Have you ever gotten an idea stuck in your head and then you just have to work on it until you’ve seen it through? That was me with this blueberry thyme cornbread. The first time I made it, the batter overflowed out of the tin and oozed everywhere. If you’re curious what that looked like, the photo is here on Instagram. The second time it came out greasy. It look all right, but if you were to touch a piece of paper to it the grease would soak through. Then the third time it was nearly perfect but it tasted too much like cake and not enough like cornbread. Then finally, finally the fourth time it came out well and now I can finally share the recipe with you.
Now, you might be saying Mariel why did you become so obsessed with cornbread – and not just any cornbread this sort of off beat cornbread? Well a few months ago I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I think it’s really wonderful and I’ve become sort of obsessed by it. There’s lots too the book, but the main thing to the KonMari Method is that you should only keep things that bring you joy. Then, as you tidy you hold each object in your hand and if it gives you joy you keep it and if it doesn’t you get rid of it.
Our apartment went through what Ryan and I now call, “the great purge.” And largely, I’ve kept to it. Yes, I think there are some things that we could still get rid of. However, now I have about 6 more inches of space on the bar in my closet. Everything is easy to spot and grab from it’s place. I don’t have any clothes that I put on and immediately take off because I hate. And now when I open the kitchen cupboards I don’t worry about an avalanche falling out. It’s amazing. Anyway, I was tidying in the kitchen when I found a giant bag of cornmeal that I had forgotten about. When I held it in my hand I got excited about using it. Sure, I could make regular cornbread but what other possibilities might be out there?
So I hit the internet and found Vanilla and Bean‘s recipe for Blueberry Lemon-Thyme Cornmeal Crisp. The photos are so gorgeous and they convinced me that I had to try this flavor combination. But, I wanted to use more cornmeal and create something more like regular cornbread and less like dessert.
Then, as I already told you I tried adapting lots of recipes each resulting in disaster, until I found Recipe Girl‘s recipe for Blueberry Cornbread. Her recipe is lovely and I’ve adapted it just a little by adding thyme and lemon zest. As well, I didn’t have enough buttermilk so I used Greek yogurt. You can use either, just pick what you prefer or can easily find. If you don’t have Greek yogurt, check out this post from My King Cook. It provides lots of different ways to make your own buttermilk. It’s so helpful. With her tutorial I feel certain you’ll have something in your fridge so you can make your own buttermilk.
Anyway, this recipe is what I’d call “breakfast cake.” It’s soft and slightly sweet like a cake, but not so decadent you’d feel bad about having it first thing in the morning. I also love the combination of savory and sweet flavors. The blueberries are tart, the lemon gives a subtle zing, and the cornbread is hearty and tasty, and the thyme adds nice herbal notes. Warning though! Ryan and I felt like this was best eaten with three days of making it because after that the thyme flavor gets really strong. Most importantly, this cornbread is best eaten warm out of the oven. The flavors are perfect then and the blueberries are hot and jammy. It’s so good you’ll want to stand over the counter just eating slices of cornbread.
Finally, have you ever had a cooking challenge that keeps going wrong? Have you solved it yet? I’d love to hear it so feel free to share it in the comments.
Adapted from Recipe Girl.
Messy level: The procedure is pretty straightforward – mix dry and wet ingredients separately and then combine. The messiest part is picking the thyme leaves off the stem. They can be such a pain and fly all over the kitchen!
- 1 cup/ 150 grams yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup/ 120 grams all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup/ 50 grams white granulated sugar
- ¼ cup/ 45 grams packed light brown sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons thyme leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 1¼/ 300 ml cups buttermilk or Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- 6 tablespoons/ 84 grams unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup fresh blueberries, divided
- If you haven't already done so, melt the butter now so it can cool before you need it. Just pop it in a microwave safe bowl, heat for 10 second intervals and stir in between until completely melted.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C.
- Grease an 8-inch square pan with butter.
- In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, brown sugar, thyme, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Take out 1 tablespoon of flour mixture and set it aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and lemon zest.
- Pour the buttermilk mixture and the melted butter into the dry ingredients.
- Stir gently until everything is just incorporated.
- In a small bowl, mix together the 1 tablespoon of set aside flour with ¾ cup of blueberries. This helps make sure the blueberries won't sink while baking.
- Gently fold the ¾ cup of blueberries into your batter.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of blueberries over the top of the batter.
- Bake the cornbread for 40 minutes, or until the edges turn golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
