WDW current weather:

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Cooking Disney - Hoop-Dee-Doo Cornbread and Honey Butter Love-fest!

One of my FAVORITE things about Disney World is the food!  I could spend most of my Disney time eating and when I am not in Disney; their food occupies a good portion of my thoughts.  I spend a great deal of my free time reading articles on DisneyFoodBlog.com and browsing menus on AllEars.net.  I am even in the process of organizing an eating schedule to optimize my snacking through the parks and other resort spots for my next visit in January ( I know, guys, I KNOW…).

One of my absolute favorite ways to have a little bit of Disney at home is to cook their recipes.   I own one of the original “Cooking With Mickey” cookbooks (Volume 2), it has many great classic recipes that have since been replaced on Disney menus, but I also get many recipes from internet sources like the recipes section of the Dining tab on AllEars.net. 

This time around I decided to try my hand at making the Hoop-Dee-Doo cornbread and honey butter.  For those of you who know, the cornbread and honey butter really are the highlight of the Hoop-Dee-Doo dinner.  For those of you who haven’t experienced the creamy, heavenly goodness yet, once you do it will change your life forever.   I was able to find the cornbread recipe on Allears.net, but I had to figure the honey butter out on my own.  Here is the “formal” recipe.   I made some minor changes to the recipe, but it did not affect the final product at all.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cornmeal (I used 1 and ¼ cups of my own homemade sweet corn meal - recipe follows the honey butter)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 T. baking powder
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk (I used one cup coconut milk)
2 eggs

Method of Preparation:
1. Blend flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, blend milk, eggs, and oil with a mixer.
3. Using that same mixer, slowly add the blended liquid to the dry ingredients prepared in step 1, mixing just enough to incorporate the wet and dry ingredients.
4. Spray a 9 x 13 in. baking pan with non stick food spray and pour the batter into the pan, spreading evenly.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes. or until golden brown.
6. Allow to cool. 
7. Enjoy!

My changes comprised using coconut milk instead of cow’s milk and 1 ¼ cups of my own home made sweet corn meal.  If anything, these substitutions made the bread sweeter.

Here is my recipe for the Honey Butter:
Ingredients:
2 sticks salted butter warmed to slightly beyond room temperature (you want the butter to be almost runny)
3 TBSPs light clover honey
1 TBSP Vanilla Extract

Method of Preparation:
1. Mix ingredients together (either by hand or with an electric mixer on low) until the butter is creamy and all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated
2. Cover with saran wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving


Homemade Sweet Corn Cornmeal Recipe
Supplies:
Corn of choice (Freshly boiled is best, but frozen works just as well)
Oven set to a low baking temperature (125F – 200 F)
Coffee Grinder

Method of Preparation:
1. If you are using fresh cob corn, boil the corn like you normally would for eating.  About 5-7 minutes.  Slice the kernels off the cob. (If you are using frozen corn, you can obviously skip this step.  Frozen corn is precooked then packaged.) 
2. Spread the corn kernels evenly on a baking sheet.
3. Place your baking sheet in the warmed oven on the center shelf, leaving the oven door slightly ajar for the duration of the drying process (this will prevent the corn from burning).
4. Once the corn is completely dehydrated, remove the baking sheet from the oven and place the kernels into a coffee grinder and grind.  A fine powdered meal is better for muffins while a coarser meal is nice for breads.

FYI:  The dehydration process will take about 6-8 hours depending upon the temperature of the oven and the moisture content of the corn.  A 16 ounce bag of frozen sweet corn yielded approximately 1 ¼ cups of meal.

These recipes are super simple.  It really only requires mixing and the final products are fantastic.  The bread was sweet and moist but had enough of dryness from the corn to prevent the texture from being cake-like.  With the edition of the honey butter, I was instantly transported to Pioneer Hall and ready to wave my red and white checked napkin!

I would like to thank the authors of AllEars.net for their fantastic recipes section.  I would also like to ask if anybody has the original honey butter recipe for the butter served at Pioneer Hall and I would also like to know what you guys think of this post. 


Thank you for reading and look for more of our Cooking Disney adventures.

TTFN!
Kristin