It’s been a long time since I posted anything recipe and cooking related!

Not long ago, I took advantage of an excellent sale, and picked up a whole bunch of fresh strawberries. A couple of clamshells needed to be used up quickly, as they were starting to get past their prime, so I decided to experiment.

I took our basic cast iron skillet corn bread recipe and modified it to make an upside down strawberry cornbread.

It turned out rather well!

First, I’ll give our basic recipe, then explain the modifications. We rarely make it without some sort of modification, so I’ll include those as well.

Basic Cast Iron Skillet Corn Bread

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1Tbsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 4 Tbsp butter, melted, plus extra for the pan

Optional:

• add seasonings to the dry ingredients, such as paprika, garlic granules or whatever herbs you feel like, to taste.
• there is no salt in this recipe, but I sometimes like to add a small amount of course or rock salt that would normally go into our salt grinder, which leaves some nice little crunchy chunks to discover while eating it!
• add savoury ingredients like a semi-soft or semi-hard cheese (mozza, cheddar, gouda, havarti, feta, etc.) cut into small cubes (shredded cheese will just disappear), or leftover ham cut into cubes, to the dry ingredients.
• instead of butter, you can use oil or melted ghee. We like using ghee quite a bit!
• substitute part of the milk for an equal amount of cream, sour cream or yoghurt. You could also try using buttermilk instead of milk, or even use reconstituted powdered milk.

Instructions:

• preheat oven to 425F
• place cast iron pan with some butter in it into the oven until the butter is melted. Spread the melted butter evenly around the pan, including the sides.
• combine dry ingredients into a medium bowl, including any optional ingredients
• add the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
• pour the batter into the pan
• bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and pulling away from the sides, or a toothpick stuck into the middle comes out clean
• flip onto a rack to cool. Can be served warm with melted butter.

Modification: We start the oven preheating, prepare the cast iron pan, mix the batter, pour it into the pan, place it into the still preheating oven, then set the timer for 25-30 minutes. Basically, it’s because it takes a long time for our oven to preheat to 425F and we’re impatient. It has always worked just fine.

Upside Down Strawberry Corn Bread modifications

Extra Ingredients:

• fresh strawberries, cleaned and hulled
• butter
• brown sugar

• Place the clean cast iron pan on the stove and melt a generous amount of butter into it. I used a couple of tablespoons, maybe a bit more, for our 10 inch pan.
• After the butter is melted, use some to oil the sides of the pan
• Add enough brown sugar to cover the bottom of the pan evenly
• Cut the strawberries into enough slices to cover the bottom of the pan; lay them on top of the brown sugar
• Chop more strawberries into small cubes and add them to the dry ingredients of the corn bread batter.
• Once the batter is ready, gently pour it over the strawberry slices, so as not to disturb them. If there is a chance that the butter and brown sugar might bubble up the sides of your pan, place it on a baking sheet in the oven, or have a baking sheet on the rack below.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden brown and starting to pull away from the sides
• When done, turn off the oven and let it rest in the oven for a few minutes, then remove and cool, still in the pan, outside the oven for a few minutes more. The heat from the cast iron pan will continue to crisp up the edges and caramelize the brown sugar base.
• slide a knife around the edges of the pan to make sure it’s not sticking. Take a plate larger than the top of your pan and put it upside down over the cornbread. Carefully flip the pan upside down and remove the pan.
• can be served served warm with a touch of cream poured over the top, or completely cooled – if you’re willing to wait that long!

As I wrote this post, my daughters made another batch. It’s out of the oven now, and I can’t wait to have some!

The Re-Farmer