Bacon Cornbread

As promised on my Facebook page, here’s the second follow-up to the Corn Fritters post. Last week I suggested what you could  do with the leftover buttermilk; this week I focus on the leftover cornmeal.

When my husband and I were in London last month (thankfully before the rioting started), I picked up a whole bunch of lovely magazines, among which was BBC’s delicious Olive magazine. When I did a cursory scan of the magazine the first recipe that caught my eye was this one for corn and bacon bread. I’m always on the lookout for alternative ways to use up the cornmeal that I can’t ever seem to finish using, and this recipe seemed just the ticket.

Today being a public holiday, I thought it would be the perfect time to try out this new brunch recipe. Besides having to fry the bacon (which I always find a bit of a pain), the recipe is super easy, and gets you one nice loaf of very fragrant, savoury bread that pairs really well with scrambled eggs. Definitely a keeper =)

Bacon Cornbread
(adapted from “Corn and Bacon Bread” recipe in August 2011 issue of BBC Olive)

Ingredients:

• 130g (1-1/8 cup) self-raising flour
• 120g (slightly less than 1 cup) cornmeal
• 180g (6 oz) drained sweetcorn kernels from the can
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 240ml (1 cup) whole milk
• 170g butter (plus some butter to grease the loaf tin)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 6 rashers streaky bacon

Directions:

1. Fry the bacon till crisp. Cut into 1/2-inch to 1-inch strips.

2. Pre-heat oven to 190 degC. Butter a regular 8×4-inch loaf tin and set aside.

3. Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the cornmeal, baking powder and sugar. Stir through with a fork. Add sweetcorn and use a fork or spoon to mix well.

4. Put the milk and butter into a pan and melt over low heat. Pour milk mixture into the flour mixture along with the beaten egg, and mix till well combined. Add half of the bacon strips and season with salt and pepper.

5. Pour the batter into the buttered loaf tin, and sprinkle over the remaining bacon strips.

6. Bake for 40 minutes, till the top of the loaf is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Leave cornbread to cool in its tin. Serve slightly warm with butter (and pair with scrambled eggs or smoked salmon if you like).