It’s another Tuesday in our topsy turvy Brooklyn apartment and Mike asks me to make cornbread — or I should say more cornbread. Just the night before, we had polished off a batch, companion to a pot of use-up-the carrots-that-have-been-in-the-freezer-too-long lentil soup. Today, the scent lingers, haunting our kitchen (and thoughts) like a new romance.
It’s Tuesday and, for a second day running, I’m weighing dry ingredients, whisking wet. Not content to make quite the same bread twice, I dial it up a notch with jalapeño peppers, pineapple and a dash of paprika. In no time, I’m flour-streaked, chilli-fingered, spattered in batter — but the bread’s in the oven and it smells damn good.
It smells so good that it’s barely out the stove door before my housemates descend like bandits, bread and butter knives at the ready. With whisk and camera in hand, I fend them off for long enough to snap a few shots of the precious cornbread bullion.
Oh cornbread, the only problem now is that you’re gone already — too quickly consumed by cornbread-loving hoards (and me). Time to bake another loaf.
Jalapeño & Pineapple Cornbread
Speckled green with jalapeños, top decorated with jalapeño rings and a perfect golden brown, this is one of prettiest cornbreads that I’ve ever prepared — and it tastes amazing too: spicy and just a little sweet. It’s tender-crusted, crumbly and moist — a veritable riot in the mouth (best riot of your life).
All credit goes to Mike for suggesting I use crushed pineapple, rather than rings as I initially planned — that really worked out deliciously! 1 14 oz (400 g) can of pineapple should provide more than enough crushed pineapple.
I used a 9¼ x 5¼ inch loaf pan, but a 8½ x 4½ inch pan would also work well. I used almond milk because it was what I had on hand, but any dairy or non-dairy milk would be delicious (just make sure it’s unsweetened). We like things spicy in these parts, but if you’d like a bit of a mellower, reduce jalapeños by 1 pepper.
Ingredients
- ½ (65 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 (135 g) cup fine yellow corn meal
- ½ (72 g) cup coarse yellow corn meal
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 (27 g) tbsp golden granulated sugar
- 1 tsp paprika
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¾ cup (180 ml) crushed pineapple, drained
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) yoghurt
- ⅔ cup (160 ml) milk
- 2 (30 ml) tablespoons canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 jalapeño peppers, chopped, & optionally, an extra ½ jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced and deseeded for decoration
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter and flour a loaf pan and set aside.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, paprika and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together yoghurt, milk, eggs and canola oil. Add to the dry ingredients and mix to form a batter.
- Stir crushed pineapple and jalapeño peppers into the batter.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf tin. Optionally, decorate the top of the batter with thin slices of jalapeño pepper.
- Bake 30–35 minutes, until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.