Jalapeno Popper Cornbread

The background

I was thinking through how I wanted to celebrate my birthday this year and had settled on a barbeque dinner.  Never mind that it is early February, here in central Texas, the weather is most definitely indicative of an early spring.  With daytime temperatures in the mid 70’s and flirting with the 80’s, the weather is perfect for firing up the smoker.  In the grand Texas barbeque tradition, dinner would include smoked brisket, pulled pork and sausage.  To compliment the peppery smoked meats, I served pinto beans, grilled corn on the cob, homemade dinner rolls and Jalapeno Popper Cornbread. 

In the off chance that you haven’t been to a backyard barbeque in the last decade or so, jalapeno poppers are bacon wrapped peppers stuffed with cheese and either battered and fried, or grilled.  I am a fan of the grilled variety, myself.  I like the smoky bacon and slight char on the jalapeno pepper.  In order to mimic these qualities in my cornbread, I relied on my favorite cast iron skillet and the all around goodness of rendered bacon fat. 

I am willing to bet that you can get perfectly acceptable results by adding the three pepper popper ingredients to whatever boxed cornbread mix you already use, baked in a casserole pan, but I have to strongly encourage you to take the time to make this recipe from locally sourced ground corn if at all possible.  Using the best bacon you can find definitely won’t hurt either.  The cast iron skillet also delivers on a nice crisp crust on the bread, which can’t be achieved in a glass dish.

No, you won’t find this recipe in anyone’s healthy eating or diet cookbook.  This should be a splurge for sure, so I don’t recommend getting carried away with healthy swaps like using skim milk, turkey bacon, coconut oil or almond flour.  Enjoy this cornbread with a slathering of real butter guilt-free, just don’t eat the whole pan in one sitting.

the ingredients

• 1 Cup Ground Corn Meal (locally sourced and organic)
• 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour (unbleached and organic)
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 2 Tsp. Baking Powder
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 1 Cup Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 Canola Oil
• 3 Whole Jalapeno Peppers
• 1 Lb. Smoked Bacon
• 2 Cup Cheddar Cheese, grated (I prefer a Longhorn Style Medium Cheddar)

making it work

1. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the center position.
2. Slice the bacon into thin pieces and brown in a cast iron skillet.
3. While the bacon is browning, slice the jalapenos into 1/4 inch slices.  You will further dice these in a later step, we just want nice slices so that they cook evenly.
4. When the bacon is browned, remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels to remove excess grease.  Pour off most of the bacon grease from the pan, reserving a tablespoon or 2 in the pan.
5. Sauté the sliced jalapenos in the rendered bacon fat until they soften and start to brown.
6. Remove the sautéed peppers from the pan and chop them into small pieces.  Set these aside to be added to the batter.
7. Combine the dry ingredients (corn meal, flour, salt, baking powder, sugar) in a medium size mixing bowl and then stir with a whisk or fork so that they are mixed well.
8. Add the wet ingredients (oil, milk, and eggs) to the dry ingredients and whisk fully incorporate.
9. Stir in the bacon, jalapeno peppers and cheddar cheese.
10. Grease a clean cast iron skillet.  For this purpose, I prefer to use bacon fat, but shortening or vegetable oil will work just fine as well.  I am one of those crazy people that actually keeps rendered bacon fat to use for things like this or for biscuits.
11. Pour the batter into the greased skillet and bake for 30-35 minutes.  When it is done, the top should be lightly brown and firm to the touch.  You should also see nicely browned edges.

notes and observations

I cut my cornbread into 16 pieces.  This means I end up with 4 very small, triangular pieces that really aren’t big enough to serve.  These are of course made entirely for taste-testing, and naturally are void of calories.

Assuming you have to brown the bacon, this recipe should take about an hour from start to finish.  This does reheat well though, so it can certainly be made early.

Shredding cheese from a block really does make a big difference.  If you have abandoned block cheese for the pre-shredded bagged cheese, please reconsider this.  Here’s a challenge, hand grate some cheddar cheese and taste it side by side with the bagged stuff.  I guarantee you will taste a huge difference.  Even without buying expensive artisan cheddar from the cheese counter, if you will just use even the store brand block cheese you will be surprised by the results.  If your not convinced, read the ingredients on the back of the package.  Yuck.

