Faith Hill's Cornbread

Erma, I’ll have to pass on those Shania Twain recipes to Mel. He does make a mean apple pie. No, that’s not right. His wife bakes a mean apple pie. Still not right. His wife bakes lots of mean apple pies. Like a dozen a day. Every day. All year long. Year after year.

And she must like Shania Twain. Or at least Mel plays her music a lot at the Diner.

Another Mel’s Country Music Special at the Diner is Faith Hill’s Easy Country Cornbread.
I just noticed that Mel’s favorite recipes and singers are all good looking female singers. Wonder if there is some connection here?

Anyway, this is Southern Cornbread as you taught me to like it Erma. I know that you throw up your hands in horror at the thought of The Sacred Cornbread being served like a soft, sweet cake. I don’t know if Faith Hill is a “Mississippi Girl’ or not, but she must be from way below the Mason-Dixon Line as her Cornbread is definitely Southern in taste and presentation. Faith must have had a grandmother like yours with a heavy, black cast iron skillet.

Mel often brings this Cornbread to the table straight out of the oven. You know what he looks like in his white apron. Imagine that big guy carrying a heavy black skillet with potholders, and then flipping out a giant cake of yellow cornbread on your plate. It just cries for a slathering of butter.

“There You’ll Be” with a piece of buttered cornbread in “Sunshine and Summertime.” Or Wintertime. Or Falltime.

Faith Hill’s Easy Country Cornbread:

3 tablespoons Crisco Butter Shortening
1 ½ cups Martha White Yellow Cornmeal Mix
1 egg
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place the Crisco in an iron skillet and melt the shortening in the oven.

In a mixing bowl, mix egg, cornmeal mix and buttermilk. Pour the melted shortening into the mixture, leaving a small amount in the skittle so the bread will not stick. Stir in the shortening. Sprinkle a bit of dry cornmeal mix in the skillet and then pour in the cornbread mixture. Bake at 500 degrees until golden brown.

EAT AT ONCE!!

Shania Twain's Apple Pie

If you haven’t made Shania Twain’s Canadian Bannocks, rush right out to the kitchen and whip up a batch. They are perfect for these crisp fall mornings.

Perfect for crisp fall evenings is Shania Twain’s Country Apple Pie. The Country Music Star’s addition to this classic fall treat is raisins. Perhaps that comes from her Canadian heritage? Her crust is a little different to with lemon juice, butter and egg yolk which makes for a rich, yellow crust.

Tune her “From This Moment On” on the CD player and crank out this luscious pie. When your man comes through the door, he’ll sing, “Honey, I’m Home” and dig into this pie. You’ll be singing, “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” after the kiss that this great pie will bring.

Shania Twain’s Country Apple Pie:

¾ cup light brown sugar
½ cup flour
¼ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
8 apples
1/3 cup raisins
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons melted butter

Shania says that the best apples for this pie as Granny Smiths. Peel, core with apple corer, and cut apples into wedges.

Make your favorite double pie crust, or try Shania’s version below, and place into a large pie pan.

Juice the lemon with a juicer. In a large mixing bowl, mix the brown sugar, flour, white sugar, spices and salt. In another mixing bowl, mix the apples, the lemon juice, butter and raisins. Add brown sugar mixture to the apples and lightly toss.

Spoon the apples into the crust and chill for 15 minutes. Roll out the top crust and place on pie. Use remaining dough to cut out decorations for the top of the crust. Beat one small egg with a tablespoon of water and brush over the top of the pie. Add decorations (like little apples or leaves) cut from the remaining dough and brush again. Sprinkle top with white sugar.

Bake in a 375 degree over for about 50 to 60 minutes until the crust is golden. Cool on a wire cooling rack. Serve hot or cold. Serves 10.

Shania’s Double Pie Crust:

1 ½ cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
Grated zest of a lemon
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
1 egg yolk
3-4 tablespoons ice water

Mix flour, zest, salt, sugar in a mixing bowl. With pastry blender, cut in the butter and shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix ice water and egg yolk and stir into flour one tablespoon at a time until dough just starts to form. Divide dough in half, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days.

Shania Twain's Canadian Bannocks

To be truthful, Max, I have never heard of Carolyn Dawn Johnson, but if her music is a good as her Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole, this gal is a winner.

A Country Music Star that even I have heard of is Shania Twain, and my son sent me a couple of her recipes. He tells me that she is from somewhere in northern Canada and spent some time as a cook in a tree planting camp. There she fried her Bannocks like a pancake over an open fire. Since Bannocks are in the same family as Baking Powder Biscuits, it is no surprise that Shania says that she used to eat these for breakfast with butter and raspberry jam. Actually they are good with any kind of jam or jelly.

Shania Twain’s Canadian Bannocks:

2 cups flour
¼ cup nonfat dry milk powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
½ cup raisins (omit if you are serving bannocks as a bread)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil or melted butter
1 tablespoons melted butter, optional
1 to 3 tablespoons of sugar if you like sweet breadMaple syrup

Stir the flour, milk, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. Stir in the raisins if using. Add the water, oil or melted butter and stir until the dough clings together--like biscuit dough.

Spread the dough in an 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking pan. Brush with the second 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes or until golden. Serve with maple syrup, or blackberry jam, or cinnamon sugar, or any kind of sweet preserve.

Serves 6.

I think that Bannocks are an Irish or Scotch invention, aren’t they?