Toasted cornbread with whipped goats cheese and chipotle butter
Topped with a fried egg, this delicious cornbread recipe makes for an immaculate brunch.
It comes from a true organic ambassador, and the founder of Wahaca restaurants, Thomasina Miers. Thomasina says: "though the ingredients here are for a savoury recipe, this delicious, moist corn bread recipe works equally well with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a drizzle of salted caramel or dulce de leche as with this deliciously smoky chipotle-honey butter."
Watch the video for a handy explainer from Thomasina herself, or follow the method below to get cooking!
Ingredients:
For the cornbread:
- 90g butter, melted
- 180ml buttermilk
- 180ml whole milk plus 2-3 tbsp
- 5 medium eggs
- 250g fresh or frozen corn (from about 2 cobs)
- 100g plain flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 200g polenta
- A small handful of coriander, roughly chopped
- Dried chilli flakes or finely chopped red chilli (optional)
- 200g goats cheese or goats’ curd
For the butter:
- 150g butter
- 2-4 tbsp chipotle en adobo, to taste
- 1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 2 tbsp honey
Method:
Preheat the oven at 180°c, 160C fan-assisted.
Grease a square or rectangular baking tin and line the bottom pan with greased greaseproof paper.
Blitz the butter, milks and eggs in a blender with half the corn for a minute. Add the remaining corn and pulse beat once or twice - whole chunks of corn are lovely in this recipe.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together, then add the polenta, salt and sugar. Whisk lightly and make a well in the centre. Add the blended mix of buttermilk and corn into the flour well, with the coriander and chillies, if using, and whisk quickly and lightly to combine, trying not to overwork the batter. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes, until springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Finely chop the chipotle en adobo and add to a small pan with the butter, lime juice and honey. Stir to melt and season with some salt and pepper, adding more chipotle and lime juice to taste.
If you can find goats curd, then you need to do nothing! If you have goat’s cheese, however, remove any rind and blitz with a stick blender with enough milk to create a lovely light-whipped mousse.
When the corn bread has cooled cut into slices (whatever you don’t use freezes beautifully, or lasts well, wrapped in the fridge) and griddle or fry them in a little butter. Top with the goats curd or cheese, with the honeyed butter drizzled over, with or without that fried egg.