Apple Cheddar Cornbread

The past 6 weeks have been something of a whirlwind for us here in the Hackknife household. Between the passing of my grandmother/great-aunt and subsequent funerals, our trip to Ireland, Mrs. Hackknife's eye surgery, Easter, and my niece's First Communion, there hasn't been much time to try out any new recipes in the Commissary. Now that things are settling a bit as we careen into Spring (although you wouldn't really know that from how bad the weather's been in April), the stove is heating up again with exciting (ok, that may be too strong a term....perhaps "interesting" is more on point) victuals to dazzle both the eye and palate, or at least give us something marginally less boring to eat than our standard meatloaf.

First up is apple cheddar cornbread, a recipe from Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC (home of the insanely good crack pie, sampled on our last trip to the Big Apple in March of last year) as dictated to Wall Street Journal this past November. It was included in an article WSJ did prior to Thanksgiving on how to cook with various Fall fruits (quince, persimmon, etc.) and I ended up clipping the whole thing, but didn't find an opportunity to put it into play until Easter this year. When poring over our menu choices for Easter dinner (we hosted both sides for the holiday at the Commissary), this one popped out at me as a possible appetizer. It's made in a cast iron skillet, which I happen to have, although mine was a bit large for the job. When I spread out the batter in the skillet for my dress rehearsal batch, it barely covered the bottom. I made a mental note to double the recipe on Easter Sunday - this proved to be a good move as it filled the skillet space much better, with the only drawback being a little extra oven time needed (about 25 minutes instead of 15) to firm it up. The result was fairly impressive - moist, good apple flavor, not overly cheesy or strong from the onion included in the mix, and well-received by our guests. I'd say this one has earned a spot in our bread recipe rotation.....