One of my great loves is cornbread or corn muffins. There is something about their rustic qualities that really speaks to my heart and gets my tastebuds tingling.
This Blueberry & Vanilla Breakfast Corn Bread is one of my favourite ways to enjoy cornbread. It has all of the elements of a regular corn bread which I enjoy, but it has been amped up to a degree that will have everyone smacking their lips in anticipation!
I have enjoyed a life long love affair with cornbread. It wasn't something I actually grew up with in my family home, but something which I got to enjoy elsewhere.
My first Mother In Law used to make a Corncake, which was a simple Cornbread. You can find the recipe for that here. Mother In Law's Corncake.
Another favourite of mine is a Custard Filled Cornbread Recipe, which you can find here. This version actually had niblets of real corn in it and a creamy centre, which is really quite appealing, especially served warm with Maple Syrup.
I use blueberries, but you can also use cranberries, or raspberries if you wish. Blackberries would also be nice. Blueberries are perfect for this time of year however. Back home they are picking wild blueberries by the bucketload.
Oh how I miss the flavour of Nova Scotia Wild Blueberries. Their flavour cannot be beaten!
I like to bake this cornbread in a ceramic or square glass baking dish. This helps to hold in the warmth while you are waiting for everyone to come downstairs to the breakfast table.
The square dish also makes it very easy to cut into squares. You can also bake it in an 8 inch round cake tin if you want to. You can then cut it into wedges, like a cake or a pie. Also very attractive.
I think it is quite beautiful cut into squares and served warm. We like it spread with softened butter and drizzled with liquid honey. Especially pure clover honey.
Oh my but what a breakfast for the Gods this is. We just cannot get enough of it. We can easily make big pigs of ourselves when we are eating this.
The butter melts down into that moist and delicious cornbread. I love the texture of cornbread. Its almost cake like with a bit of a bite from the cornmeal that is quite appealing.
Its a tiny bit crunchy, but not obnoxiously so. Its quite pleasant.
Look at that drizzle of honey, sweet and lush, mingling with the butter and melting into that beautiful cornbread.
The honey . . . sweet and lush . . . the melting butter lightly salty . . . and again, soaking into that dense yet light vanilla corn bread.
Pure Heavenly bliss.
It could be really hard to restrain yourself when faced with something like this. It could easily make a big pig of yourself.
Especially when you spy all of those beautiful sweet berries studded here and there throughout. Like tasty little jewels waiting to pop into your mouth.
When I lived in Canada, we often used to cross the border into the US. I loved grocery shopping stateside. I would always pick up Thomas's Toaster Corn Cakes.
They were so good and so convenient. Ready to pop into the toaster for a quick and easy breakfast and quite delicious!
I did make my own version in the past. You can find my recipe for Cranberry and Corn Toaster Cakes here.
They are really quite amazing if I don't say so myself. Beautifully textured and studded with tart cranberries.
This fabulous Blueberry & Vanilla Breakfast Corn Bread blows them out of the ballpark however. Seriously.
I am now tempted to try the toaster cakes, replacing the cranberries with blueberries. What do you think? Should I go for it?
I just might do that. This Blueberry and Vanilla Breakfast Corn Bread makes for a great weekend breakfast, or a brunch dish.
Actually, I think it is pretty great anytime. I hope I have inspired you to want to give it a go! You've got nothing to lose here and everything to gain (and I'm not talking about hips here, although they most certainly could be in some danger!)
Blueberry & Vanilla Breakfast Corn Bread
Yield: Makes on 8-inch square bread
prep time: 5 Mcook time: 45 Mtotal time: 50 M
Sweet and moist and stuffed with blueberries. Wonderful served warm with butter and honey.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (170g) cornmeal (coarse polenta)
- 1 cup (140g) unbleached all purpose flour (plain flour)
- 3/4 cup (95g) icing sugar, sifted
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 large free range eggs
- 1 1/4 cups (295ml) buttermilk
- 1/2 TBS vanilla paste (alternately use 1 TBS Vanilla extract)
- 6 TBS butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups (250g) blueberries
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 165*C/325*F. gas mark 3. (If using a regular pan 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.) Butter an 8-inch square pyrex baking dish and line with baking paper.
- Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, soda, and sugar in a bowl.
- Beat together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and melted butter.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet and mix just to combine. Fold in the berries and pour into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until well risen, golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to sit in the pan for 15 minutes before cutting into squared to serve.
- This is delicious served warm with softened butter and liquid honey!
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English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are
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Old Fashioned Prune Butter is one of my favourite things to enjoy for breakfast. I had not made any in quite some time. This week I found myself craving it. What's a girl to do but to scratch that itch!
