Eva from Eva Bakes back again with a baked hushpuppy that is healthier and less greasy than the traditional fried versions!
My 7-year old has been eating out with us on a pretty regular basis. My husband and I go out once a week and have been taking her since she was born. We wanted to get her used to the idea of going out and teach her the patience one needs to have when dining out.
Over the course of her 7 years of life, our daughter got used to getting seated, having waitstaff take our order and waiting for our food to be prepared and brought to the table. In fact, we created a memorable order of events for her: “Order the food, cook the food, then eat the food.” She’s memorized this so questions about how much longer we have to wait have cut down immensely. (I might add that we do not bring any electronic devices when we dine out, so she has learned how to have a conversation rather than glue herself to a screen).
Anyway, there is a Latino-inspired seafood restaurant on our rotating list. The restaurant has these fried saffron potato cakes that Addie loves – she calls them hush puppies. So when she saw this recipe in a cookbook that I had borrowed during our weekly mother/daughter library trip, she freaked out.
I mean, chocolate chip hush puppies? Come on – the girl was on cloud 9. We had to bake these, and bake them soon.
I took a week off from work to spend some quality time with her, and we bake these hush puppies one afternoon. My batter was a little on the dry side so I added a little extra water to bind everything together.
Both Addie and I had a hush puppy fresh out of the oven and we agreed that these were very tasty. Although the texture wasn’t entirely the same as a traditional hush puppy, it was still pretty darn good. I’d liken these to a cornmeal-textured cookie, but a fantastic one at that. I may try frying a batch sometime but liked that these were slightly healthier due to the fact that they were baked.
Until next time!
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 and ½ cups pastry flour
- 1 and ½ cups fine- to medium-grain cornmeal
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 3 ounces (about ½ cup) chocolate chips
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 cup sour cream (I substituted with Greek yogurt)
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease two standard muffin pans and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and ground cinnamon and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Try to get rid of the brown sugar lumps if you can.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix together the egg, egg yolk, sour cream, butter, maple syrup and vanilla.
- Transfer the egg mixture to the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Gently knead everything together until everything is just combined - do not over mix.
- Using a cookie scoop, portion out balls of dough into golf ball sized fritters and drop in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place in a muffin well. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bake your hush puppies in your preheated oven for about 13-15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
If you'd rather fry your hush puppies, heat a pot of oil to 350 degrees F. Drop 1 Tablespoon of dough into the hot oil and fry for about 2 minutes on the first side, then 1 minute on the other side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Then toss with the cinnamon sugar and drizzle on additional maple syrup if desired.
Source: Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito
