Cornbread Croutons
Of course you can use your favorite store-bought bread or muffins for the croutons, but I was itching to bake the day before the potluck, so I whipped this up, then cut it immediately and gave the squares 24 hours to get stale, which they did very well. Thus, if you’re planning just to eat the cornbread, it’s best to do so right away. We made these for this Southwestern Salad for Mag Club. Read the original post here.
Ingredients
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cups fine-ground cornmeal
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 1/2 cups half and half
2 eggs
2 tablespoons applesauce
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Put a 9×13″ baking pan onto a middle rack while the oven warms up.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Whisk together the half and half, eggs, applesauce, and maple syrup, then pour over the dry ingredients and fold to combine. Last, add the melted butter and fold until very little of the dry mixture is showing. It’s better to see some flour than to overmix.
With a potholder, pull the pan from the oven. Quickly spray it with cooking spray, then pour in the batter. Return to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until the top is golden and the edges have pulled away from the sides. Cut half into large squares and eat or save, and cut half into 1-inch squares, putting them aside to get stale for the salad croutons.
