By Maggie Noble

SERVES: 4

BAKE TIME: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS:

For the Creamed Corn:

fresh corn 6 ears

butter 4 Tablespoons

all purpose flour 1/4 cup

whole milk 2 cups (lower fat milk is ok)

salt to taste

For the Spoon Bread:

all-purpose flour 2/3 cup

cornmeal 1/2 cup

sugar 1/4 cup

salt 1/2 teaspoon kosher

baking powder 1 Tablespoon

sour cream 1 cup ( can substitute yogurt)

eggs 2, beaten

creamed corn 4 cups RECIPE FOR CREAMED CORN ABOVE WILL YIELD THE RIGHT QUANTITY (substitute with one 15 ounce can of corn plus one 15 ounce can of creamed corn)

butter 1 stick (8 Tbsp) melted

additional butter to coat baking dish

TOOLS:

2 quart baking dish
3 mixing bowls
whisk, spatula and cooking spoon
cutting board, knife, kitchen spoon for cutting corn
large saute pan
small pot to melt butter

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mise en place (sounds like meeze on ploss, French for get all your ingredients out and measured before cooking or baking).

For the Creamed Corn:

Cut corn off the cob. You can cut as much of the kernel off as possible. Take a kitchen spoon and scrape the juices from the cob into a bowl with the rest of the kernels. This goop is, in part, what makes this creamed corn so creamy.
Melt the butter in a sauce pan on medium heat.
Add corn and sauté until corn is bright in color, about 10 minutes.
Singer the 1/4 cup flour over corn (sounds like sawn-jay), French term for sprinkling flour over cooking ingredients to thicken when you intend to add liquid later).
Lower heat to medium low. Stir and cook flour for several minutes.
Add milk. Stir and cook until liquid looks creamy.
Season with salt and remove from heat.
Blend half of the creamed corn from pan in a blender or food processor.
Stir blended and whole kernel creamed corn back together in a separate bowl.

For the Spoon Bread:

Butter a 2 quart baking dish.
Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl (flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder).
Whisk eggs in a large mixing bowl.
Add sour cream to eggs and stir to combine.
Add the creamed corn. Use spatula or whisk to combine.
Add the melted butter using either a spatula or whisk to combine.
Add the half the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.
Add the second half of the dry ingredients and use spatula or whisk to combine.
Pour mixture into prepared (buttered) baking dish. Don’t worry if batter comes near to the top of the dish, it won’t rise too much. Put baking dish on top of sheet pan before placing in over for easy maneuvering and to catch a spill…just in case.
Bake at 350F for 1 hour or until golden on top.

Notes:

Growing up, my mum always made this with cans of corn kernels and creamed corn. She also used a package of Jiffy cornbread mix. You may have found that nearly all spoon bread recipes call for this wonder mix. I prefer to make the whole thing from scratch so I can make use of all that fresh corn that’s in season at the end of the summer and beginning of fall. Fresh corn makes the spoonbread naturally sweeter so I can skip whatever sugar I omit from my creamed corn recipe. I also am happy to know that there is no BPA (bisphenol A) in the spoon bread as I am not using a can of creamed corn. Creamed corn is nearly impossible to find in a non BPA lined can. Lastly, I can be sure to use all organic ingredients if I make this delectable summer side from scratch.

Spoon Bread from Scratch