America is full of strange and unusual dishes we rarely, if ever try in this country – corn dogs, biscuit and turducken.
This week, Scot in California Christina Conte is sharing some American dishes for us back here at home to try, and today, she shares a recipe for Cornbread Apple Loaf.
Christina said: ‘This Cornbread Apple Loaf is surprisingly good! Why? Because it contains an unexpected combination of apples with cornbread. Based on an Italian apple cake, it makes a wonderful snack or lunchbox treat.
‘I first saw the original recipe for this cake in an old copy of David Rosengarten’s Report, and he described it as a quick version of an Northern Italian Friuli Apple Cake.
‘The recipe’s main ingredient is Jiffy Corn Muffin mix and well, it’s just not gonna happen with the box. Here’s why… Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix Ingredients – wheat flour, degerminated yellow corn meal, sugar, animal shortening (contains one or more of the following: lard, hydrogenated lard, partially hydrogenated lard), contains less than 2% of each of the following: baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate, salt, wheat starch, niacin, reduced iron, BHT preservative, tocopherol preservative, citric acid preservative, BHA preservative, tricalcium phosphate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, silicon dioxide.
‘Besides, how difficult is it to whip up a batch of cornbread or corn meal muffins? Not difficult at all, and I do it all the time using my friend Lynne’s recipe, from Cook and Be Merry. I used this as a base for this cake. Moreover, how good will you feel not feeding that list of ingredients to your family?
‘I also made another few changes: David’s recipe uses raw apples (I lightly steamed mine), cinnamon and nutmeg, which I omitted, probably because I’m from Britain. If you are American and cannot get your head around someone omitting cinnamon in a recipe, read this British Apple Pie recipe. ? However, feel free to add some spices if you like.
‘Since there’s only a small amount of flour, feel free to substitute a gluten free baking mix. I’ve done this successfully, much to the excitement of friends on GF diets.
‘This is a lovely loaf cake to make when you don’t want a super sweet type of dessert, or want a twist on cornbread. I think it’s a perfect afternoon snack for kids and adults, alike. Enjoy!’
Christina is a World Porridge Champion and has been a judge at the World Scotch Pie Championships. She is constantly promoting Scottish food as some of the best cuisine the world has to offer—one steak pie and sticky toffee pudding at a time.
Christina Conte
She emigrated with her family to the US when she was 9 years old. Her love of cooking and baking began at the age of seven when she made a lemon cake from a school book recipe which garnered rave reviews.
Christina now lives in Los Angeles where she publishes food and travel posts on her site, ChristinasCucina.com.
She loves to travel the world, near and far, as long as there’s good food involved.
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