It?s chili season, which means it?s also cornbread season in my book.
If I can have a big bowl of chili with a nice slab of cornbread on the side, I consider that day a win. Of course, to be fair, any day I get a slab of cornbread is a win for me.
Recently, my mother-in-law mentioned that she enjoyed some jalapeno cornbread at a restaurant and suggested that I ought to try to make some myself (there may have been some ulterior motives there). I?d never made anything like that, so I decided to take her up on the challenge.
The recipe I found came from the blog ?Closet Cooking,? which gets its name from the fact that the author claims to cook ?in a closet-sized kitchen.? You can find the original post at closetcooking.com/2011/12/ jalapeno-cornbread.html.
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Jalapeno Cornbread
Ingredients
1 cup buttermilk (or milk with a touch of vinegar)
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely diced.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375.
Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix until everything is well-combined.
Pour the batter into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Store in an airtight container or bag. This will taste much better the next day, so I?d encourage you to make it the day before you want to enjoy it if you can.
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This cornbread isn?t too spicy, so if you?re not able to handle foods that have a lot of kick to them, you?ll still probably enjoy this bread. It was especially mild right out of the oven. It wasn?t until the loaf sat in a sealed container overnight that the jalapeno flavor really permeated the bread.
I also tried making a grilled cheese sandwich with it, and while it didn?t hold together perfectly, it was pretty darn good, so if you?re looking for an adventure, I?d recommend that as well.
And I did send some bread for my mother-in-law to try. The word is still out on whether I?ll be getting a request for seconds any time soon.
When not helping husband Joey with newspaper work, Lindsey teaches speech, debate and forensics at Haven High School. She can be reached at lindseyclarion@gmail.com.
