Sweet cornbread baked in a cast iron pan
Adam Ragusea · ♥ 4.6K likes · 108.4K views · 9 min video
Read about quick breads in the BrightCulinary Book
Timestamp
Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 1 whole egg
- 80 ml neutral-tasting oil
- 200 g granulated sugar
Put the egg in a bowl with the oil and the sugar on top and give it a preliminary whisk; the granular sugar gives the abrasion that breaks up the egg.
- 237 ml buttermilk
- ½ tsp kosher salt
Whisk in the buttermilk and the salt.
Buttermilk or kefir, and the salt
- 150 g cornmeal
- 120 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
Add the cornmeal and the flour, then the baking powder and baking soda on top of the dry.
Cornmeal grind, flour and leavening
Rest the batter 15 minutes so the particles hydrate and autolysis develops the gluten; heat the oven only now, which forces the rest.
Put the 10 inch cast iron pan in the oven to heat up with it.
Note: he used to bake this at 400F and has since adjusted his temperatures down for a convection oven, without saying to what.
- butter
Once the oven is at temperature, carefully remove the hot pan and melt a lot of butter in it, blotting up any excess.
Pour the batter into the hot pan; preheating browns the crust, stops it sticking and builds internal steam before it solidifies.
Bake about 20 minutes, until it cracks on top and feels bouncy rather than squishy in the middle.
Pull it at 200F, 180C, since it bakes on in the hot pan as it cools.
Cool and solidify in the pan 5 to 10 minutes, shake it hard to release, turn it out onto a plate or board, then flip again onto a cooling rack so the bottom steams out.