Blue cheese cornbread

When making cornbread, if the flour/meal is really fine then you’ll end up with a very dense final dough. If it’s very coarse, it will produce a very crumbly bread as corn contains no gluten — and gluten is the protein that gives bread and baked goods a pliability and strength. Generally, fine cornmeal or fine maize flour will feel like regular flour. If the grain size is large it’ll be called coarse maize meal, cornmeal, grits or polenta.

Ingredients

280 ml	Milk
4 large	Eggs
½ tsp	Salt
2	Red onions, diced and caramelised
2	Corn cobs, grilled, kernels cooked until golden brown (Main)
2	Green chillies, including the seeds, finely chopped
¼ cup	Flour, optional, to keep it gluten free, but it helps hold the bread together
2 tsp	Baking powder
1 tsp	Smoked paprika
350 g	Coarse polenta, or cornmeal (Main)
80 g	Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated, or other similar cheese
50 g	Blue cheese, crumbled (Main)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 200C. Butter and line a 2-litre loaf tin with baking paper, then butter it again thickly and place in the fridge.
2. Lightly beat the milk, eggs and salt. Add the onions, corn and chilli, and mix in.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder and smoked paprika together then mix with the polenta.
4. Add to the wet mix in three stages, making sure there are no lumps. Mix in the cheese.
5. Pour into the loaf tin and bake 30–35 minutes. To test if it's cooked, poke a skewer into the centre of the loaf — it will be cheesy-sticky, but it needs to be firmish with no raw dough. Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes (no less) and then gently tip out and leave to cool on the rack, although it's best eaten warm.