‘’When you pursue great flavour, you also pursue great ecology” – Dan Barber
Anson Mills Native Fine Blue Cornmeal is the star of this recipe. You can use any cornmeal as a substitute, but I wanted to explain why I love this brand.
I discovered Anson Mills when reading Dan Barbers, ‘The Third Plate’ which speaks to the history of American agriculture and how we as chefs and consumers need to think about how to align our purchases with a sustainable food system, which is not only better for the land but for taste and nutrition also.
Anson Mills is an example of exactly this, having brought back heritage seeds and grains that were breed for flavour and to complement the terroir. (This includes Carolina Gold Rice, known as Carolina ice-cream, in the south and this beautiful native blue cornmeal dating back to pre-Columbian times.) It is in these two components that bring the integrity and sustainability to the plate. Hence the third plate title from Dan Barber, reimagining the future of food.
This is a vegan and gluten free version of cornbread, so there are a few techniques to getting it right, all distilled below into an easy recipe that takes 30 minutes from ingredients to the table.
Mr B loves these so much he has been eating them for breakfast! They are a savoury sweet, so can be used to accompany any meal.
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 4 tsp. GF baking powder
- 4 cups fine blue cornmeal (preferably Anson Mills)
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 2 tsp. sea salt
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 4 Tbsp. flax seeds
Method
- Mix the almond milk and vinegar and set aside for 10 minutes (this will make a vegan version of buttermilk*)
- Next, make the vegan egg*. Blend the flax seeds till they form a flour like consistency, add 10 tablespoons of water and stir, leave for 5 minutes
- In a bowl mix the cornmeal, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt. Mix.
- In a separate bowl mix the coconut oil, maple syrup, flax eggs and vegan buttermilk. Make sure all these ingredients are room temperature as otherwise the coconut oil will crystalize. If that happens, then just gently warm the mixture and it will melt back in.
- In a large bowl, slowly add in the mixture and mix until fully blended (I like a figure of eight movement to fold in the flour from the bottom)
- Use silicon or paper muffin holders and evenly pour the batter in. Fill 2/3 of the way as the mix will rise.
- This mixture makes approximately 24 muffins or 12 muffins and a cornbread (use a greased cake tin).
- Place in a preheated oven at 400F for 15 minutes. Cool for at least 10 minutes.
*For future reference, buttermilk is made by adding full fat milk with an acid (e.g. lemon or white vinegar), this causes it to curdle. To make vegan buttermilk you can use any unsweetened plant milk and add an acid, I like almond milk and apple cider vinegar, soya milk and lemon would be good substitutes.
*For future reference, this is a common substitute in vegan recipes for an egg. It works as a binder in muffins, pancakes etc. Flax seeds are one of the oldest crops in the world and have great health benefits. Just one tablespoon provides a good amount of protein, fibre and omega-3 fatty acids, in addition to being a rich source of vitamins and minerals. They are one of the richest sources of Lignans, providing around 800 times more lignans than other plant foods, which may help with preventing cancer.
