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Yankee Cornbread

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons honey

2 cups buttermilk (at room temperature)

2 large eggs, beaten

1 ¾ cups yellow cornmeal

1 cup whole wheat flour

¾ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon soda

Very sweet and moist, this bread browns beautifully. Let it cool for 15 minutes before cutting.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8″ 8″ pan.

Melt the butter and stir in the honey. Combine with the buttermilk and beaten eggs.

Place cornmeal in bowl and sift flour, salt, and leavenings into it; stir to mix. Add the buttermilk mixture and combine. Turn into the greased pan and bake 40 to 45 minutes.

Corn Crackers

1 cup cornmeal

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon chili powder

2 tablespoons grated cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons oil ½ cup buttermilk

It’s hard not to use too many superlatives about these crackers. They are super.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Measure the cornmeal into a bowl and sift in the flour, salt, baking soda, and chili powder. Stir in the cheese along with any bran that might have been left behind in the sifter from the flour.

Mix the oil and buttermilk, and add to the dry ingredients, forming a soft, moist dough. Form into two balls.

Use two well-greased large (12″ 18″) baking sheets without sides. Flatten the balls one at a time, and roll them out to cover the baking sheets—if you have the persistence, they will. Use a piece of waxed paper on top to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin. With a pizza cutter, a spatula, or any other method you want, score the rolled-out dough into cracker-sized pieces.

Bake for 5 to 10 minutes, being very careful not to let them get more than delicately brown. The recipe makes about eighty 2-inch crackers, depending on how thin you were able to roll them. Please don’t let them burn.

A small aside: Should you be tempted cleverly to invert a baking sheet that does have sides, using the back, be warned that unless you support the pan completely under its middle, you will end up after much effort with crackers very thick in the middle of the pan and very thin at the edges, and you with a high level of frustration. (Ask me how I know.)

Muffin Recipes

Nearly everyone enjoys muffins. They are a friendly and comfortable sort of bread, quicker than loaves both in the baking and in the serving: no slicing required, eat them hot from the oven.

For complementing a menu of soup and salad, consider savory muffins instead of sweet ones. We include a couple of good recipes in the pages that follow, and you can easily take off from there. (Most quick loaves, for example, make fine muffins.) If you use our loaf recipes for making muffins, you may end up with some extra batter: either make a few more muffins, or bake the remaining batter in greased custard cups. If you find yourself with unoccupied space in your muffin tin, the old trick of pouring ¼ cup warm water in the unused cups is a good one. It protects the pan and may actually help the muffins cook better.

Our recipes fill what used to be a normal muffin tin, one with small cups that hold just over ¼ cup by measure. For the now-normal larger-size muffin tins—they hold nearly ½ cup in each dip—double the recipe to make 12, and give them a couple of minutes more in the oven. If you want to supersize to what our friend Mickey calls “Alaskan” muffin tins (a full cup per dip), they make about 4 muffins from one of our recipes, and take 5 to 10 minutes longer to bake.

Basic Muffins

1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

2 tablespoons powdered milk

3 tablespoons butter, room temperature, or oil

3 tablespoons honey or light molasses

1 egg

½ cup raisins, chopped

¾ cup water

½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Tasty and quick; serve these piping hot for a light but satisfying complement to a simple meal.

Preheat oven to 375