Author Notes: I got this recipe years ago from a Texan friend, Nancy Taylor, who wanted to make corn bread while living in Paris; she couldn’t find corn meal and discovered that fine-grain cous-cous worked as a substitute. Due to colonial history, France has a large North African population and has embraced its cuisine, so you can get different grades of cous-cous in any supermarket, and by serendipity this has permitted this corn-free cornbread to satisfy the needs of Texans abroad. 😉 I serve this with Spinach and Split Pea Soup (refer to that recipe). —ChefTom
Serves: 4
Ingredients
-
1
cup flour
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1
cup finest-grain cous-cous semolina
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3
tablespoons sugar
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1
tablespoon baking powder
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1/2
teaspoon salt
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2
eggs
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1
cup buttermilk (lait fermenté if you’re in France); or substitute 1 yogurt + milk to make 1 cup
-
4
tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400°F/215°C.
- Combine flour, cous-cous, sugar, baking powder and salt in large mixing bowl.
- Mix eggs, buttermilk and oil in another bowl.
- Pop a greased baking dish (I use a round glass one about 8 inches in diameter) into the oven quickly to heat up.
- Add egg/buttermilk/oil mix to dry ingredients and stir until all ingredients are just blended. Take care not to overmix.
- Remove baking dish, now hot, from the oven and pour batter into it. Return to oven.
- Bake approximately 25 minutes or until it is nice and golden brown around the edges. (Using a glass dish lets you check the color on the sides and bottom as well, which should be a deep yellow.)
- When done, remove from oven and let stand for ten minutes before serving. Otherwise it will crumble when you cut it.