Homemade Popcorn Flour Is The Unexpected Addition For Better Cornbread - Tasting Table

"You've perfected crave-inducing cornbread recipes and are a master at pulling honey sage skillet cornbread out of the oven. Just wait until you add popcorn flour to your corn-based creations. When bakers were told to use less wheat in their baking projects during World War II, popcorn flour was an easy answer. Turns out that popcorn isn't only good for moments of scarcity, however. This ingredient can turn up the flavor dials of ingredients you're already mixing into cornbread recipes."

"Popcorn flour is exactly what it sounds like. You'll take popcorn and pulverize the pieces in a food processor before stirring them into the ingredients used to make cornbread. Using the wrong size of cornmeal is an easy mistake when making cornbread, so when grinding up the popcorn, look to achieve the consistency of a coarse meal. Depending on the kind of popcorn you decide to blend, you may need to adjust the other ingredients accordingly."

Popcorn flour is made by pulverizing popped kernels to a coarse meal and stirring the ground popcorn into cornbread batter. Popcorn flour was used during World War II when bakers reduced wheat usage. Using a coarse grind avoids mistaken textures and may require adjusting salt when salted popcorn is used. Popcorn flour can produce lighter, fluffier cornbread slices. Adding sweet corn kernels increases corn intensity. Flavored popcorn—cheese, caramel, or Chicago-style—can subtly shift savory or sweet profiles. Popcorn flour also enables gluten-free cornbread when paired with gluten-free flours and yeast.

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