I am so so glad that I usually eat very little of what I make (as I’ve said before, I prefer to NOT weigh 600 pounds thank you very much) because then I won’t feel so guilty if I eat a whole mini cake of this.

Pineapple Upside Down Bread Pudding

With Creamy Pineapple Amaretto Sauce

  • SAUCE-
  • 1 20 ounce can crushed pineapple in juice, drained
  • 1 20 ounce can pineapple chunks in heavy syrup, drained, 1/2 cup syrup reserved
  • 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup Amaretto liquor
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • PUDDING-
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup amaretto (or sub 2 teaspoons almond extract)
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 loaf Kings Hawaiian Bread, cut into small cubes
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 6 mini spring-form pans or a two quart baking dish.
  2. In a medium heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine all sauce ingredients other than the cream.
  3. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Lower heat to a simmer and let cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool somewhat while you prepare pudding.
  4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add in the brown sugar and beat until well blended. Add the vanilla, reserved 1/2 cup pineapple syrup, melted butter, the 2 cups of heavy cream and the amaretto. Mix well.
  5. Add 2 cups of the pineapple mixture, mixing well.
  6. Take the cubed bread and add to the cream mixture, pressing down with a spoon, fork, knife, shovel, whatever makes you happy, making sure to get all the bread submerged in the liquid. Let sit for at least 30 minutes to give the bread time to soak up the custard mix.
  7. Divide mixture between 6 greased mini spring-form pans (or a 2 quart pan, preferably glass, could be used) and bake at 325 for about 60 minutes or until you can stick a knife in the center of the custard and have no liquid custard seep up into the hole.
  8. Set aside to cool, still in the pans, for at least 2 hours (or take one out like I did and eat it piping hot and burn your tongue off. That works too.).
  9. While it is cooling, go back to your sauce. Eat a spoonful and moan cause it’s yummy and just like the stuff on pineapple upside down cake.
  10. Add the 1 cup of heavy cream to the pineapple sauce. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. Let simmer for ten minutes, still stirring often.  Set aside.
  11. Carefully remove the sides and bottom of the spring-form pans. Put each pudding onto a serving plate and serve with some of the pineapple amaretto cream sauce

Sometimes You Just Have To Be Bad

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Normally, we all know that I run a very health conscious blog. I am a strong advocate of eating lots of Tofu, running five miles a day, staying away from sugar and drinking only water and being sure that when you eat meat,  it’s is a good source of protein and iron like liver. Plus taking many vitamin and herbal supplements every day, living a clean healthy lifestyle, abstaining from alcohol and meditating twice a day.

Awwww, heck, who am I kidding? None of you and all I can do is sit here and laugh until tears run down my face at the thought of all of that. I am a strong advocate of Twinkies and Cheetos, I hate liver, had Tofu once many years ago and run from it now, I like my wine, eat far too much fatty foods, post recipes that are sinfully bad for you and probably have arteries that are so clogged that I need a bottle of extra strength Drano to cut through the grease.

Seriously though, I do try to be at least semi smart on what I eat. Believe it or not, the bulk of the things I post here get given away just so that I can’t overindulge and so that my husband and kids don’t get too heavy and have to be rolled out the door when we go places. I like sweets but having had a father who was diabetic and a husband who is now, I know the consequences of too much fat, carbs and sugar and don’t want it happening to me or being a party to my husbands health getting worse.

But…. and it’s a big but (no not mine though it’s a big butt too), I do love to cook the things that are bad for you. I love a good Spinach salad which is my current food fetish and I could eat fish (not always fried either 😛 ) until it was coming out of my ears. But they don’t seem to carry the same thrill when it comes to cooking as things like todays post. If you combine cream, Heath bars,  a crispy meringue, cocoa and sugar together, it becomes a treat that, while it makes your body scream in agonizing self defense, makes your mouth go “Oh.My.God. Can I have another 14 inch hunk of this please?”

And that’s ok. There is nothing wrong with having the “bad” stuff sometimes. As is said, it’s all a matter of moderation. Though…erhmmm… being moderate with this is difficult. Your brain will just be telling you to lean down and bury your face in it up to your ears and inhale. I don’t advise it though and am hereby freeing myself from any future lawsuits based on chopped up Heath bars caught in your sinus passages. You’ve been warned.

So if you (and ten or so other people) want to indulge, make this. You won’t be sorry and neither will the ten other people. Unless you eat it all before they get any.

CHOCOLATE TOFFEE CLOUD

MERINGUE-

  • 6 egg whites
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
  • 2 cups sugar

FILLING AND TOPPING-

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 3 king size heath bars, coarsely crushed
  1. Heat oven to 275 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tarter until foamy. Add sugar gradually, beating until stiff and glossy. Do not underbeat this.
  3. Spread half the mixture into about an 8 inch circle on each cookie sheet.
  4. Bake at 275 for 50 to 60 minutes or until crisp and a very light golden brown around the edges. Rotate your sheets halfway through if you cooked them on different oven racks.
  5. Turn oven off and leave the meringues in the closed oven for 2 hours. Remove form oven and let cool completely on the cookie sheets.
  6. In a medium bowl, combine the heavy cream, powdered sugar and cocoa. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in two of the crushed king sized Heath bars.
  7. Place one meringue layer on a serving plate. Top with half the filling. Top that with the other meringue layer and then spread the rest of the filling on top. Sprinkle with the last crushed Heath bar.
  8. Refrigerate this for several hours before serving to give the meringues and the candy time to soften up a bit. Stick your face in the plate up to your ears. Wait… no! I did NOT advise that. Nope, not me.