New York Times Brown Butter Cornmeal Bread

·     The New York Times has a fabulous cooking section with wonderful photos of their recipes. Since I have a particular fondness for rustic breads, brown butter, maple syrup and cornmeal the following recipe seemed like it was made for me. As I was pouring the batter into my cast iron pan, I thought there was way too much of it and it would certainly expand in the oven, overflow and make a mess. And yes, yes it did. For a while I was not exactly sure what I had done wrong and was quite prepared to blame the New York Times. However, common sense prevailed and I measured the diameter of my cast iron pan, which happens to be an inch smaller than the size recommended in the recipe. Eureka.

   On the bright side, this is an example of how things don't have to look perfect to taste good.  All's well that ends well.....and this ended very well.

        Ingredients:

•  1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter

•   ½ cup maple syrup

•  2 ¼ cups buttermilk

• 3 large eggs

• 1 ½ cups yellow cornmeal, fine or medium-coarse grind

• ½ cup whole wheat flour

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• 1 ½ tablespoons baking powder

• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

•  ½ teaspoon baking soda

Methods: 
Heat your oven to 375 degrees F. On the stovetop, in a 11- or 12-inch skillet (ovenproof, preferably cast iron and on the large size), melt the butter over a medium heat. Cook, swirling the pan to lightly coat its sides and bottom, until the foam subsides and the butter turns a deep nut brown. It will have the characteristic nutty aroma of brown butter at this point. Pour the brown butter into a large bowl. Do not wipe out the pan. 

Whisk the maple syrup into the butter, then whisk in the buttermilk. The mixture should be cool to the touch; if not, let it cool before whisking in the eggs to avoid scrambling them. Then whisk in the cornmeal, flours, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

If the skillet is no longer hot (cast iron retains heat longer than other metals), reheat it briefly on the stove for a few minutes. Then scrape in the batter. Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into it emerges clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool in the skillet for 10 minutes before slicing. I'm planning on serving this with butter, and dare I say it, more maple syrup.