Thinking outside the grain: a recipe for cream of wheat bread.

My mother makes the best cornbread hands down. Hers is a very simple recipe, the main ingredients being cornmeal, milk and raisins. I have never asked her for the actual recipe nor do I want to. As I have mentioned a couple times in this blog, I prefer certain foods to remain specific to certain aspects of my life. That way, these meals have a greater meaning for me and the people I dine with. For example, I have creamy Lipton tea only in New York with my relatives, roasted turkey I like to have only at Thanksgiving, and mummy's corn bread I like to have whenever I go to Trinidad. It gives me something to look forward to. And I'm sure mummy derives some joy from knowing that I enjoy her cooking.

As life would have it, I have no immediate plans for a trip to Trinidad so I created my own corn bread recipe. However, recently I have been experimenting with different grains in my cooking. I found that cream of wheat works well if substituted for corn meal in some recipes. Here, it produces a bread that is moist yet crumbly like corn bread. This recipe is slightly sweet and therefore can be eaten as a side dish with meat but also as breakfast. We had it this morning, toasted and topped with scrambled eggs and lox. Kudos to whomever declared breakfast the most important meal of the day.



Cream of Wheat Bread

1 1/4 cups cream of wheat
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup canola oil
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 cup skimmed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of one lime

1. Set oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine cream of wheat, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer or whisk, cream together sugar, oil, and sour cream until sugar has dissolved and the mixture looks slightly fluffy, about 5 minutes.
4. Whisk in the egg and slowly add milk while continuing to whisk. Mix in vanilla and lime zest.
5. Using a hand held whisk, incorporate dry ingredients to wet ingredients in three installments. Do not over mix; mix just to the point where each installment of dry ingredients mixes into the wet ones.
6. Pour into an 8" cake pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown and edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Place pan on wire rack and cool for 5 minutes before removing bread.