The Simple Addition To Turn Boxed Cornbread Into A Powerhouse Dessert

A box or bag of cornbread mix is a handy staple to keep in the pantry. Sure, it's not that hard to make cornbread from scratch, but the kind made from a mix is just as tasty, and you might as well save yourself a few steps. You're probably familiar with upgrading boxed cornbread mix with all manner of add-ins, and you may have used it to make chili pot pie or even cornbread pizza crust. One thing you might not have tried, however, is a cornbread-based dessert. Surprisingly enough, though, cornbread makes a pretty tasty topping for fruit cobbler.

In order to make this dessert, you'll prepare the bottom part of the fruit cobbler using fresh or frozen fruit according to your usual recipe. Any kind of fruit will work, but some people recommend using blueberries because they're both sweet and tangy and can stand out against a cornbread base (of course, the same thing could be said of blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries). The next step involves mixing the cornbread as per the directions, although you'll want to use slightly more milk (½ cup as opposed to the ⅓ cup listed on the packaging). Pour the batter over the fruit filling, then cook it until the cornbread is golden brown and cooked through. If the cornbread cobbler isn't sweet enough for your liking, you can sprinkle it with sugar before baking or top it with honey after it comes out of the oven.

Cornbread cobbler may not be something many of us are familiar with, at least not yet, but corn-based desserts are known around the world. Pastel de elote, a traditional recipe from the Mexican state of Jalisco, is made with fresh corn and sweetened condensed milk. In Cuba, corn kernels are pureed and cooked with milk and sugar to make a pudding called majarete. In the Philippines, corn kernels are left whole and simmered in coconut milk to make a dessert or breakfast dish called ginataang mais, while a Vietnamese sweet soup called chè bắp includes corn kernels, coconut milk, and glutinous rice.

In the U.S., one of the oldest desserts we have is something called Indian pudding. Contrary to what the name seems to indicate, the dish did not originate with Native Americans. Instead, the main ingredient — corn — was gifted by them to the colonists, who then used it to make pudding. Indian pudding is kind of like a spongier, wetter version of cornbread, heavily flavored with molasses. It definitely falls under the heading of old-timey recipes, and may well be New England's ugliest dessert. Trendy it isn't, but it still has a spot on the menu at such venerable dining establishments as Sudbury, Massachusetts' The Wayside Inn and Aunt Carrie's in Narragansett, Rhode Island.