Around the World in 18 Breakfasts: USA

Warm spoon bread - USA - branded

 

Week 3: Warm Custard Spoon Bread

For the third week of our Around the World in 18 Breakfasts adventure, we made this warm custard spoon bread. Americans refer to this as a ‘holiday breakfast’ and it’s apparently pretty popular in the south. To be truly authentic, we would have served it up with maple syrup and bacon, but we went for maple syrup and fruit (with a dusting of cinnamon) instead. The flavour of the polenta-based ‘bread’ is not particularly sweet but it’s quite heavy, so the fruit lightened it up just nicely.

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We found this recipe on food52.com, but the following is our ‘Australianised’ version with ingredients translated into local equivalents. You can find a video tutorial on how to make it here.

What you will need:

  • cup plain flour
  • 3/4 cup polenta (cornmeal in the USA)
  • tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
  •  eggs
  • cups milk 
  • tbsp melted butter, plus a little extra for greasing 
  • 1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
  • tbsp vanilla extract
  • tsp ground nutmeg (we grated a whole nutmeg but ground would work just fine)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • cup thickened cream
  • optional, for serving – a dusting of cinnamon, maple syrup and fresh fruit OR maple syrup and bacon

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place an un-greased 20 x 20cm baking dish in the oven to warm.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.
3. In a separate, large mixing bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients except the cream.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until batter is smooth.
5. Remove heated dish from oven and grease with remaining butter.
6. Scrape the batter into the dish and set dish on the oven rack. With the dish in the oven, slowly pour the cream over the batter, without stirring.
7. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the top layer is golden brown and a knife comes out clean. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
8. Dust with cinnamon and serve with maple syrup and fruit. For a more traditional option, serve with maple syrup and bacon.

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Join us on our journey!
This is the third of our ‘Around the World’ breakfasts. Each week we’ll be making something from a different country as part of our ‘Around the World in 18 Breakfasts’ series. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the journey. Next stop: Mexico!

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