Gusti’s Spoon Cornbread
Our friend Gusti C. Pollo introduced us to this cornbread at a party last month, and I begged for the recipe. She graciously shared it with me, and yesterday I made a batch to see if it was as good as I remembered. Oh yeah.
Gusti's Spoon Cornbread
Ingredients
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- ½ cup melted butter
- 1 egg
- 1 can creamed corn
- 1 tbsp finely chopped jalapeño peppers (or to taste)
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 can green chiles, chopped
- grated cheese (sharp cheddar or your choice)
Directions
Mix the first ten ingredients to make a batter. Pour half the batter into a flat baking pan or oven-proof casserole and spread it with a spatula until flat. Top with half the grated cheese and chiles. Pour a second layer of batter on top, spread it, and top with the remaining cheese and chiles. Bake at 400° for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Notes
A purist would use fresh Hatch chiles, but I’m coming around to the canned ones. They taste great and are always perfectly skinned, with no black flakes from the scorching process. Your choice, though. When Gusti says one can of green chiles, she means a normal sized can. The one we had in our cupboard was a large one, which you can see in the top photo. I used five to six peppers from that can and saved the rest.
If you’re using a smaller baking pan or casserole you can split the batter into three layers. Gusti said not to grease the pan, but I sprayed ours lightly with Pam and was happy with the results. The cornbread was done in 40 minutes, so maybe cooking time is oven-dependent … at any rate, I’d give it a toothpick check at 40 minutes and adjust from there.
This cornbread goes perfectly with Crouton’s chili con carne!
