Corn Crescents with Avocado for Justine

6 May 2010 by Jean Johnson

Corn Crescents with Avocado for Justine

These little stovetop cornbreads are quick, warm, crowd pleasers. On tours I make them round, stuffed with cheese or refried beans drawing on gorditas and empanadas as my guide.

In April 2010, though, Justine, a Facebook pal from Southern California, shipped a box of avocadoes from her tree, and inspired these corn crescents.

Corn Crescents with Avocado for Justine

Recipe Note

Make like you’re doing mud pies knead water into a nice mound of masa harina and a little wheat pastry flour. Lace with chunk of butter, salt, and baking powder.

Pinch off a piece of dough and flatten it into a round. Nestle in a sliver of avocado topped with some hot sauce and fold the dough over, sealing it into a crescent. Use a generous pour of oil to fry these cakes, although it’s nice not to get excessive.

Details

~Use the usual ratio of one teaspoon leavening to a cup of cornmeal/flour. On the cornmeal/flour ratio, it’s generally three to four parts meal for each part flour. One to two tablespoons of butter for each cup of masa/flour softens the dough nicely.

~Taking time to knead your dough some makes for cakes that puff some when fried.

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  1. 5 Responses to “Corn Crescents with Avocado for Justine”

  2. Jean, what’s the chemistry behind baking powder vs. baking soda? How do I decide which to use for which experiment?

    By Maureen on Jan 15, 2011

  3. To be honest, I don’t use baking powder much. That’s because I make my own to steer clear of the aluminum stuff, and since I figured soda does the job, I just don’t bother very often. Not sure why I felt the need on these corn cakes. But if I were to do them now, I sure wouldn’t bother. Soda would be my choice.

    Laurel’s Kitchen has the recipe for homemade baking powder, which is nothing more than soda and cream of tartar–the latter if you recall is the stuff you add to egg whites to help them hold their shape when you beat them for meringue.

    All that said, you have to be careful with soda and too much can give an off taste. Same with if you don’t mix around in your meal well and press out any lumps before you add it.

    To get around that, I usually go conservative. As in less, sometimes by even half I’d guess.

    What you’ll probably find as I have, is that your griddle cakes seem to puff nicely enough without too terribly much of the puffy stuffy.

    Hope that helps. I’m sure there are sites where people actually understand the chemistry. For my part, it’s all been more fiddling rather than serious study.

    By Jean Johnson on Jan 15, 2011

  4. By Jean Johnson on Jan 15, 2011

  5. Thanks, Jean. Although I just bought a new can of powder, I’d just as soon Keep It Simple. If it rises, it rises. If it’s a total dud, the chickens get a treat.

    By Maureen on Jan 16, 2011

  6. Nice attitude–although I’ve never had probs with things not rising–since I don’t work with white flour I don’t expect the big balloon puffy-fluffy–then again with corn flours and whole wheat pastry flour, I do want it to lighten considerably and it hasn’t failed me yet.

    Good luck in your kitchen. Keep us posted?

    By Jean Johnson on Jan 16, 2011

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