Grace Collins is a young woman in Maryland who, as a high school senior, combined her love of food, family, and travel in a fascinating book called Sour Beef and Cheesecake: A Food and Family Memoir. The book is full of family recipes, including Grandma Mickey’s Sour Beef (sauerbraten) and her Ukrainian YaYa’s Shrimp de Jonghe, but her reminiscences about growing up in Baltimore within her colorful and loving extended family are just as interesting as the recipes. (Available at Amazon.com)

Grace Collins’ Blueberry Cornbread

This blueberry-studded cornbread is guaranteed to make you the hit of any picnic or potluck.

Serves 15
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 40 min
Total Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1½ cups yellow cornmeal
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
1½ cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 × 13 baking pan. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale yellow in color. Add each egg and beat thoroughly after each. Stir in the cornmeal until combined. Don’t overbeat the batter. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients and the milk to the butter mixture in thirds. Beat after each addition to thoroughly combine the ingredients. Again, don’t overbeat. Fold in the blueberries.
Pour the batter into the baking pan, and bake until cornbread is lightly brown, about 40-45 minutes.* Test doneness with a knife or toothpick; it must come out clean when inserted in the center. Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.
Cut cornbread into 3-inch squares. Makes 15 squares.

Notes

Grace recommends baking for 40 to 50 minutes in a 9 x 13 baking pan, but start checking after 30 minutes to avoid drying the bread out by overbaking. My use of a slightly larger 9.5 x 13.5 pan resulted in a drier cornbread than I prefer, starting to burn a bit around the edges (oops—should've checked earlier, I know!) at the 40-minute mark. But previous batches of this cornbread I made in a smaller square pan (around 9 x 9) and baked made a gloriously moist, thicker cornbread.

By Grace Collins

Adapted from from her book Sour Beef & Cheesecake: A Food & Family Memoir

What’s your favorite dish to pair with cornbread? Let us know in the comments!