Cornbread crepes make a great weekend brunch filled with your leftovers from last night’s fabulous dinner.
Korean tacos are so 2012. Cornbread crepes are the fusion cuisine for 2013–classic southern cornbread made with self-rising cornmeal mix combined with classic French haute cuisine. It’s one of our favorite recipes in the new Jack Daniel’s Cookbook, Stories and Kitchen Secrets from Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House that we wrote with our friend Lynne Tolley, the great-grandniece of Jack Daniel himself.
The best part is that these crepes seem difficult and fancy, but are as easy as pancakes if you have a slick nonstick skillet. This is one southern cornbread that we don’t make in a traditional cast-iron skillet because the sides aren’t sloped enough. Instead we use a regular nonstick skillet and, let’s face it, for some applications you can’t beat the non-stick powers of silverstone or teflon.
We’ve had interesting cornbread omelets at the National Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburg, Tenn., but the “omelet” was a little too thick and harder to wrap around ingredients without breaking. The thinner crepe batter is more refined and has a natural drape. Resting the batter allows the cornmeal to fully hydrate so the crepes are moist and pliable just like the real French ones.
What to wrap inside a cornbread? We tend toward leftovers, combining whatever’s in the fridge from dinner last night like chili, any omelet filling you like, creamed chicken, ham, beef, or turkey, barbecue, pinto beans or other beans, plus any leftover cooked vegetables, and grated cheeses. Butter and honey, sorghum or fruit preserves works.
The batter cooks on one side and becomes shiny and moist on the top. Use a spatula to check for a golden brown underside.
Leftovers are the best fillings. This one looks like it came from a lovely steak and roast potato dinner.
See how nicely browned they are and how naturally they fold over the ingredients. We folded these, but you can roll them up, too.
