Polenta Skillet Bread

This came about as a way to use day-old, cooked polenta—after it’s cooled and somewhat congealed—in place of the cornmeal in corn muffins or cornbread. Inspired by Martha Rose Shulman’s steel-cut oatmeal muffins, a favorite recipe of mine where cooked steel-cut oats are folded into the batter, you whisk the cooked polenta into the wet ingredients. I’d revisited that recipe recently to contribute a polenta berry muffin recipe to Emily Stephenson’s very fun pantry cooking zine, and in the weeks that followed the recipe continued to evolve a bit.

Now it’s the only way I want to eat cornbread (if you can call it that?). There’s a rich batter, with a generous amount of yogurt or sour cream, and it’s lightly sweetened, and the baked bread has a shaggy bronzed dome and such a decadently moist crumb, thanks in part to the way the polenta affects the texture. If you’ve added any cheese, herbs, or other savory embellishments to your polenta, they’d be welcome here, giving the finished skillet bread an extra nudge in the savory direction. Or if you’re in more of a sweet-ish breakfast mood, you can certainly fold in berries, or spread a layer of berry compote into the batter (as I do in that muffin recipe).

But the best part about this might be day after, because it toasts beautifully! And when I say toast, what I mean is griddle: Melt a bit of butter in a skillet, and sear the bread on both sides until it takes on some color and the bread heats through. This is one of my favorite, diner breakfast treats when I was a college student and had just moved to NYC—a toasted muffin in New York is split in half vertically and griddled just like this, and it’s wonderful.

Note: You can use buttermilk here if you have it, but I’m much more likely to have yogurt or sour cream on hand. A helpful trick for substituting those for buttermilk is to just thin them out to a pourable consistency by whisking in milk or water—in this recipe, place ½ to ⅔ cup yogurt or sour cream in a liquid measuring cup, and then add additional milk until you reach 1 ⅓ cups. I’d stick to the full-fat dairy.

Polenta Skillet Bread

Serves 12

¼ cup (4 tablespoons) butter
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup yogurt or sour cream thinned with ⅓ cup milk or water, or 1 ⅓ cups buttermilk
1 cup leftover, cooked polenta
2 eggs
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 F. In a 10-inch cast-iron skillet, melt the butter. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly as you prepare the rest of the batter. 

In one bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another, whisk the thinned yogurt (or sour cream or buttermilk), cooked polenta, eggs, brown sugar, and melted butter, whisking vigorously to break up the polenta (though it’s fine if there are a few chunks). Fold the wet into the dry, being careful not to over mix. 

Brush a bit more butter into the skillet, then scrape the batter into it and smooth it into an even layer. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until browned on top and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving. Day-old wedges are delicious griddled in butter! And wrapped tightly, they also freeze well.

To make muffins: Divide the batter among 12 greased or lined muffin tins, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

To make a loaf: Spread the batter into a parchment-lined loaf pan, and bake for 45-55 minutes.