Quinoa Skillet Bread Recipe
A rustic, minimally structured, custard-topped, crusty-edged, herb-scented corn-quinoa skillet bread.
The farmers' market up the street from my house just started again. It takes place one night a week, now through early fall. Last week a stroll through the twenty-some booths revealed a bounty of fava beans, strawberries, local micro-climate honeys, pea shoots, mandarins, king trumpet and lion's mane mushrooms, artichokes, and English peas. In the midst of all this, I stumbled on a farm I'm particularly excited about, Fifth Crow Farm - new to me. They were selling organic wheat berries, heirloom popcorn, farm fresh eggs and leeks. I picked up a couple bags heirloom Sonora whole wheat pastry flour (grown at neighboring Pie Ranch), and set them on my kitchen counter when I got home. I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to use it at the time. This flour is a bit coarser than the pastry flour I typically use, flecked with tiny hints of brown and gold.
If I leave something in my field of vision for long enough, ideas start to percolate. I had a the flour sitting on the counter top, and a good amount of leftover cooked quinoa in my refrigerator at the time. It occurred to me to attempt some sort of rustic quinoa skillet bread. A relatively simple idea that actually took a couple tries to get right. My first attempt was terrible, and by that I mean, not at all what I had in mind. It was flat, too dense, ugly, and on and on. But the second go-around more than made up for my original misstep.
Back at the drawing board (after my initial failure), I kept looking at the flecks of germ and bran in my new flour, which triggered thoughts of cornmeal. One of my favorite recipes in SNC is the quinoa and corn flour crepes. And one of my favorite cornmeal recipes of the past year is Marion Cunningham's Custard-Filled Cornbread. My neighbor brought it to a Halloween potluck (to much fanfare), and it occurred to me it was the same cornbread Molly writes about in A Homemade Life. Everyone in my family now loves this cornbread, and it has shown up at nearly every family gathering since its debut at Thanksgiving. It is one of those recipes, so spot-on, I thought I'd never change it, tweak it, or make it any other way. There was no need. Keep it simple, leave it alone.
But I thought, maybe, if I took the general approach for the Custard Cornbread and introduced a cast-iron skillet and a few of the other ingredients I had on had, it might make for something unique and special in it's own way. And wow, did it ever work out. I hope you'll agree, the results are impressive - a rustic, minimally structured, custard-topped, crusty-edged, herb-scented corn-quinoa skillet bread. Enough for a small crowd, each piece is dense and heavy, rich with ribbons of varying texture. Let me know if you try it out - it's perfect for picnics, potlucks, family meals and the like!
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Quinoa Skillet Bread
For this recipe I use Bob's Red Mill Coarse Grind Cornmeal. If you click on the image it will zoom in and you can see what it's like - look for something comparable. As I mentioned in the main post, I used a local whole wheat pastry flour here. But I suspect any whole wheat pastry flour will work, and spelt flour might be an interesting alternative as well. I used a dried Sardinian mixed herb blend, but I Herbes de Provence would be great too. If you don't have an oven-proof skillet you can use a 9x9 inch glass baking dish, or equivalent.
butter to grease pan, about 1 tablespoon
1 cup / 4 oz / 115g whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup / 4 oz / 115 g yellow cornmeal (coarse)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs (optional)2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups / 7 oz / 200 g cooked quinoa, room temperature*3 tablespoons unsalted butter, barely melted and cooled a bit
3 tablespoons natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2 cups / 475 ml milk
1 1/2 tablespoons white or white wine vinegar
1 cup / 240 ml heavy cream
Preheat the oven to 350F / 180 C degrees and place a rack in the top third. Butter a 10-inch oven-proof skillet (or equivalent baking dish). I used a cast-iron pan with 2-inch deep sides. Roughly ten minutes before you are ready to bake the skillet bread, while you are mixing the batter, place the skillet in the hot oven.
In a large bowl stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and dried herbs.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, quinoa, and melted butter until well-blended. Add the sugar, salt, milk and vinegar and stir again. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until the batter comes together. It will seem very thin, don't worry.
