Jalapeno, Scallion and Avocado Corn Bread

24 servings
Total Cost: NY $8.66
Cost per serving: NY $0.24


So last week’s Great Chocolate Avocado Brownie Experiment got us thinking: what if you used avocado in place of some of the oil or butter in something with flavors that would make for a less counter-intuitive pairing with avocado*? Like, say, a southwestern jalapeno corn bread? If you’ll excuse me for saying so, Eureka! This corn bread is exceptionally moist, zesty with the peppers and scallions, lightly sweet from the honey and thick with sour cream. The avocado is not particularly noticeable on its own, but the taste definitely adds some depth of flavor, in a “what is that mystery ingredient I can’t quite place?” kind of way. Goes great with turkey chili!


Ingredients

• 2 cups cornmeal (NY $0.38)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (NY $0.23)
• 1 cup all purpose flour (NY $0.20)
• 1 tablespoon salt (staple)
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (staple)
• 4 eggs (NY $0.66)
• 1 cup milk (NY $0.27)
• 1 cup reduced-fat sour cream (NY $1.09)
• 1/3 cup honey (NY $1.13)
• 4 tbsps butter (NY $0.38)
• 1 avocado (NY $1.50)
• 1 10 oz package frozen corn, thawed (NY $1.19)
• 1 bunch scallions (NY $0.99)
• 2 jalapeno peppers (NY $0.64)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.** Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch pan with butter. Dice the jalapeno peppers, using your knife to scrape out the seeds. Slice the thinly scallions, retaining both the dark green and white parts. (No need to discard anything but the tiny roots!)


In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flours, salt and baking powder. In a food processor, combine eggs, milk, sour cream, honey, butter, and avocado. Pulse until thoroughly blended, scraping down the sides with a spatula to make sure that all hunks of avocado are broked down and incorporated into the mixture. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth and thoroughly blended. Fold in the corn, scallions and peppers with a spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until gold brown, about 35 minutes. Let cool before slicing into squares.


* Although counter to my own intuition, that is, we’ve been informed that chocolate and avocado is actually a common and delicious Indonesian pairing. Fascinating! Thanks, Chef Aimee!

** Or, if you’re using the crappy oven in our rental, preheat for one hour at 450 degrees, open oven long enough to put corn bread and watch temperature on thermometer drop back down to 375, and set temperature to 400 degrees. Check oven thermometer every 10 minutes, raising temperature back up to 425 degrees if needed. Optional: copious swearing and calls to landlord.


Nutritional Info
Amount Per Serving

Calories 152.6	Vitamin A 5.1 %	Iron 6.3 %
Total Fat 5.7 g	Vitamin B-12 1.9 %	Magnesium 7.0 %
Cholesterol 44.5 mg	Vitamin B-6 5.0 %	Manganese 16.1 %
Sodium 335.6 mg	Vitamin C 4.8 %	Niacin 6.6 %
Potassium 150.0 mg	Vitamin D 1.1 %	Phosphorus 8.5 %
Total Carbohydrate 22.8 g	Vitamin E 2.1 %	Riboflavin 8.2 %
Fiber 2.3 g	Calcium 2.2 %	Selenium 14.1 %
Sugars 4.1 g	Copper 3.7 %
Protein 3.9 g	Folate 8.4 %