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Red Truck Bakery’s Skillet Cornbread with Pimento Cheese Frosting
Makes one 10-inch cornbread
Here at the Red Truck, we’ve long dreamed of a cornbread filled with pimento cheese. We decided to put two of the spread’s biggest personality traits— roasted red peppers and smoked paprika—in the cornbread itself, then topped it with a savory pimento cheese icing. As if that wasn’t enough, we sprinkled on candied bacon bits sweetened with sorghum syrup and added a hit of black pepper. It’ll terrify Southern cornbread purists, but this delicious beauty, baked in a sizzling cast-iron skillet, makes for a gorgeous presentation at the table.
BACON
:
12 bacon slices
1⁄4 cup sorghum syrup (can substitute molasses or honey, or a combination of the two)
1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
CORNBREAD:
Nonstick cooking spray
2 1⁄2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1⁄2 cup sugar
15 tablespoons butter (1 stick plus 7 tablespoons), chilled and cubed
2 cups buttermilk, plus more for brushing
1⁄4 cup diced jarred roasted red peppers
11⁄2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons finely diced pickled jalapeños
1 cup fresh or thawed frozen corn
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
PIMENTO CHEESE FROSTING:
1 cup cream cheese
1⁄2 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1⁄4 cup grated pepper Jack cheese
1 tablespoon buttermilk
2 teaspoons pickled jalapeño brine (from the jar)
1 teaspoon pepper jelly
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon diced jarred roasted red peppers
1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt
1⁄2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Cayenne pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Make the bacon: Place a raised wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet. Arrange the bacon on
the rack, spacing the slices apart, and bake for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the sorghum syrup and black pepper. Remove the bacon from the oven and brush the sorghum mixture on both sides of 4 slices of bacon. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 7 minutes more, until rich brown.
3. Let cool, then finely dice the sorghum-glazed bacon and set aside. Chop the regular bacon into 1⁄2-inch pieces and set aside separately. Leave the oven on.
4. Make the cornbread: Coat a 10-inch cast iron skillet with nonstick spray.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, smoked paprika, kosher salt, and sugar. Beat on low speed to incorporate. Add the butter and beat on low speed until broken down into pea-sized pieces. Add
the buttermilk, roasted red peppers, chives, plain bacon, jalapeños, and corn. Mix on medium speed to combine.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared skillet. Brush the top with buttermilk and sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper. Bake for 70 minutes, turning the skillet halfway through, until golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool.
7. Meanwhile, make the frosting: In a food processor, combine the cream cheese, Cheddar, pepper Jack, buttermilk, jalapeño brine, pepper jelly, honey, roasted red peppers, kosher salt, smoked paprika, and cayenne to taste and process until smooth.
8. Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled cornbread. Sprinkle with the sorghum- glazed bacon bits to finish.
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The
Red Truck Bakery Cookbook
is available online through many local independent bookstores, including
Politics & Prose
in Washington, DC;
One More Page Books
in Arlington, VA; signed copies at
George Washington’s Mount Vernon
;
Old Town Books
in Alexandria, VA;
Old Town Open Book
in Warrenton, VA;
McIntyre’s Book
s
in Fearrington Village, NC; signed copies at
The Alabama Booksmith
in Birmingham, AL;
Square Books
in Oxford, MS;
Lemuria Books
in Jackson, MS; and
Parnassus Books
in Nashville, TN. They’ll welcome your business and you will be supporting a homegrown business needing your help. The Red Truck Bakery will reopen as soon as the pandemic moves through and it is safe to do so.
From the Red Truck Bakery Cookbook. Copyright © 2018 by Brian Noyes. Photographs copyright © 2018 by Andrew Thomas Lee. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. crownpublishing.com clarksonpotter.com
