butter

Honey Butter Cornbread

May 16, 2018

I don’t know about you, but as a kid I loved cornbread! My mom and I would make cornbread maybe once a week (okay, maybe not that often) from the Marie Calendar cornbread mix. It was our go-to!

Lately, I haven’t been eating as much cornbread, but sometimes the meal (and mood) just calls for it! Particularly when I make our favorite turkey chili. How can you have chili without cornbread!? You really can’t.

So I went about trying to replicate my old favorite, with a few tweaks. For instance, I swapped the sugar for honey because honey and cornbread are a match made in heaven. The honey gives the cornbread so much more flavor and depth. Not to mention, it cuts out the processed sugar. Win-win.

I also added in some frozen corn kernels (specifically, roasted corn kernels from Trader Joes, just because that’s what I had on hand). This ingredient is totally optional, but I love the little bits of corn in the cornbread which add a little bit of extra moisture to an otherwise dry bread.

The coup de gras is the little bits of butter that baked right on top of the cornbread to give it this extra crunchy and delicious crust on top. Hense why I call this honey butter cornbread.

This honey butter cornbread was so good I was eating leftovers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Top it with a little more butter (or better yet, honey butter), and you won’t even need the chili!

How to Make It

Cornbread is actually a pretty simple recipe and easy to make from scratch, provided you have everything on hand. Like other quick breads, it’s as simple as mixing together the dry ingredients, then pouring in the wet ingredients.

In this case, first mix together the cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder.

In a separate bowl or cup, mix together the wet ingredients: milk, honey, melted butter, and egg.

Then mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Mix until all the ingredients are just combined.

Then, if you so choose, mix in the frozen corn kernels. I used roasted corn kernels because that’s what I had available, but roasted corn is not necessary.

Finally, pour the batter into an 8″-9″ square or round pan, pressing the thick batter all the way to the edges to ensure an even bake.

And for the butter piece of the honey butter cornbread, top the entire pan with little pieces of butter. As the bread bakes, the butter melts right into the top forming a crunchy, buttery top which is oh so good!

Once out of the oven, you will have to restrain yourself from digging right in! But I insist on letting it cool down a little otherwise the bread will just crumble to pieces.

Like this. Because I couldn’t help myself and just cut right into a slice.

It was still delicious though!

Supplies and Recipe

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The Best Buttercream Frosting Recipe

September 8, 2017

It may surprise you to hear that I am not much of a frosting person. Whenever I eat cake, I typically eat around the frosting, leaving a huge heap of it on my plate.

But of course, there are always exceptions. The exception is this buttercream. Every time I make it I get so many compliments on how light, airy, and not-too-sweet it is. People are used to that dense, buttery, sickeningly sweet buttercream so this one is basically like a breath of fresh air.

There are actually three main types of buttercream frosting (that I am aware of): American, Italian, and Swiss. The American version is what we are used to. It is basically just butter and sugar mix together. American buttercream is totally fine in moderation and is really good if you need to make some intricate designs on your cake or cupcake. But when it piled on top of said cake or cupcake, it’s just too much.

Italian meringue buttercream incorporates meringue (fluffy egg whites), which makes it super light and airy. To make Italian meringue, you heat up sugar and water until it boils, then pour it into to a stand mixer bowl that is whipping up the egg whites. The only reason I don’t like this version is that making Italian meringue dirties up one extra pan and you have to make sure the sugar get’s to the perfect temperature or you risk ruining your meringue.

I prefer the Swiss meringue buttercream because it has all the benefits of the Italian version but with a lot less hassle. Instead of heating up water and sugar, you actually heat up the egg whites with the sugar and whisk them over a double boiler until the sugar has dissolved. Then you whip up the egg whites until you have stiff peaks. I do this all in the bowl of my stand mixer so that I only have one bowl to clean up in the end.

Once the meringue has cooled, you add in your butter. Now this is where I have gotten a little thrown off in the past, and I know other people struggle with this too. So many times I think I have ruined my buttercream because it looks super lumpy and gross, like the picture on the left. But, that’s just a step in the process to getting it nice and smooth.

When you slowly add the butter to the egg whites, it’s almost like trying to mix together oil and water. They just don’t want to go together without a little coaxing. So after just a little mixing it will appear that the frosting has separated. Just keep mixing and you will get a creamy, smooth buttercream frosting!

The best part about this frosting is that it goes with anything! You can add other flavors to it, but the plain vanilla can top off any cake flavor.

It’s also sturdy enough to pipe any details, like flowers, leaves, ruffles, etc. If you have seen any of my cakes or cupcakes that have some design on them, this is the frosting I use.

Its also the only buttercream frosting that I don’t scrape off my cake because it’s just too good to let go to waste!

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5 Minute Hollandaise Sauce (Made in a Blender!)

April 19, 2017

If you want to add a little decadence to your meal, add hollandaise sauce. It should be the definition of decadent. How could egg yolks blended with butter be anything but!

Making hollandaise can be a little bit of a pain in the butt, however. I’ve tried to make it on a couple of occasions and it has always been more work than it’s worth. Then I learned you could make hollandaise in a blender and my life was changed! It couldn’t have been easier. No more double boiler. No more constant whisking. I could just throw everything into the blender and let it do the work for me.

There are only a few ingredients in hollandaise sauce: egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, cayenne, salt, pepper, and a bit of water. First add the eggs, lemon juice, and water to the blender and give that thing a good blend. You want your egg yolks to be nice and pale and frothy.

Melt the butter, and while it is still hot gradually pour it into the egg mixture with the blender running. Be prepared to get a little bit splattered.

Keep the blender running until the sauce thickens…then blend it a little more.

The last step is to add some seasoning. Julia Childs likes to add a bit of cayenne in addition to some salt and pepper. I am not one to argue with Julia, so I, added some cayenne, too. You could also add a dash of hot sauce or paprika.

And that’s all you have to do to make some delicious hollandaise sauce! Easy right? I bet you thought hollandaise sauce would be a lot more complicated! I sure did.

Hollandaise sauce can go on a lot more than just Eggs Benedict. I drizzled this on top of an asparagus tart, which was delicious paired with the lemony sauce. I hear it is also amazing with most vegetables, especially root vegetables, eggs, ham, and fish.

Now that you know how to make a quick and easy hollandaise, you can use that as a base to make lots of other sauces (that’s why hollandaise is considered one of the French mother sauces)! Here are some ideas to get you started!

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