Sweeten your cornbread
Cornbread gets a makeover with the addition of fresh and dried cranberries. If you like your cornbread on the sweeter side, increase the recipe’s honey to ½ cup.
Cranberry cornbread
Makes: 10 servings
Active time: 15 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
2 cups fine whole-grain cornmeal
¾ cup whole-wheat pastry flour or white whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 ½cups buttermilk
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
⅓ cup honey
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
¾ cup fresh cranberries, rinsed and patted dry, or frozen (not thawed)
⅓ cup dried cranberries
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 10-inch cast-iron skillet (or 9-inch metal cake pan) with cooking spray.
2. Set aside 2 tablespoons cornmeal in a small bowl. Whisk the remaining cornmeal, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
3. Lightly whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk in buttermilk, oil, honey and orange zest until smooth. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Pour in the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Do not overmix; the batter should look lumpy.
4. Toss fresh and dried cranberries with the reserved cornmeal. (This will prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom during baking.) Gently fold the cranberries and cornmeal into the batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared skillet (or pan).
5. Bake the cornbread until the edges turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, 25 to 30 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve warm.
Notes: White whole-wheat flour is made from hard white wheat berries, which makes it lighter in color and flavor than regular whole-wheat flour, but with the same nutritional properties. For the best flavor, store it airtight in the freezer. Whole-grain cornmeal (with the nutritious germ and fiber-rich bran left intact) is increasingly available in well-stocked supermarkets. Look for “whole grain” on the label. For this recipe, use “fine” whole-grain cornmeal.