Cast Iron Smoky Bacon Jalapeno Popper Cornbread Recipes

CAST IRON SMOKY BACON JALAPENO POPPER CORNBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Place a large cast iron skillet in the oven while preheating.
• Chop/slice bacon, set aside.
• Chop/dice jalapenos, set aside.
• Shred cheese, set aside.
• In a medium mixing bowl combine the vegetable oil, honey, eggs, yogurt and milk.
• Whisk well.
• In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients.
• Whisk to combine.
• In a medium skillet cook bacon-you want it cooked half way through, NOT crisp.
• Using a slotted spoon remove bacon, reserve bacon fat.
• You will want 3 tablespoons of fat. If you need to, add butter and melt it with the fat.
• To the dry ingredients add the bacon and jalapenos.
• Stir well to coat.
• Add the cheese to the dry ingredients.
• Stir well to coat.
• Add Wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
• Using a large spoon or spatula and stir to just combine.
• Remove hot skillet from oven.
• Pour in the fat and give it a good swirl to coat the bottom of pan.
• Scrape your cornbread mixture into hot, coated pan.
• Return to oven and cook for 40 minutes.
• Depending on your oven, you may want to give your cornbread the "toothpick" test at 35 minutes.
• Do test at 40 minutes. If the center is not cooked through cook an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until done.

JALAPENO, BACON AND CHEDDAR CORNBREAD

Steps:

• Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
• Arrange the bacon strips flat in a single layer in the bottom of a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until rendered and crispy, about 8 minutes. Transfer the bacon to one end of a paper-towel-lined plate to drain (save room for the jalapeno!). Add the jalapeno to the bacon drippings and cook until softened and slightly browned, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the jalapeno to the plate next to the bacon. Roughly chop the bacon and return to the plate.
• Carefully remove 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings from the pan, leaving the rest. Keep the pan at the ready for baking the cornbread.
• Whisk together the buttermilk, oil and eggs in a medium bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture to the cornmeal mixture and use a rubber spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the wet until completely incorporated. Mix in the Cheddar, bacon and jalapeno.
• Using a pastry brush, spread the bacon drippings up the sides and around the bottom of the pan. Heat the pan over medium-low heat until the fat just starts to sizzle. Pour in the cornbread batter, allowing the heat to quickly set the bottom crust.
• Put the pan into the oven and bake until golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cornbread comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and baste the top crust with the butter. Cool for 20 minutes before serving.

JOHNNY JALAPENO'S CAST-IRON BLUEBERRY PIE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place one of the pie crusts in bottom of 10" cast-iron skillet, spreading it gently to cover the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
• In a large bowl or pan, blend sugar, flour, lemon peel, mace, and salt together in a bowl. Add blueberries and blend well to incorporate, mashing some of the blueberries. Add the blueberry mixture into the bottom crust, spreading evenly. Dot with butter.
• Place top crust over top of blueberries. Carefully lift away a portion of the bottom crust away from the pan and tuck top crust between pan and bottom crust. Repeat until you've gone all way around the pan to seal the crust. Cut 3-6 small slits to vent (We cut as many slices as we want from the pie, sort of like pre-slicing it that way). Bake approximately 30 minutes.
• Remove pie from oven and sprinkle the top with sugar and if neccesary, line the outside edge of the pie crust with aluminum foil to avoid burning the crust.
• Place back into oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until berry juice is bubbling from the slits and crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and let pie cool completely before serving.