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Dessert

Corn Puffs

A baked cornmeal puff made with water, salt, butter, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Corn Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cornmeal base

  1. Boil water and salt in a pot.

  2. Stir in cornmeal and cook until thick, about 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and add butter and baking powder. Mix well and let cool slightly.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking sheet.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden, about 15-20 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Forms the thick body of the puffs and gives them their corn flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a tender interior.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to help the puffs rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornmeal until thick. Cooking the cornmeal in boiling water gelatinizes its starch, which thickens the mixture. If it is undercooked, the batter stays loose and the puffs may spread or turn out heavy.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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