So. Yesterday I find I am craving cornbread. Non-southern, slightly sweetened cake-like cornbread. (Damn Yankee!)  I pull out most of the ingredients except for the baking powder and salt because I mix right under the spice cabinet. I grab the Clabber Girl baking powder and note once again the change in label colors, all bright and happy with blues and yellows. Clabber Girl was always mostly white and looked rather "original" reminiscent of it's introduction to the market over 100 years ago. I suppose if Sunmaid raisins can update their label, who am I to judge? I also note they've removed the small metal edge at the top's opening used for evening off the measuring spoon to exact measurement. ~sigh~ Progress, me eyehole.

Cooking commences.*waits with anticipation for cornbread* I notice the damn thing doesn't rise. Damnit! *waits more* It pretty much decides not to rise except one small hump trying to be a tiny hill on the plain of the bread. We eat it anyway, discussing the unleavened quality. I mention that the baking powder must have gone bad, maybe has gotten moisture in it since it is not very old, and that would explain the flatness of the beer bread the week before. Craving so not fulfilled for me.

Post-dinner I move to pull out the can of baking powder to throw it away. There it is on the top shelf, its brightly colored label mocking me, just the beginning's of the name "Cla" and under it "G" visible to me by the turn of the can. I pull it down, open the lid, stick my finger in it (no, I don't know why, I just did) and think "Odd texture", turn the can around and read "Clabber Girl Corn Starch". WTF!?!?

"Corn starch?!?!? When did we buy Clabber Girl corn starch?!?!?" (It is obvious now who does not do the grocery shopping in this house, yes?) I reach further back in the cupboard, locating the familiar white labeled can. I pop the top and lo and behold - the metal edge for measuring still exists on the proper can.

*dies laughing* I decide not to pitch the "nasty beer bread recipe" or the baking powder corn starch. I note that if I were more organized and kept all my spices facing front (alphabetically would be even better!, never gonna happen) I could have avoided this. As it is I hunt for a spice by pulling half of them out on the search for the proper one, identify mostly on sight and not on the label, and cook. I suppose trying to stop my mind from being 100 miles away during the process would be helpful. Also probably not gonna happen.

I've never done something like that before. Well, I guess I cannot make that statement anymore. :-/

But LOL. I must make cornbread again in the near future.

And oh - it tasted fine and the whole thing was gone at the end of dinner, but still ..... I wanted it the way I wanted it, risen and familiar. :P~

Oh yes - the TIP - cornstarch is not a suitable substitute for baking powder. ;-)


This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/254312.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.