Prune Butter is a sweet breakfast spread that our grandmother's might have enjoyed, and indeed it mostly likely would have been found on most breakfast tables. Its sweet and sticky and nicely spiced.
Breakfast is one of my favourite meals of the day. I like to sit on my own and leisurely enjoy something in the quiet of the morning before anyone else is up. I know, it does sound a bit anti-social, but I really enjoy my quiet time early in the morning.
On a side note, can you see the bubbles in that cup of tea? My mother always called those bubbles money. She said that it meant you were going to enjoy a monetary boost. Perhaps my ship is about to come in!
Back to breakfast. I love prunes and absolutely anything that contains prunes. They call them the sunshine fruit and most of our prunes come from California where they have plenty of sunshine.
I have a delicious glass of prune juice every day, just a small one. It is loaded with fibre and lots of good things, including iron. It also goes a long way towards keeping things running smoothly, but we won't talk about that!
Prune butter is also something I really enjoy, even though I don't make it very often. Everytime I do make it, however I find myself wondering why!
It is incredibly delicious. It is at once sweet, with a slight tang and a tiny hint of warm baking spice which is quite, quite appealing.
It is really very simple to make. It is as simple as stewing some pitted prunes in water until soft and then draining them.
Once you have done that you simply add some honey and spices to them, along with lemon zest and
cook them for a tiny bit longer, stirring frequently.
They end up breaking down completely into a rich smooth, nicely spiced, sticky sweet spread. I imagine it is the stirring of the spoon which helps to make the magic happen.
You don't need to purree them, or mash them, or put them through a seive. It just happens. They break down beautifully.
Do make sure that you save the water that you drain off them. It is sweet and delicious to drink! Simply pour it into a jar, cover with a lid, and chill it in the refrigerator. You are in for a treat!
Oh but this prune butter is some tasty. This morning I enjoyed it on a toasted poppyseed brioche bread that I get from Ocado, which is an online grocer. They have been brilliant at doing home deliveries to me during the pandemic.
It is a bread that is soft and which toasts beautifully golden brown. There are swirls of a poppyseed paste throughout.
It is just wonderfully lightly buttered and then spread with the Prune Butter, which dips into all of those lovely poppy seed swirls.
The two together are quite simply perfection. There is no other word to describe this combination.
Have I ever told you about the beautiful poppyseed buns we used to get when we lived in South Eastern Alberta? Oh my but they were some good!
Those buns had a rich, thick poppyseed and cream filling. They were also iced with a sticky sweet glaze. I would buy a pack every time we went into Medicine Hat to shop for groceries.
I have never been able to find a recipe to replicate them, but I strongly suspect they were an Eastern European thing as that area was filled with Ukrainians. That's also where I learned how to make my own Pierogi from scratch.
But back to this Prune Butter. If you have never made this before you really absolutely must! It is well worth any effort taken!
Don't worry about being able to use it all up. That simply won't be a problem. You will find yourself spreading it all over your toast and bagels, muffins, tea breads, etc.
You can also cut the recipe easily in half if you think 2 cups of prune butter is more than you could ever possibly use. I did that today.
In order to cut the recipe in half you will need 1/2 pound of prunes, 1 1/2 cups water, 2 heaped TBS honey, 3 TBS cider vinegar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp each allspice and cloves. I left the lemon zest the same, along wih the cook times.
As you can see it turned out perfectly. Sweet, sticky and thick. In short perfection when it comes to something you want to spread on your toast.
You could also use it to spread between layers of vanilla or butter cake. It would be beautiful. I have a certain fondness for filling my cake layers with jams and marmalades and the like.
What a lovely breakfast treat this was for me. I really felt very elegant sitting there with my nice hot cuppa, pinky poised in mid air. I was the Lady of the Manor.
This was the perfect breakfast. I dare say that bread will become a regular for me in my grocery order as will bags of prunes so I can make us this fabulous prune butter a little more often than I have done!
Old Fashioned Prune Butter
Yield: Makes 2 cups
prep time: 5 Mcook time: 42 Mtotal time: 47 M
This old fashioned spread is filled with lots of beautiful flavours. Rich sticky prunes, warm spices, honey. This is gorgeous spread on anything. Its also very simple to make.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups (about 1 pound) of pitted prunes
- 3 cups water (750 ml)
- 1/3 cup liquid honey (80ml)
- 1/4 cup good apple cider vinegar (60ml)
- the grated zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1/4 tsp each ground cloves and ground allspice
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions:
- Place the prunes in a large saucepan along with the water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for half an hour, uncovered, until very soft. Drain the water from the prunes. (Keep the water to drink, its very delicious!) Return the prunes to the pan.
