Blue Zucchini Cornbread
The North feels like they know how to make bread, this is a gross superstition. Perhaps no bread in the world is as good as
Southern cornbread.
Mark Twain
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 cups non-gmo whole wheat flour-like einkorn
1 cup blue cornmeal ( find freshly ground if possible)
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1/2 cup homemade buttermilk from raw milk * see buttermilk note below.
1 large zucchini (about 10 ounces)
1/4 cup coconut sugar or maple sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp mineral salt
1/2 cups melted ghee
This recipe is from a lot of trials, and me playing with a LOT of recipes. I adjusted the flours, and buttermilk amount after ten or so recipes.
Traditional cornbread recipes use a lot of sugar, and I definitely cut that amount back.
What I love about this recipe:
A) Its a way to use your extra zucchini!
B) I feel good after eating it.
C) My husband loves it, being from the south and all.
If you dont have bluecorn meal, you can use yellow.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Position a rack in the middle of oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Melt the ghee in a 9 x 9 inch baking dish while the oven is preheating. Remove before it starts to pop. Then in a medium bowl whisk in buttermilk and eggs. Set aside.
Trim Zucchini ends. Then grab a cheese grater and grate whole zucchini. Then add zucchini to the bowl with buttermilk mixture.
In a large bowl, sift wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk in cornmeal.
Add zucchini mixture, fold in to mix. Mixture should be very thick.
Transfer batter to prpared dish that should be coated in ghee.
Bake bread until golden and a tester toothpick comes out clean, around 30 minutes. Check at 25.
Remove fro,m oven when done, let cool for 10 minutes in dish. Then remove from dish and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Store in a airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.
BUTTERMILK NOTE**
How to make delicious homemade buttermilk.
First off- if you know a dairy farmer, make them your friend! Cows that are treated well and cared for with love, and whose babies are fed yeild the best, most nutrient dense divine milk. This milk is easier for us to digest!
If you dont have access to a dairy farmer, see if you can go to a local grocery store and get some raw milk ( when it is pasteurized you loose a lot of the nutrients!)
Next you are going to need the buttermilk culture. I buy mine from this wonderful company, New England Cheese making company. Follow the link here to order the starter. You keep it in the freezer until you use it, and bonus! Once you have the buttermilk made, you can make more of it by simply adding one cup of the buttermilk to a quart of new raw milk! You dont need the starter!
To culture the buttermilk, I simply take one of the packets, add a quart of milk and let it sit on my counter, covered with some cloth, for 12-24 hours (depending on how warm the room is). Despite the culture’s instructions to heat the milk, I have found there is no need to do it. It cultures just fine on its own, save your gas/ or electricity!