I am a cornbread purist. I don’t want bits of things in it. No corn kernels. No broccoli. No onions. Just cornbread.
But then I saw something interesting on Facebook — sweet potato cornbread. Hmmm. No bit or chunks. Just cornbread made using sweet potato puree. I thought that might be worth trying.
Boy, am I glad I did!
I ended up with a very moist, almost cake-like cornbread that was wonderful with butter and also with jelly (apple butter was particularly good!).
Start by boiling 2 medium sized sweet potatoes. You can peel and cut the sweet potatoes into pieces before boiling, or you can boil them with the skins on and slip them off easily after boiling. Since sweet potatoes are very hard and irregularly shaped, they can be difficult to peel and cut up when they are raw. (Meaning it’s much easier to cut or injure yourself when trying to cut them up. Not that I know from experience.) If you boil them with the skins on, be sure to pierce the skin with a fork after boiling for about 10 minutes to help speed the process. Boil for another 20-30 minutes, until a knife will slide into the potato easily with no resistance. Run cold water over the potatoes until they are cool enough to handle, then slit the skin and peel it off. (It’s kind of like peeling a banana.)
Once you have prepared the sweet potatoes, mash them in a bowl with 3/4 cup of buttermilk. The buttermilk will help cool the temperature of the sweet potatoes. I recommend using an electric mixer to get a smooth texture, but you can also mix by hand. Once it is well mixed and cooled, add 2 large eggs and mix well. It is important for the sweet potato mixture to be cooled before adding the eggs, to prevent the whites from starting to cook and ruining the texture.
In a food processor, combine 1 cup + 2 1/2 tablespoons of cornmeal, 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1/2 cup of plain flour.
*If you are not using self-rising cornmeal, also add 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. If you are using self-rising, those ingredients are already included.
After you have combined those ingredients, add one stick (1/2 cup) of cold butter that has been cut into small pieces and process until the mixture is the texture of coarse sand. Add to the sweet potato mixture and stir until just combined.
Pour the mixture into a black skillet* and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until firm and lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before slicing.
*A well-seasoned black skillet is always the best choice for baking cornbread, but a stone baking dish also works well.
The Fake Gourmet 