Vegan or not, this makes cutting edge high protein, nutrient dense, moist cornbread!
Normally, cornbread dries out quickly, but not with so when you add pumpkin puree.
Pumpkin gives more than just a nutritional boost; it holds this quick bread together.
Combine in mixing bowl:
2 cups organic kamut* flour (if not wheat-sensitive, use wh wh or unbleached OG flour)
2 cups organic stone ground cornmeal
4 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Salt
Mix in blender:
½ cup organic agave nectar
1 can organic pumpkin puree
(about 2 1/3 cups)
1 tsp. Apple cider vinegar
½ cup mild olive or safflower or coconut oil
Decide now if you are going vegan or eggly:
vegan: 2 cups** organic almond or rice milk
1/3 cup organic hemp seeds
OR eggy: 1½ cups** organic almond or rice milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray oil muffin tins OR oil 2 8X8 baking pans.
2. Add blender mix to dry ingredients, folding together just until all combined.
3 Pour into muffin tins and bake 15 to 20 minutes OR into prepared pans and bake 25-30 minutes. These will be golden, and spring to the touch of a finger.
4. Remove from the oven onto a wire rack. Let cool for a few minutes and serve. To retain interity of muffins, you may want to pop them out of the tin to cool. Or let them stay put to retain softness.
* Kamut is tolerable by some who are wheat-sensitive. If you are celiac-intolerant, substitute 1cup rice flour and 1 cup oat flour for the 2 cups of kamut. OR simply increase the corn meal to 4 cups total.
** This produces a “cakey” cornbread. You could jazz this up with fruit, nuts or even chips.If you want it more wholesome, reduce the milk by ½ cup for each variation and consider adding frozen or fresh cut corn or olives or as an under layer to beans…
Cornbread Paper Hearts – Joannie’s Story
When I was seven, my big sister, Joanie, entered the Pillsbury Baking Bake-Off with a cornbread recipe that she created. Her cornbread was a sweeter (more fat and sugar) version of this one – she added butterscotch chips to meet the requirement of adding specific product brands. That recipe is hers to share, but the story of what happened as a result of her efforts is mine to pass on---
Only June, the sun was unbearable as we hoed the button weeds out of our soybean field. When Mom called us in for dinner, Joanie went off to check the mailbox while I raced my three brothers to the well. As we pumped the water into the pail to clean the dust and sweat off, I badgered Dad. “Please, Daddy, can we go swim after dinner? We promise to hoe again, even after supper.”
Joey kicked me – hard – in the shins. “Not now, Toots. Ask him later, after he’s had time to cool off,” he hissed.
My brothers watched curiously, pleased at my pluck for asking, but knowing that Dad’s hard work ethic rarely included a lake break during the work week. Dad’s expression was stoic at first but softened as he watched Joanie running toward us. Her eyes danced and her arms wrapped tightly around a giant box, the mail jouncing loosely on top.
She placed the box carefully on the table we used to shell peas and waved an open letter in the air. “Look! Look! I won. Did you hear me? I won!” she screamed.
Nicky snatched it from her, holding it high above her reach.
“You little brat! Give that back right now. I mean it!” Furious, Joannie’s flushed face matched her tousled auburn hair.
“’Little brat’? Who you callin’ little?” Nicky teased. “Whatcha win anyway?” Nicky mimicked Joannie’s expression as he pretended to read the letter.
“Cut it out!” Anthony hissed as he slapped him on the back of his head. Not that hard, but hard enough to cause Nicky to quickly drop the letter into Joanie’s hands.
The screen door slammed as Mom came out and put her arm around Joanie’s shoulders. “Hush, now, everyone! Just listen to what she has to say for once! Joanie, can you tell us what you won?” Mommy asked.
Joanie glared at Nicky. “It’s from the Pillsbury contest. Remember? The spring recipe contest.”
“Oh, you worked hard on that. Do read to us what they wrote.” Mommy answered,
Joanie straightened her shoulders as she held the letter close to her glasses. ‘Dear Miss Marinich: We are pleased to inform you that after extensive and precise evaluation, you are hereby awarded special recognition as a third place prize winner in our “quick breads” division of our 1959 Bakeoff Competition. Because you entered as part of our student competition, your efforts have earned a new baking technology – a microwave oven - for your Canton High School Home Economics classroom as well as the enclosed prize for your personal pleasure. Thank you for your hard work and we hope you carry on with your cooking talents.”
“Wait a minute! The high school gets the microwave? Why not you, Mom? You’re the one who made Joanie have “cooking talents!” Nicky sputtered
“Oh, Hell, Dinner’s gonna get cold even in this heat if you all keep yakkin'. Just open the damn box, and see what you got so we can eat our dinner before the flies do,” Dad grumbled.
Anthony pulled out his pocket knife to cut through the strings and tape. Joanie pulled out layer after layer of heavy paper until she came to a large plastic bag with a bright orange --- something – folded up inside. I stood on a milk crate to see.
“What could this be? It doesn’t look like baking pans or anything like that…” she puzzled.
“Maybe it’s a microwave blanket,” I offered.
“No, Silly Goose. You mean electric blanket. They don’t make microwave blankets. Heck, nobody makes microwave anything,” Anthony corrected me.
It took all of us to hold the box down, but Joanie finally lifted the orange something out. It puzzled us until Nicky gave a whoop. “Look, there’s an air nozzle – like for a pump of some kind. Why, I think it’s a…”
“FLOAT! It’s a float for the beach!” Joanie screamed as she read the paper in her hand.
“Only for use in water. Do not use as a flotation device. Keep away from sharp objects.” She turned to Daddy. She buried her face in his overalls bib and pleaded. “Oh, Daddy, just this once, can we please go swim today?”
Daddy patted her and brusquely said, “So you want to try out your high falutin’ float today... You all want that, is that it? You put little Toots up to askin’ so you can go swim? We’ll go, all right. I just don’t know if you can get air in that stem though… ”
We answered all at once. “It’s okay, Daddy! We can! We will! And we’ll hoe until dark, Daddy! We promise!”
A hurried grace, a special thank you to Pillsbury, and we all passed the chili and celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter. We were anxious to have the clock start running since we had to wait one hour after eating before we were allowed to get in the water. Something about not drowning…
“I’m glad she got a float, but really, why give the school a microwave and not us? We'll never be able to afford that…” Nicky muttered to Joey, just as Mommy was passing him his bowl.
“Ahh, leave it alone, Nicky. What’s done is done,” Mom chided him. Then she jumped up, potholders in hand. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, with all this commotion, I forgot to take the cornbread out of the oven.”
No big deal. We were so pumped we barely noticed the charred bottoms on those two huge pans of golden bread. Instead, we dreamed of plunking our bottoms, not bare, mind you, on Joanie’s prize float. That is, if she’d let us.
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