Dragonwagon’s Cheddar-Scallion-Black Pepper Cornsticks

in , , , , on Saturday, September 3, 2011



Crescent Dragonwagon is the creator of this recipe and The Cornbread Gospels ~ great name but, I don’t have a clue about her or her name!  It’s a unique cookbook though with all types of recipes using cornmeal.   

Before I go on with the recipe, I just want to thank Kat @sweetkatskitchen for the fantastic “Gooseberry Patch Baking Recipes Organizer" I won in her giveaway.  It’s filled with many pockets for recipes and great tips are on each pocket also.  Kat has an excellent blog chocked full of delicious baked goodies.  She has had a busy holiday season ~ baking for her customers.  And now, I finally have a way to organize all my newspaper and magazine recipe clippings!  Thanks so much, Kat!  Go check out Kat’s website, you’ll be glad you did!




Cornbread is a good thing that turns into a great thing when they’re sticks!  It’s like a little miniature cornbread of your own!  They take being baked in a corn stick pan ~ a heavy cast-iron mold shaped like tiny ears of corn.  Corn sticks have a great crunchy texture because a larger surface area is exposed to both the direct air of the oven and the cast iron molds.  If you favor REALLY crunchy corn sticks like we do, use stone-ground cornmeal for extra crunch.  Like I’ve said before in several posts, I can not buy stone-ground cornmeal locally so purchase it from Nora Mill.

Probably, most any batter can be used for corn sticks. Since it is easy for the batter to stick to the pan, the trick is to grease the molds very liberally and place them into the oven until sizzling hot, almost smoking, before adding the batter.  The corn sticks turn out a beautiful golden color!


 


These Cheddar-Scallion-Black Pepper Cornsticks are in Crescent Dragonwagon’s words, “jazzy enough to make you say ‘WOW’ with each bite!”  You want a sharp Cheddar cheese. “The scallion-black pepper mix is better than it has any right to be,” Crescent is right!

Here’s Dragonwagon’s recipe:

Cheddar-Scallion-Black Pepper Cornsticks
Adapted

Ingredients:

1½ cups flour
1¼ cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 to 1½ teaspoons coarse freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups (8 ounces) very finely grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1½ cups buttermilk*
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted
3 scallions, chopped very, very fine
Vegetable oil cooking spray (Crisco)**

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and black pepper in a large bow, stirring very well.
Remove 2 tablespoons of this mixture and toss it in a small bowl with the finely grated cheese.  Set aside.
Beat eggs and buttermilk together in a medium bowl, then beat in the melted butter. 
Stir this into the flour-cornmeal mix with just a few strokes-it shouldn’t be fully incorporated yet.
Sprinkle with the scallions and cheese and stir a few more times, just until combined.
Spray the corn stick pan very liberally with oil, and spoon the batter into the molds about three quarters of the way full.
Bake until the corn sticks are crusty and golden, 18 to 20 minutes.
Cool briefly in the pans, then turn out onto a rack to cool a little more.
Serve warm.

YUM!

Pam’s note:  I used 1½ teaspoons pepper.  

*The recipe calls for 1¼ cups buttermilk.  It was a thick batter so I increased it to 1½ cups.  

The recipe reads to fill the molds about three quarters of the way full.  I did this at first and after baking a couple, realized they needed to be filled almost full. 

**I liberally greased the pans with Crisco, (no cooking spray) heated them in the oven until very hot before adding batter and baking.

ENJOY!



Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes and cookbook giveaway!





This entry was posted on Saturday, September 3, 2011 at 7:34 AM and is filed under , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.

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