Syrupy Banana-Nut Overnight French Toast

 The Background

Okay, I don’t typically re-post recipes exactly as they are written.  I confess to being one of “those” people who has to try something, dabble with it, fidget with it, fix it, forget it, re-fix it and then… post it.  Typically, if I am searching for inspiration I will hit tons of recipe sites, peruse countless recipes.  I will discredit some poor guy or gal I never met, scoffing at whatever process or ingredient they are using, then find another similar dish and apply recipe one’s thought, to recipe two’s ingredients and combine it with something I think I dreamt up, but was probably bastardized from yet another source.
Not today.  Today, maybe it’s because I was appalled at how long it has been since I posted a recipe, or perhaps because we had this for Mother’s Day brunch and it was “lick the pan” delicious exactly how it was written, I proudly repost… Syrupy Banana-Nut Overnight French Toast.  And I would like to thank the fine folks at Good Housekeeping for awesome recipe.  Oh, I can’t wait to try other fruit variations with this recipe
. 

The Ingredients

6 tablespoon(s) butter or margarine

1 1/2 cup(s) packed brown sugar

5 large ripe bananas, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1 (12-ounce) long loaf French or Italian bread, cut crosswise into 1-inch-thick slices (I used Challah – and loved it!)

6 large eggs

2 cup(s) milk

2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract

1 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon

1/2 cup(s) sliced almonds or coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
Read more: Syrupy Banana-Nut Overnight French Toast - Good Housekeeping

 

Making It Work

In microwave-safe small bowl, heat butter in microwave oven on High 1 minute or until melted. Stir sugar into butter until moistened. With fingertips, press sugar mixture onto bottom of 13-inch by 9-inch glass baking dish. (It's okay if mixture does not cover bottom.) Spread fresh or dried fruit over sugar mixture; top with bread slices, cut sides down.

In medium bowl, with whisk, beat eggs; whisk in milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Slowly pour milk mixture over bread; press bread down to absorb egg mixture. Sprinkle with nuts. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. (My wife is not a fan of nuts, so we toasted pecans to sprinkle on top rather than baking them into the French toast)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove plastic wrap from baking dish. Bake, uncovered, 45 to 50 minutes or until bread is golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Note: If you don't have bananas, substitute 3 to 4 very ripe pears or peaches (about 1 1/2 pounds), sliced; or 1 cup dried cherries, cranberries, or raisins.
Read more: Syrupy Banana-Nut Overnight French Toast - Good Housekeeping

Nutella and Banana Stuffed French Toast Bake

The Background

I have wanted to find a way to do French Toast in a manner that would make it easier to serve to a larger crowd, something that can stand up to a little time in a chafing dish.  A quick Google search will give you a ton of inspiration for baked French Toast recipes.  Some are more akin to bread pudding, others more like a casserole.  As usual, this recipe is a combination of inspirations from across the web, twisted in my own mind to meet a distinct flavor.

The Ingredients

1 loaf French Bread

2-3 bananas, sliced

Nutella

For the custard:

• 6 eggs
• 3 cups half and half
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 brown sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

 

Making It Work

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that much of the work and mess is done the night before.  Begin by slicing the loaf of French bread into thick slices.  I like my slices to be about 2 inches thick.  The end pieces won’t be used, the crust won’t absorb the custard.  Take each piece of bread and slice to, but not through the bottom crust.  This creates a pocket for your stuffing, in this case, the Nutella and bananas.  I can tell you though that there is no need to stop there,  I made an equally delicious variation where I whipped cream cheese and apple butter for the stuffing. 
Spread a thick, healthy portion of Nutella inside each slice of bread, and top the Nutella with several slices of banana.

Lay each stuffed toast piece into a buttered casserole dish, packing them together tightly.
In a medium mixing bowl, make the custard by stirring together the half and half, eggs, vanilla and brown sugar.  Make sure that the custard is well mixed, and that the sugar dissolves completely.
Pour the custard mixture evenly over the top of the bread pieces.  Cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.  By the morning, the custard should have absorbed into the bread, with very little remaining pooled in the bottom of the dish.

When you are ready to cook, remove the dish from the refrigerator and allow it to begin to warm to room temperature while the oven preheats to 350 degrees.

For the topping, slice a stick of butter into thin slices and mix in a small bowl with the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon until the mixture is the consistency of wet sand.  Sprinkle this over the bread, covering well.

Bake for 45 minutes.  The topping should be browned and bubbling.  If not, return for another 10 to 15. 

This definitely does not need any maple syrup, but would do well topped with fresh fruit.  I probably don’t have to say this, but this is a rich, decadent dish.  A small piece of this dish served as part of a larger brunch offering is probably the best use of this recipe.