Name: Bama bread with whipped honey butter
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 15 squares from one 9-by-13-inch pan
Ingredients: 234 grams Sunrise Flour Mill white flour, or all-purpose flour; 77 grams Granulated sugar; 10 grams (about 2 1/2 teaspoons) Baking powder; 2 grams (about 1/2 teaspoon) Baking soda; 5 grams Kosher salt; 191 grams Plain Greek yogurt; 155 grams Whole milk; 191 grams Fine or medium yellow cornmeal, not coarse polenta; 2 large (about 100 grams without shells) Eggs; 85 grams Unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly; 38 grams Avocado oil; 15 grams Unsalted butter, melted, for the pan; 30 grams Unsalted butter, melted, to brush over the baked bread; 10 grams, plus 3 to 5 grams to finish Sparkling sugar; About 1 gram, to taste Flaky sea salt; 114 grams (1 stick) Unsalted butter, softened but not shiny or melted; 64 grams (about 3 tablespoons) Honey; 1 1/2 teaspoons Whole milk or cream; 1/8 teaspoon Vanilla extract; 0.75 gram (about 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal), to taste Kosher salt

Cake lying about being cornbread

Bama bread is cake lying about being cornbread. Soft, buttery, a little sweet, with whipped honey butter on top. We finished it with sparkling sugar and flaky sea salt. It was really, really nice.

I've learned that a lot of kids have an aversion to corn. Sometimes the yellow color alone is enough for them to decide they don't want it. So I tweaked the cornbread to use more Sunrise Flour Mill flour than a traditional cornbread. It eats more like cake, and the whipped honey butter gives them something familiar to see on top. The goal is to get them comfortable taking that first bite of corn by making it taste really good.

The bread itself is a bowl-and-whisk job. Give the cornmeal a few minutes in the yogurt and milk before you finish the batter. For the honey butter, a stand mixer or handheld mixer is worth pulling out. You want it fluffy, almost like frosting.

Instructions

Mix the bread

Heat the oven to 375°F conventional or 350°F convection. Line a 9-by-13-inch metal pan with parchment. Brush the parchment and sides with the 15 grams of melted butter.
Whisk the yogurt and milk until smooth. Stir in the cornmeal and let it soak for 10 minutes.
In another bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt thoroughly.
Whisk the eggs, 85 grams of melted butter and avocado oil into the cornmeal mixture. Add the dry ingredients and whisk gently just until the flour disappears. Finish with a spatula, scraping the bottom. A few small lumps are fine.
Spread the batter into the corners of the prepared pan. Sprinkle the 10 grams of sparkling sugar evenly over the top.

Bake and finish

Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, checking from 18 minutes. The center should spring back lightly and a toothpick should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs, without wet batter. If the top browns before the center is set, loosely tent with foil and keep baking.
Brush the hot bread with the remaining 30 grams of melted butter. Let it soak in for about 30 seconds, then scatter over the remaining sparkling sugar and flaky salt. Start lightly with the salt and taste a corner before adding more.
Let the bread settle until warm rather than piping hot before cutting into 15 squares and adding the whipped honey butter, so the butter holds its fluffy texture.

Whip the honey butter

While the bread bakes, beat the softened butter with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or a handheld mixer, for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
Turn the mixer down and gradually add the honey. Add the milk or cream, vanilla and salt.
Beat for another 2 to 3 minutes, scraping the bowl once, until almost frosting-like. Taste and adjust the salt a pinch at a time. Spoon a dollop onto each warm square.

Bama bread with whipped honey butter

Cake lying about being cornbread

Watch it in the kitchen