Pear and Blue Cheese Cornbread
This delicious pear and blue cheese cornbread combines the salty creaminess of a stilton blue cheese with the sweet honeyed flavor of ripe pears, all embedded in rich autumnal cornbread. Enjoy, my friend!
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup medium grind yellow cornmeal
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups plain full fat Greek yogurt room temp
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter melted
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 small pear about 5 ounces, peeled cored and finely chopped
- 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
- 6 ounces blue cheese ideally stilton, crumbled
- 1 long pear cut into VERY thin slices lengthwise
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish and set it aside.
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Put the dry ingredients in a stand mixer and mix at low speed with the paddle attachment until combined. Add the yogurt, eggs, butter, and honey and mix at low speed until *just* combined. Add the frozen corn, chopped pear, and about 3/4 of the blue cheese crumbles and fold into the batter until evenly distributed.
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Empty the batter into the greased baking dish and spread with spatula to make it even on top. Sprinkle with the remaining blue cheese crumbles, and then place the pear slices on top, pressing them gently onto the batter to secure them in place. You don’t have to use all of the pear slices, just enough to attractively cover the cornbread.
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Place on the lowest rack of the oven and bake until golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs (not wet), about 35-45 min. Check about 10 minutes early to see if it’s browning too quickly on top and add foil on top if needed, then bake until it passes the toothpick test. If you’re using a convection oven it will cook faster, so keep an eye on it!
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Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Will keep covered in the refrigerator for several days. You can also slice it and freeze it in an airtight container for several months.
Recipe Notes
Try to slice the long pears as thinly as you can. This will help make sure the cornbread bakes evenly underneath the pears and doesn't stay wet right underneath them on the surface.