the change in season took me by surprise. funny how that happens. one day it is warm, actually a bit hot and then in the blink of an eye, it is cold and frosty. chili seemed like the perfect solution for a dreary fall day. in our house, it isn’t a proper bowl of chili unless there is a pan of cornbread on the table.
lurking in the fridge was an open container of pumpkin puree leftover from something i baked. the idea of adding pumpkin to the cornbread recipe seemed natural to me. it would add a little flavor, a little moisture and of course, some additional nutrition and fiber. what i wasn’t expecting, that gorgeous golden color. especially since i only added 1/3 cup of the puree to the recipe.
and, dinner is served…
to make the cornbread, i turned to my favorite cornbread recipe, it can be found on the albers website by following this link. although i followed the recipe, i did make a few changes. first, i reduced the sugar to 3 tablespoons because i did not want it to be sweet. then i substituted and equal portion of buttermilk for the milk and finally, i added 1/3 cup of pumpkin puree by whisking it with the other wet ingredients. by baking it in a 9″ round pan rather than the 8″ square called for in the recipe and the addition of the pumpkin did increase the baking time a bit, i had to check it for doneness by inserting a cake tester in the center. it came out clean around the 30 minute mark in my oven. and just a note for the leftovers, cornbread makes nice toast! i cut wedges in half, horizontally and toasted them in the broiler. they were tasty with a little butter.
will garden for cake 