Rosemary Orange Cornbread

We just love cornbread in my home! It forms the basis for the cornbread stuffing my family enjoys each thanksgiving. So, when I was presented the task of creating a recipe using ingredients from the Paradise Fruit Company, I knew cornbread would somehow be involved.

As I looked through all of the wonderful fruits sent to me by the Paradise Fruit Company, I decided the orange peel would pair best with the corn flavor. However, To enhance the flavor of the candied orange peel, I added fresh orange juice, fresh orange zest and a bit of rosemary, for a nice woodsy flavor. The result is a wonderful, slightly sweet orange flavored cornbread, with a hint of rosemary in the background. SCRUMPTIOUS!

Most of the ingredients I used are shown below. However, after taking the photo, I decided to add another egg, as well as baking powder, 2 ingredients missing from the photo.

To begin with, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees and lined a loaf pan with parchment paper.

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Next, mix the wet ingredients together in a small bowl.

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Mix remaining ingredients in a medium size bowl, including the candied orange peel. It’s important for the peel to get coated in flour. This will help them stay suspended throughout the bread and prevents them from “sinking” during the baking process. Make sure the rosemary and fresh orange zest are very finely minced.

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Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture. Mix until just blended. Do not over mix.

Pour batter into lined loaf pan and bake at 375 degrees for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean. If the bread begins to brown too much, cover with foil the last 15 minutes.

You must use the toothpick test to detect doneness, not the browness of the bread. This bread browns nicely and very quickly. The first time I tried, I mistook the browness as the bread being done. The toothpick came out “mostly clean”, (there were wet crumbs on the toothpick, but not batter) The bread was also quite brown, so I assumed it was done. This was after the usual cornbread baking time of 30-45 minutes. When we cut into the bread, the middle was still quite doughy.

So, the second time around, I covered it with foil at the 45 minute mark and left it in a full hour. I did the “toothpick test” again, and it was completely clean this time.

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I hope you enjoyed my little adventure into creating recipes with Paradise Fruit. Let me know if you try it. This was so much fun, that I already have 2 other recipes: Herb Ginger Roasted Lamb and Old English Coconut Oatmeal Cookies. Look for those coming out in the near future. Thanks for stopping by my kitchen!