Cheese and Jalapeño Polenta Bread (Cornbread)

This cheese and Jalapeño Polenta Bread is delicious, cheesy, spicy. A great side dish for the weekend barbeque that comes together in less than an hour.

I love mealie bread and was having a bit of a craving this weekend. But all I had in my pantry was a jar of pickled Jalapeños, and just enough polenta to make my favourite polenta bread.

Are cornbread and polenta bread the same?

These are both quick bread recipes, however, the methods and ingredients used in the Southern US are a bit different to what I am using here. Although I'm sure somewhere along the line ideas and methods were swopped.

Cornbread is usually made with southern grits, made from white corn, while polenta is made from yellow corn. The colour difference arising from the amount of beta carotene within the varieties. However, other than that, there isn't much difference in the corn or maize varieties.

Cornbread is common in the US, and this recipe is a riff on the US version, however, instead of butter I opted for olive oil since I was using polenta. But I wanted spice - and love my pickled Jalapeños, and love cheese.

Making Polenta Bread

This is a really simple recipe that starts with preheating your oven and preparing your baking vessel. All the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, polenta, salt, garlic powder, baking soda, and baking powder) are whisked together to evenly distribute the ingredients and to break down any clumps that may have formed in the flour.

The wet ingredients are then added to the fry ingredients and mixed through until a fairly wet batter is formed.

Pour this into your baking vessel and bake until golden brown or a cake tester comes out clean from the center.

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