This South African mieliebrood (cornbread in Afrikaans) – has plenty of flavour, and has just the right hint of sweetness. It is an easy recipe that is absolutely foolproof. The original recipe was a family recipe handed down from my mother, and I have many fond childhood memories of this being served as a side dish at family braais (grilling). The version I give on the recipe card is a vegan mieliebrood, but I’ve added notes describing the original.
South African mieliebrood
It is surprisingly hard to unambiguously explain what corn product to use to a global audience. Cornstarch is a very fine powder, made out of the starch part of the corn kernel, and is used for thickening. Corn flour is a fine powder, similar to other flours. Cornmeal (also known as maize meal) is coarser than most flours and is often used in cooking as well as baking – think Polenta. Should be simple, right? Except sometimes cornstarch is called cornflour, and I’m sure there are other regional variations as well. This recipe calls for a maize meal/corn meal.
In South Africa, we eat yellow corn on the cob, but cornmeal is always white. If you don’t have white cornmeal, it will work just as well with polenta. Cornflour is not commonly available, so I have not tested it with cornflour.
The original had a lot of eggs, sugar and oil. I haven’t completely eliminated the oil and sugar from this version, but I’ve reduced it significantly. This is not quite healthy, but I still love this as an occasional treat. The combination of cornmeal and cream-style sweetcorn gives a great corn flavour.
Serving mieliebrood
While I love eating this fresh and warm from the oven, but it keeps well for a day or two and it make a great breakfast. It is a great side dish at a barbecue and it also goes really well with chilli.
I often make one big, round mieliebrood in a round casserole, but when I watch what I eat I make individual portions in a brownie tin to make portion control a little easier. I have to warn you – this bread is seriously delicious and it is hard to stop at one slice.
Substitutions
To make this cornbread vegan, I’ve substituted the eggs in the recipe with applesauce and ground flax seeds. If you would like to make the original version, omit the flaxmeal and applesauce; increase the sugar and oil to half a cup each, and add three eggs.
Vegan Cornbread
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup cornmeal Use polenta or Mieliemeel
- 1 tbs baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 jar 225g/8 oz applesauce
- 1 can cream style sweetcorn
- 2 tbs flaxmeal
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/360°F
- Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt and stir to ensure the baking powder is incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, combine the apple sauce,cream style sweetcorn, flaxmeal, olive oil and sugar and mix. Add this to the dry ingredients. Stir until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined. Don't overmix
- You can either make one large bread of twelve individual ones. I use an individually portioned brownie tin, but a cupcake tin will work just as well. The individual portions helps to remind me to not finish the whole thing in one sitting. Remember to coat with non-stick spray.
- Bake at 180°C/360°F. For individual portions, this will take about 25 minutes (the time will depend on the shape of your baking tin) For a large bread, it will take about 45 minutes. Test with a skewer 5 minutes before the indicated time.
- Let the bread cool before slicing, as it will be pretty crumbly when in comes out of the oven.