Brown Butter Comté Cornbread
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Perfect for your Thanksgiving Day feast or a great nibble with coffee or tea.
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 cup grated/shredded Comté cheese
  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar or honey (optional, if you like a sweeter cornbread)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1¼ cups cornmeal (fine or medium grind)
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • A dash of freshly-ground black pepper
  • 1¼ cups buttermilk (or half-and-half)
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil, such as grapeseed, sunflower or avocado
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup frozen, thawed corn kernels (or fresh, cooked in season)
Optional add-ins:
  • ½ cup roasted green chillies
  • ½ cup cooked and crumbled bacon
  • 2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Place one 8- to 9-inch cast-iron skillet (or other pan) over medium heat. Add butter and allow to melt, swirling pan occasionally, so butter coats the sides and bottom, until it’s frothy and deep brown and starts to smell nutty; watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn, 5 to 7 minutes. Pour butter into a large bowl. (If you are baking this in the skillet, do not wipe out the pan. You can also place the skillet in the oven to stay warm while it’s preheating but be careful not to let the residual butter in the skillet burn.) Alternatively, lightly grease a 9-inch square or round pan or a 12-cup muffin pan.
  3. Gently spoon flour and cornmeal into a measuring cup and swipe with a knife edge to remove any excess.
  4. Whisk together in a medium bowl, the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and pepper.
  5. To the bowl of browned butter, add buttermilk, oil, and egg; stir just to combine. Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir quickly and gently until just combined; be careful not to overbeat the mixture, just stir enough to moisten all the dry ingredients. Stir in corn and shredded Comté. Remove the skillet from the oven and pour the batter into the skillet or into a lightly grease a 9-inch square or round pan or a 12-cup muffin pan. Do not overfill the muffin tin, each cup should only be filled, ¾’s of the way.
  6. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the size of the pan, until the edges start to pull away from the sides and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Notes
Depending on your oven and if you add in more options, you might need a few extra minutes cooking time. Remove pan from the oven and let cool 5 minutes before cutting and serving. Serve warm as is, or with honey, butter and jam as shown here. Any leftovers can be stored, well-wrapped, at room temperature or frozen.

Photo credit: Allen Singer
Recipe by Comte USA at https://comte-usa.com/brown-butter-comte-cornbread/