Weekend Cooking: The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon

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Do you remember last year when I introduced you to Crescent Dragonwagon? Not only did that post allow me talk about two favorite cookbooks but it also gave me a chance to meet Crescent on Twitter, which lead to my discovering another cookbook that I adore.

We love everything cornmeal, so Crescent's The Cornbread Gospels has become a much-used cookbook around here. The book title says "cornbread" but the recipes cover a world of flavors from traditional cornbreads to spoonbreads, puddings, yeast breads, and muffins. Other chapters present recipes for pancakes and waffles, recipes that use cornbread (think stuffings, for example), and desserts.

Oh and then there's the chapter titled "Great Go-Withs," which includes chili, salads, soups, and more. And scattered throughout are fun corn-related quotes and fantastic cooking, baking, and shopping tips. All the recipes are easy to follow and are written in Crescent's characteristically down-to-earth, friendly style.

I have made a number of breads from Cornbread Gospels, but one of our favorites is Chipotle Cornbread. We love its spicy bite and the smoky depth, which comes from the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.

Chipotle Cornbread
8 wedges

• Vegetable oil cooking spray
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup coarse stone-ground yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 2/3 cup milk
• 4 canned chipotle peppers (remove and discard stems) plus 2 teaspoons adobo sauce, pureed

Preheat the oven to 400F. Spray a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with oil and dollop in the butter.

Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, and pureed chipotle-adobo mix in a small bowl.

Place the prepared skillet in the oven to heat up for a few minutes, allowing the butter to melt.

Combine the cornmeal mixture and the egg mixture, stirring until everything is just mixed. Then pull the skillet from the oven and pour about half the melted butter from the skillet into the batter. Stir the butter in, and working quickly so the skillet remains almost smoking hot, transfer the batter into it. Put the whole shebang back in the oven and bake until it's deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.

Beth Fish's notes: If you don't like a lot of heat, try using just one pepper and about 1/4 teaspoon of sauce. You may need to add an extra splash of milk.

The Cornbread Gospels at an Indie

The Cornbread Gospels at Powell's

The Cornbread Gospels at Book Depository
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Published by Workman, 2007
ISBN-13: 9780761119166
YTD: 108
Rating: B+
Source: Review (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)