Topic: Bakegab: The Bellgab Bakeshop

[albrecht]

Not sure if this is authoritative, but what I have observed is three categories of corn meal: fine ground, medium ground, and polenta (coarse).  So to answer your question, you probably could, but with coarse ground corn it might be a little grainy in texture.  Adding a can of corn (drained and fried with a bit of butter) to the mixture might offset this a bit.  If you can find it, the fine ground corn meal should give you the best results.

In the end, it depends upon your audience.  The "purists" who grew up with the Southern style might be quite happy with polenta, so long as you baked it by frying it in bacon grease in a skillet.  Where I live, they dislike the crumbly texture and lack of sweetness in the typical American style version of cornbread (they put sugar in EVERYTHING here, even spaghetti sauce).  So let me give you the recipe of how I make it here, and at the end I will explain how to back out of it to something more in the American style.  I'll also give you my method of making buttermilk from buttermilk powder, in case you can't get it "live."  Makes 12+ muffins or one 9x9 pan.

Dry Ingredients
----------------------------
175g all purpose flour (about one cup)
150g yellow cornmeal (about one cup)
50g white sugar (~1/4 cup)
4g baking soda (~1 tsp)
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients
----------------------------
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup honey
3 eggs, beaten

To make buttermilk from powdered buttermilk mix
------------------------------------------------------------
1 cup hot water
50g dry buttermilk powder

Mix together and let stand for five minutes

Directions

1.  In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.  Make a well in the center, and then add the wet ingredients.  Stir to combine.  Pour batter into a baking pan, or ~2 TB of batter per well if making muffins.

2.  Bake for 20-25 minutes at 190C/375F for a bread loaf, or 10-12 minutes for muffins.

Variations:

*  Cut some beef hot dogs into 2cm long pieces.  Place 1 TB of batter into each muffin well, then stand up a hot dog piece into the middle of the mixture.  You make little corn dogs this way.  Here's some that I made recently:



(four of them didn't even last long enough to be photographed)

* To make it "unsweetened" omit the honey.

* To make it crumbly texture in the American style, use 2 eggs only.

* Reduce temperature to 175C/350F and bake for five minutes more (more uniform baking)

* Cook in skillet with generous amounts of bacon grease.  Makes a crusty bottom and sides.  Looks like this:

From those "Bad Hombres" South of the Border  who have an interesting way with corn (maize) that, apparently due to the lime (or lye) treatment, helped nutritionally and preserve.

[DigitalPigSnuggler]

This is the best steak sandwich I have ever had.  And that is with the beef available in the Philippines.



Heat up some oil in a pan. 

Slice up a white onion and cut the slices in half.  Throw it into pan and toss with a bit of butter.  Cook until soft, separating the rings.

Make garlic butter. Garlic, olive oil, butter, parsley, salt and pepper

I use 35-40mm thick steak.  Ribeye if I can get it (rarely); the best available cut if not.  Rub with salk/pepper.  Grill to medium rare, 55C/130F.  Will reach final temp while resting.

Toss some arugula in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Mix Sriracha, Asian mayo sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.

Toast each side of two slices of French bread with the garlic butter.

Slather the Sriracha sauce on one of the slices.  Top generously with arugula.

Cut steak into slices and pile it on top of the arugula.

Onions go on next.  Then slather the other slice with the Sriracha sauce and finish.

I enjoy this with a shot and a Corona.

[K_Dubb]

This is a fyrstekake (prince cake) I made this morning, Norway's version of the almond tart that everyone's grandma used to make, including mine.  It is a simple butter cookie crust with a lattice top enclosing a macaron filling (ground nuts suspended in sweetened meringue; the coconut macaroon is the version with which most Americans are familiar) made with unpeeled almonds for a stronger flavor.  I put a little cardamom in the crust and flavor the filling with almond and rum extract, though in many cases it is unadorned and you just taste the chewy roasted nuts.  It looks like a tart but is really more of a bar cookie.



As almond tarts go it is not spectacular -- just compare what I think is the king of almond tarts, the Swedish mazariner (sometimes spelled "mazzarine" in this country by people who no longer remember His Eminence) with its rich frangipane center, for example -- and I can't imagine anyone making it who didn't grow up with at every single party, in which case it is indispensable.

[whoozit]

Alright, I’m too busy tomorrow smoking a Boston Butt but I’ll try to bake something next weekend.

[Rix Gins]

[Juan]

Real key limes make a big difference. The trouble with them is that the trees have four-inch spikes guarding each fruit.

[Rix Gins]

Real key limes make a big difference. The trouble with them is that the trees have four-inch spikes guarding each fruit.

I nominate it to be our National Tree.

[K_Dubb]

Nice one, Rix!  The egg white in the filling is not something I've tried; I'm not sure how I feel about that.

[Rix Gins]

Nice one, Rix!  The egg white in the filling is not something I've tried; I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Oh good.  I wasn't sure if it belonged here or in the postcard thread.  There was the year 1970 printed on the back of the card.  A girl named Linda had sent it in to get some stick-ons from Bengie, whoever that is.  haha

[K_Dubb]

Oh good.  I wasn't sure if it belonged here or in the postcard thread.  There was the year 1970 printed on the back of the card.  A girl named Linda had sent it in to get some stick-ons from Bengie, whoever that is.  haha

Well the meringue top sounds like what Roz said she made down there.  I'm rather fond of the solid custard you get with just yolks and don't know if I'd like a sort of soufflé version as much.  Hopefully she can tell us how she did it.