Published January 1, 2005.
The secret to a cornbread recipe with real corn flavor turned out to be pretty simple: Use corn, not just cornmeal. While fresh corn was best, frozen was nearly as good, and pureeing the kernels in a food processor made them easy to use while eliminating tough, chewy kernels. Since we couldn't assume that everyone would own the cast-iron skillet in which Southern cornbreads traditionally get their thick crust, we compensated by baking the bread at a higher than conventional temperature, producing a crunchy crust full of toasted corn flavor.
Somewhere around the umpteenth batch of our All-Purpose Cornbread, we got it in our minds to make whipped honey butter for spreading on the warm cornbread. (If you're familiar with Marie Callender's restaurants, you know where this idea came from.) The combination was such a hit that we thought we'd pass along the recipe we devised.
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