A Bakers & Best Thanksgiving: Pumpkin Cornbread
On Friday afternoon I set aside some time as usual to think about what I wanted to make this weekend. Unless I have a particular craving that needs attention this usually involves perusing my list of bookmarked recipes and comparing those ingredient lists with what we have on hand. For several weeks I had wanted to make this pumpkin cornbread, a vegetable tart, and a baked apple dessert. It snowed twice here last week (nothing that accumulated though), so I know my time to crank out these fall recipes is limited. A few days ago this bread stuffing from Brown Eyed Baker also ended up on my list. As I stared at these four dishes I realized, ‘Hey, minus the turkey I have a Thanksgiving meal right here!” And that’s how on Friday night I decided I was going to make Thanksgiving this weekend.
I’ve never been as on top of things like many other bloggers to post holiday recipes before the holiday. Last year I wrote about some sweet potato dinner rolls the week before Thanksgiving and was pretty proud of myself. I’ll be posting a different recipe from this meal each week, just as I’m sure the pilgrims did on their food blogs. I wonder what the popular blogs were back then…Mayflower’s Compact Kitchen…Squanto’s Organic Living…Perfectly Plymouth Paleo…I think coming up with historical themed food blog names is my newest passion.
It amazes me how in most grocery stores pumpkins cease to exist after Halloween. So far as I know all pumpkins do not explode or go rotten once the calendar hits November. I have the good fortune of being just two blocks away from the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market so I was able to walk over Saturday morning and get one, since neither Meijer nor Kroger had any.
This is the third cornbread recipe I’ve posted about and I enjoyed it just as much as the other two. The pumpkin made it exceptionally moist but it had a nice crust all the way around. This was the first time I’ve made cornbread in a cast iron skillet versus a glass Pyrex dish. The recipe, which I got from the NY Times, had me preheat the skillet and then melt butter in it right before I put the batter in. The resulted in a much crisper, and a bit too browned probably, bottom layer of the cornbread. Were I to make this again I might not preheat the skillet.
This is just part one of this week’s Thanksgiving carb-stravaganza, check back tomorrow for my absolute favorite Thanksgiving dish, stuffing!
- Pumpkin Cornbread
- Ingredients
- 1 C pumpkin puree
- 1 C milk
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 eggs
- 1½ C cornmeal
- ½ C AP flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- Place a 9 inch cast iron skillet or 2 quart baking dish in the oven and preheat to 400 F.
- In a large bowl whisk together pumpkin, milk, olive oil, honey, and eggs. In a separate bowl mix together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and whisk until there are no dry bits.
- Remove the heated skillet/dish from the oven and drop the butter in the pan. Move around so that the bottom of the pan is coated. Pour the batter into the pan and place in the oven.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool 20 minutes before slicing.
