Many years ago while in America I tasted cornbread for the first time and was hooked, I loved it! I had it sweet and savoury and I adored it, and for a while now I have been making it at home. I had a big bag of frozen berries I needed to use up and immediately I thought they would be lovely in cornbread. They worked so well and I am really excited to share my take on this classic American recipe, I hope you love this summer berry cornbread as much as I do 😀 it’s perfect for picnic’s, Bar-B-Ques and for general snacking on during the day.
Fruit explosion
As I mentioned before I used frozen summer berries in this recipe, fresh fruit can definitely be used if you prefer I just find when developing a recipe I will be baking it  several times and it’s cheaper for me to use frozen fruit. My bag was a combination of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and red currents.
Cornmeal / Polenta
Cornmeal and polenta are the same thing, here in the UK and I think the rest of Europe we call it polenta. I don’t know why they are named differently they just are 🙂 its a you say tomato I say tomato thing 😀 so don’t let this stop you from making this recipe, for a while I was convinced I couldn’t make cornbread in the UK because we don’t have cornmeal it wasn’t until I was in my friendly neighbourhood Italian deli that I was corrected on this issue, thank the heavens I was!
Bread or Cake?
I do believe that this does come under the quick-bread family, though it does have a very cake like consistency, but without the fruit this quick-bread can be enjoyed with savoury dishes. When I first had it served to me in America it was served with a savoury dish and it was delicious. But the fruit lends this to be more of a sweet treat, and would be lovely served with a scoop of ice cream for a simple but decedent dessert.
So hopefully you too will enjoy this fruity twist on an American classic 😀
Summer Berry Cornbread
Ingredients
- 50 grams unsalted butter - melted ((1/4 cup))
- 240 millilitres milk ((1 cup))
- 1 large Egg
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 225 grams cornmeal / polenta ((1 and 1/4 cups))
- 150 grams Plain flour (All Purpose, (1 cup))
- 115 grams granulated sugar ((1/2 cup))
- 1 tablespoon Baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 250 grams fresh or frozen summer berries ((1 and 1/2 cups))
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200C / 400F / Gas mark 6 and lightly grease or line an 8 x 8 inch pan with baking parchment.
- Melt your butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds, you want it just melted and not boiling.
- Mix the melted butter with the milk, egg and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until everything is well combined.
- Stir in the all the remaining ingredients (except the fruit) all at once till you have a lumpy batter. Like all quick-breads you don't want to over mix this batter
- Gently mix in the fruit right before you add the batter to your pan.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan smooth the top and pop it in your oven.
- Check on your cornbread after 35 minutes, you are looking for a firm golden top and a tooth pick to come out clean when entered then removed from the centre. If the pick is not 100% clean give it another few minutes then check again.
- Once your cornbread is ready take it out of the oven and leave it in the pan for a few minutes to cool down a little bit.
- Then carefully take the cornbread out of it's tin and allow it to fully cool down on a wire rack.
- Kept in an airtight tin this cornbread should keep for up to 5 days.
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I LOVE cornbread with fruit! This sounds awesome! I made it a few times with raspberries but I really need to try other berries! Hope you’re having a good weekend!
Hi Ashley, thank you. I was really pleased with how well it went with the berries and shall definitely be experimenting more in the future 😀
I’ve never had cornbread with berries before but I want to! Your photos make this a very inviting treat.
Hi Maureen, thank you very much they really did pair well 😀
This is a great summer take on cornbread! Thanks for sharing this 🙂
Hi Jerry thank you very much 🙂
I love a sweet corn bread…but adding berries is such a novel, delicious idea!
Hi Liz thank you they paired really well 🙂
Totally in love with this idea of cornbread + berries. It’s like 2 of my favorite worlds combined into one!
Hi Pamela thank you I love the both of them as well and together they were awesome!
This looks awesome Emma! I love cornbread and think this is such a great idea to add berries to it 🙂 It sounds fabulous!
Thanks Kelly it was a lovely combination the berries made it so summery tasting 🙂