Name: Blueberry Cornbread
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Ingredients: 1½ tablespoons, plus 1 cup (5 ounces/142 grams) cornmeal; 1½ cups (7½ ounces/213 grams) all-purpose flour; ¾ cup (5¼ ounces/149 grams) plus 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ¾ teaspoon salt; 1 cup whole milk; 12 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted; 2 large eggs; 10 ounces (283 grams/2 cups) blueberries

Why This Recipe Works

Our aim here was pretty simple: a slightly sweet, blueberry-packed rendition of moist and airy cornbread. We quickly discovered that just throwing a few handfuls of blueberries into the batter of a favorite cornbread recipe wasn’t the answer. Some recipes produced dry and dense cornbread; other versions were too sweet. Plus, the blueberries in some sank to the bottom of the pan. To make our bread more cakey than the average cornbread and to help keep the blueberries afloat, we opted for a higher ratio of flour to cornmeal. Using a full 2 cups of fresh blueberries ensured that each bite was packed with juicy fruit. And a bit of sugar sprinkled on before baking melted in the oven to give the cornbread a lightly sweet, golden top.

Before You Begin

We developed this recipe using commonly available Quaker Yellow Corn Meal. If you’re using our favorite cornmeal, Arrowhead Mills Organic Yellow Cornmeal, you will need to use 1¼ cups to yield 5 ounces for the batter. If you use a dark-colored cake pan, reduce the baking time in step 3 to 35 to 40 minutes. You can use frozen blueberries; if doing so, leave the berries in the freezer until the last possible moment and toss them with 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour before stirring them into the batter. Then, increase the baking time to 45 to 50 minutes. Serve with our recipe for Honey Butter.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of light-colored 9-inch round cake pan, then dust pan with 1½ tablespoons cornmeal.

Whisk flour, ¾ cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and remaining 1 cup cornmeal together in large bowl. Whisk milk, melted butter, and eggs together in second bowl (butter may form clumps; this is OK). Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Stir in blueberries until just incorporated. Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top with rubber spatula. Sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon sugar over top.

Bake until golden brown and paring knife inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cornbread cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes. Run paring knife between cornbread and side of pan. Remove cornbread from pan and let cool on rack for 20 minutes. Serve warm.