Jalapeño Upside Down Cornbread

Joshua Weissman makes Thanksgiving sides so good you'll forget about the turkey.

Prep
40 minutes
Cook
40 minutes
Total
1 hour, 20 minutes
Serves
8
people
Jalapeño Upside Down Cornbread
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Ingredients

Cornbread: 

  • 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
  • 1.25 cups (200g) fine ground yellow cornmeal
  • 2.5 tsp (10g) baking powder
  • 2 tsp (8g) fine sea salt
  • ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
  • 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk, room temperature 
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature 
  • ½ cup (75g) unsalted butter, melted 

Jalapeño Topping:

  • ½ cup (120ml) honey
  • 1 Tbsp (20g) light corn syrup 
  • 4 Tbsp (60g) cold, unsalted butter
  • 2 jalapeños thinly sliced
  • Cooking spray, for greasing

Directions

Cornbread: 

  1. Preheat an oven to 350°F (175°C). 
  2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar until evenly combined.
  3. Add the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter and whisk until evenly combined. Cover and let the batter rest for 15-20 minutes.

Jalapeño Topping: 

  1. Grease a 9” (23cm) cake pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with a parchment round. Spray the parchment with a bit more cooking spray and run your hand over the parchment to make sure it is adhered to the bottom of the pan. Set aside. 
  2. Add the honey and corn syrup to a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring often. Once the mixture boils, remove from heat and stir in the cold butter until melted and emulsified in the sauce. 
  3. Pour the sauce into the prepared pan and gently lay the jalapeño slices in an even layer over all of the sauce; the jalapeños should be placed edge to edge so as much of the pan is filled with jalapeño as possible. 

Cornbread (continued): 

  1. Gently pour the rested batter into the pan and spread it evenly to the edges, making sure to cover all of the jalapeños but also don’t move them too much.  
  2. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before inverting the cornbread onto a baking sheet lined with a cooling rack. If the jalapeños moved around during baking, rearrange them now so they are evenly placed over the top of the cornbread. 
  3. Let cool until at least warm before serving.