Recipe: Seasonally Spiced Cornbread

I have been craving cornbread lately. It’s sweet and savory, perfect griddled or cold, with butter or jam – just delicious!

Iowa Girl Eats posted an interesting recipe last week with a hidden ingredient – pumpkin puree! I thought why not embrace that yumminess and make a seasonally spiced (pumpkin, molasses, nutmeg, and cinnamon) cornbread. I also hate, hate dry cornbread. IGE’s recipe called for milk which I never have so I swapped in some greek yogurt and ricotta cheese. Sounds funky but the bread is so moist. Now that’s what I call a secret ingredient!

Kim’s Seasonally Spiced Cornbread
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/2 ricotta cheese
1 tsp. molasses
1.5 tbsp. agave sweetener
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1.25 cups cornmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
5 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1 can of corn
A splash of water, if needed to thin out the batter

I added all of the ingredients in phases to make sure everything was perfectly mixed.

Phase I – pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and eggs
Phase II – ricotta cheese and greek yogurt
Phase III – flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg
Phase IV – corn
Phase V – molasses, agave, and water

Batter-rific!

Pour into a greased 2 quart oblong glass bakeware dish (my preference but any bread or loaf pan will do). Bake on 375 degrees for roughly 40 minutes (I rotated mine once at 20 minutes because my oven is a jerk).

Finished bread:

The bread is dense but super moist, spiced perfectly, and the pumpkin comes through as the star but is not overpowering.

This bread was the perfect side dish to John’s pulled pork that we he made on Sunday. I griddled the bread with Smart Balance and spread one side with a little strawberry jam. The pork is topped with Dinosaur BBQ Slathering Sauce. Perfect meal!