The Remains of the Cornbread

So, you made my super-awesome cornbread, and despite your best efforts, you did not eat it all. Like most quick breads, cornbread is best fresh out of the oven. You can reheat it, but it loses some of the awesome. Fortunately, there are several good ways to use the leftovers.

• Make breadcrumbs. This assumes you haven't added anything like corn kernels or bacon. Crumble the cornbread onto a baking sheet and bake in a 350 oven until dry. Whiz through the food processor. This is a great way to use up odds and ends of bread or stray crackers, and you can just mix the crumbs together, regardless of their origin, assuming they are roughly the same age.

• If you are better at using your freezer than I am, cube it and freeze it to use for cornbread stuffing for Thanksgiving. I will never, ever remember to retrieve this after it disappears into the freezer. You may be smarter.

• If you have a lot of leftover cornbread, make bread pudding. I don't mean the savory kind with creamed corn (I am not linking to any variations of this because creamed corn gives me the heebie-jeebies), but a dessert pudding. The texture of this is very nice, light and fluffy. Someday I will try it with crumbled bacon as an add-in, and maple syrup for a sweetener.

• Four cups of cornbread chunks
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups of milk
• 1/4 cup sugar/honey/maple syrup - I went with sugar 
• 1 tsp vanilla
• optional add-ins: 1/2 cup chocolate chips (my choice,) raisins (yuck,) other diced dried fruit.  

•  Preheat oven to 375. Spray a loaf pan with Pam, put cornbread in the bottom. Scatter optional add-ins over the bread.
• Beat eggs, milk, sugar or other sweetener, and vanilla together; pour over bread
• Bake for 50 minutes until set and lightly browned.

• Make cornbread panzanella. This is not to be confused with a ubiquitous Southern recipe that takes leftover cornbread and a million other ingredients and slathers it with quarts of mayonnaise or ranch dressing in some kind of Slumgullion of the Dammned. This is a nice, simple, summery salad. My only note to this is I think it's tastier if you toast the cubes of cornbread a little before assembling the salad. Helps the texture. Oh, and feta cheese. 

• Okay, if you really want it: Slumgullion of the Damned. 

• And, again from Crescent Dragonwagon, Featherbed Eggs. I pared down her original, which called for an entire skillet of cornbread since my goal is to use up leftovers. 
• Half a skillet of leftover cornbread, crumbled and left to dry overnight. If you can remember it's in there, crumble the cornbread in the skillet you baked it in and leave it in your oven. 
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup grated cheese (Cheddar or pepperjack work well here) 
• Salt/pepper to taste
• optional dashes of hot sauce or Pickapeppa sauce. 

• Preheat oven to 350, FIRST TAKING OUT THE CORNBREAD YOU MAY HAVE LEFT IN THERE 
• Spray an 8x8 baking pan with Pam.
• Layer cornbread chunks, then cheese. 
• Beat together eggs, milk, and seasonings. Pour over the cornbread. 
• Bake for approximately 30 minutes. Mixture will be set and and lightly browned.