This was cornbread, supposed to be "all-purpose" one.
I usually follow a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that is Northern style, but I happened to find the recipe of all-purpose cornbread on Cook's Illustrated's website. It was also buttery and sweet, not savory with bacon fat that I am not a big fan of. The key of the recipe was to mix the puree of real corn (thawed frozen corn) along with cornmeal to enhance corn flavor. I love corn and loved the idea. I followed the recipe closely. Even I bought buttermilk. I rarely buy buttermilk. Replacing buttermilk in the recipe with mixture of milk and yogurt is my usual way. However, I committed to the recipe. Because I love corn!
Well, actually I did something that the recipe didn't say. I baked the bread with a convection bake function. It was my first time to use the function of our new oven. It is generally said that when you use a convection oven for a non-convection oven recipe, reduce 25 F degree and 10 minute. I reduced baking temperature by 25 F degree and cooking time by 10 minute. At the end of the baking time, I saw brown edges and cracked on the surface. My toothpick test was clear. It looked done. At least I thought so. However, when we ate a piece, we found a kind of unbaked texture around the top, especially around the center top. It should be cooked, so perhaps, the real corn puree gathered on the surface and became a sort of gooey layer. J didn't like it. I totally understood it and could have cooked the bread longer. On the other hand, I didn't mind the mystery layer. It was like sweet corn pudding. After all, I gave J around the edge that was cooked more and less gooey; I handled other parts.
