Bacon Corn Bread

I wanted to make something last weekend that would keep well and warm up nicely. Also, I needed to feed a few people that were coming into town for the inauguration so it needed to be a big dish.

One of my favorite food blogs these days is Pete Bakes, so when I saw his corn bread recipe, I knew I wanted to duplicate it.

I didn’t change a darn thing. Made it just like him. I really like it.

Corn Bread (From Pete Bakes and Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice)

- 1 Cup cornmeal
- 2 Cups buttermilk
- 8-10 ounces bacon
- 1 3/4 Cups flour
- 1 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 1/4 Cup white sugar
- 1/2 Cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) corn kernels
- 2 Tablespoons bacon fat or vegetable oil

You need to start this recipe the night before. Measure out that cornmeal.

Stir it into the buttermilk and let this keep overnight. I kept mine in the fridge, but the original says to keep it at room temperature.

In the morning you can fry up the bacon. Since bacon usually comes in 16 ounces, that gives you 6 ounces to eat and 10 ounces for the recipe. Sounds like a good morning to me.

Reserve some of the fat for later also.

Below is my attempt at a diagram showing how to make the batter. In the blue bowl I have the eggs, honey, and melted butter. I dissolved the honey in the butter first before combining with the eggs.

Then stir that into the cornmeal and buttermilk. Then stir that all into the dry ingredients which are combined well in a separate bowl. So in the larger metal bowl I have the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars.

You will end up with a fairly smooth batter. Don’t worry if there are a few lumps.

Then stir in all that corn. If you used frozen, thaw it first.

Preheat your oven in a 350 degree oven. Get a 9 by 13 inch dish and but 2 Tablespoons bacon fat or vegetable oil in the dish. Heat the pan in the oven few minutes. If you are using glass, like me, just warm it up. Don’t get the glass too hot or it might crack.

Then pour in your batter and sprinkle it with bacon.

Bake it for 30 – 35 minutes and you are all set. Be sure to let it cool for a few minutes before you chow down.

This was a pretty good dish for a crowd. The official taste-tester said that it could have used some goat cheese which is maybe true, but the official taste-tester thinks everything could use goat cheese. :)

If you like bacon, or corn bread, this is a pretty good dish for you. Thanks to Pete for bringing it to my attention.