Bacon Cornbread

Everyone likes to complain that food blogs have long stories before the recipe and that you have to scroll to read the actual recipe - well I'm not going to break with that tradition! I'm not going to break with tradition, so let me tell you why, for today only, my blog is suddenly a food blog. I've been at my job for six years now, and annually we have a chili and cornbread cooking competition. COVID-19 means that the contest is altered this year, and we were challenged to either 1) create a cooking show video or 2) write a food blog post - so obviously you know what I selected! 

I've competed in the chili contest for the past five years and last year I was finally awarded the prize I coveted - the hottest chili of the day, with my Thai inspired creation, "Chili Thai-me" (yes, I do think I'm very clever with that name). The cornbread contest is usually way less popular and often not even a contest, so having achieved chili greatness, I turned my thoughts to the often overlooked side.

Bacon can dress up anything, so first, get your bacon cooking! I use the oven method, with a cookie sheet under the bacon so that it doesn't sit in the drippings while it's in the oven. 1 lb of bacon at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes!

This recipe would most likely be better in the summer, with fresh corn, grilled on the cob and then cut off and put into the bread, but as it is winter, we are stuck with canned - one can is enough. I don't have a food processor, so I used a blender on the lowest setting to turn the corn into a rough wet pulp.

Then mix the dry ingredients (1.5 cups flour, 0.5 cups sugar, 1 T baking powder, 0.25 t salt).

Then the wet (your corn pulp, 0.5 cups milk, 2 eggs), and then add the dry 1/3rd at a time - because that's how chefs do it. I don't know why but it is so I do it that way too.

Grease your loaf pan (I used a little bit of olive oil and rubbed it around with a paper towel). Chop your bacon into chocolate chip sized pieces, and add to the batter. Optionally add 1 T of paprika - it is mostly to amp up the color, it doesn't really add flavor - and pour into loaf pan to bake.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes. While it bakes, you can make honey butter - equal parts honey and butter in a blender, and blend until uniform (this requires a lot of scraping the sides of the blender, and slowly adding the honey between spins). Get your pretty wood cutting board to plate it up - this is a food blog after all, it needs to look amazing - cut off a slice, spread on some honey butter, and bam.

It is super delicious! Takes cornbread to a savory place, but still preserves the sweetness of corn. Because there's no cornmeal it doesn't have quite the crumb of other cornbread recipes. Also makes good muffins.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups corn (1 can)
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 lb bacon

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit.
• Cook bacon for 15 minutes on a cookie sheet to drain the fat.
• Process corn in a food processor until it is chopped, but NOT mushy.
• Whisk together the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
• Combine the wet ingredients in a larger bowl.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine.
• Grease loaf pan and fill with batter
• Bake for 45 minutes or until a chopstick in the middle comes out clean.
• Combine equal parts honey and butter together until creamy.
• Enjoy your bread and honey butter!