Pour the batter into the heated skillet. Pour the heavy cream into the center of the batter. Have faith, and do not stir. Carefully place in the oven and check after 45 minutes, the skillet bread is done when the top becomes lightly browned and the center just set. Somewhere between 45-60 minutes typically. I like to finish things up with a few seconds under the broiler to brown the top nicely. You can serve this I like this warm or at room temperature, sliced in a grid, sprinkled with a touch more salt (if needed).
Makes one 10 1/2 skillet.
*To cook a sizable pot of quinoa: Combine 2 cups / 12 oz / 340 g of
well-rinsed (dried) quinoa with 3 cups / 700 ml water and 1/2 teaspoon
fine grain sea salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover,
reduce heat and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes or until quinoa is tender
and you can see the little quinoa curliques. Fluff with a fork.
Prep time: 10 minutes
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Comments
I love the addition of vinegar to this recipe...such a clever idea and I'm sure it adds a perfect zing of flavor! Thanks Heidi...
Just made this for Sunday breakfast. Creamy and crisp in one skillet. Thanks Heidi. One note though, the recommended corn meal is not organic. (Note: Corn is one of the eight top food that is GMO). Maybe Bob Mills (I love the line), can offer a organic, non GMO corn meal soon. HS: Thanks for pointing this out DrBeth - for some reason it was in my mind that this cornmeal it was organic (and correspondingly non-GMO)...I wonder if they have an organic version? Seems like no, only in the medium grind. Bummer.
Genius. I am a huge fan of Bob's medium grind cornmeal, it gives so much texture! Love that you are using quinoa in so many recipes, it's the only grain that provides complete protein so it's ideal for vegetarians and vegans. Looking forward to trying this one.
I have a huge bag of quinoa and am almost ashamed to admit I don't really care for it. I've tried it so many different ways and nothing works for me. However, this bread seems like the perfect way to "mask" it and help me use up my stash. Luckily for me, it looks like it would be easy to veganize.
What an awesome recipe! I've been trying to find new ways to cook with quinoa -- looks like I'm going to have to try this recipe soon :)
Looks great! I have a big bag of quinoa I need to use up, so I need all the ideas I can get!
I've been mixing regular quinoa with the red variety lately for some visual pizazz. I wonder how it would look here. Perhaps too reddy and less cornbready? HS: No, I think it'd be great!
Wow! I love quinoa and eat it all the time, but I've never heard of pouring heavy cream into the middle of a skillet bread before baking! From what I understand from this post, you end up with a custard-like topping on the bread? What a fascinating idea.
I am so jealous of where you live. I can't find any farmers' markets in NJ that have already started up. One of the ones I went last to starts next week, and they have cheese, pickles, wild mushrooms. I wish I could get local flours though. I love to bake! I'll have to do some investigating online. Thanks for continuing to be an inspiration to all of us who read your blog! :)
This looks sooo scrumptious! Amazing work!
I am trying to eat healthier this might be the best recipe to start! Ancient grains are a super healthy food! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
So deliciuos ecobread! Yumy yumy!!! :)
Ooo - yum! I'm on a quinoa kick and this is perfect!
Wow, what an interesting bread! I am just starting to get into quinoa so may try making a gluten free version of this.
I had never thought of using quinoa to make bread - a great idea.
What a creative and great looking dish! I would love a slice of that!
This bread sounds so interesting. It certainly looks scrumptious. Never tried quinoa before. I'm gonna have to try this bread! Magda
This sounds absolutely delicious. I have everything on hand, so why not give it a try tonight!
Wow, that sounds incredibly interesting! I've never had quinoa before, but it sort of makes sense to bake it into a bread like other grains we know ;) Beautiful photos by the way... I love bread in a skillet! :D Wei-Wei
What a delicious version of cornbread. Love the down to earth cooking method and I can just imagine it right out of the oven with a bit of creamy butter. A must try!
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