- Add the honey, apple cider vinegar, lemon zest and spices to the prunes in the saucepan. Cook over low heat for further 10 to 12 mius, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. The prunes will just above dissolve and the mixture will become very thick. Transfer to a covered container. Cool to room temperature and store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. Delicious!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The
English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are
reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you
may report it to me at: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
I wish you could smell my house right now. It smells really cosy. What is it about the warm baking spices and gingerbread that makes us feel right at home sweet home??
I have been baking these small batch Gingerbread Cookie Bars and let me tell you, our house smells truly A - MAZE - ING! Truly splendiferous!!
These might not look like much, but trust me, they are destined to become a firm favourite. Todd just loves them. He loves anything Gingerbread, as do I.
They are crisp edged and chewy middled. The recipe makes exactly 8 nice sized bars. No more, no less. I suppose you could cut them larger, but there is such a thing as too much goodness, and that would be it.
Eight bars is just the perfect size for us. We are only two. I find these days that if I bake anything in large numbers, it just doesn't get used up.
The empty nest sure takes getting used to. For years and years I cooked for seven people. Now there are only two of us. It has taken me a while to adjust.
I suppose when we do get company (my oldest son and daughter are supposed to be coming over at some point) I will have to try to expand my recipes again!
They were originally supposed to be coming for the month of April, but alas the Pandemic put an end to those plans. Now we are hoping that they will be able to come next year. Fingers and toes are being crossed on both sides of the pond!
These lush bars are buttery and flavoured with molasses and vanilla, as well as plenty of warm baking spices. I do so love the warm baking spices, don't you??
Cinnamon, Ginger, Cloves, Allspice . . . they are all in there . . . you could also add a touch of ground cardamom as well if you wished. It would not go amiss.
The icing is a simple lemon buttercream. Basic buttercream icings are very simple to make. Just pop everything into a bowl and beat on high with an electric whisk. Butter, (I like Lurpak lightly salted) cream, icing sugar and lemon extract.
Just beat them together until the mixture is light, fluffy and smooth. If you want your icing to be a bit thinner, you can add a smidgen more cream, or a small splash of milk.
I think it is pretty perfect just as it is. Just look there . . . delicious . . .ooey, chewy centred. What a fabulous looking mouthful.
I just adore the crisp edges and I love the chewy middles and I love that frosting. It is sweet and tangy and rich and goes so perfectly with the flavours of gingerbread.
These lush cookie bars are perfectly at home with ice cold glasses of milk or hot cups of tea or coffee . . . whatever it is you personally enjoy with things like these.
I had to have a taste of course, just to make sure they were okay before I fed them to Todd. I wouldn't want him to have to eat anything nasty . . .
Its a tough job but somebody has to do it. I am always willing to take the bullet for just such a cause, and I'm afraid my hips show it!
Moderation is evidentally not really a part of my vocabulary. That's another reason why small batch recipes work well for me. There is far less temptation for me to have to deal with.
Just because you are a small family that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the same things that larger families enjoy. These are perfect.
You can freeze any leftovers, or keep them in an airtight container for about a week, no problem. I am pretty sure, however, that these won't be around that long to worry about their storage.
Lemon Frosted Gingerbread Cookie Bars
Yield: Makes 8 bars
prep time: 10 Mcook time: 25 Mtotal time: 35 M
Todd just adores these soft and chewy Gingerbread Bars. He doesn't like anything too hard. These are crisp edged and chewy middled. With their sweet lemon buttercream frosting, they always go down a real treat!
Ingredients:
For the Bars:
- 1/4 cup butter, softened (60g)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50g)
- 1/4 cup soft light brown sugar, packed (50g)
- 1 large free range egg yolk (freeze the white to make angelfood cake at another time)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 TBS molasses
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- pinch each cloves and nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour (140g)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
For the Lemon frosting:
- 1 cup sifted icing sugar (130g)
- 1 TBS butter softened
- 1 TBS cream
- 1/2 tsp lemon extract
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Butter an 8 by six inch baking dish and line with baking paper so that you can remove the bars easily. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter and both sugars. Beat in the egg yolk, vanilla and molasses until light and creamy
- Sift the flour together with the spices, salt and baking soda. Add to the creamed mixture and mix together until combined and there are no longer any white streaks. Press this dough into your prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes. It will be golden around the edges and puffed up. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan. (It will sink in the middle, don't worry that's what is supposed to happen.)
- To make the icing, beat all of the ingredients together until light and creamy. If you think it is a bit too stiff, add a crop more cream. Spread this into the sunken area of the bars once they are completely cold.
- Cut into 8 bars to serve. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
Make sure you come to visit me on Monday, I have a fabulous Giveaway to share with you for something that is really REALLY delicious!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The
English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are
reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you
may report it to me at: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
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