I’m finally back with the Crazy Ingredient Challenge crew! It’s been half a year since I’ve been able to participate. While I did lose 3 months to our move across the country and lack of internet, usually I simply let it get away from me, not having enough time to pull something together. Often times the 20th of the month simply fell on another posting day for another culinary group and my ability to keep up with a double posting day is fairly lacking. But not this time!

This month’s crazy ingredient challenge was to come up with a dish combining corn and peaches. A perfect combination of summer flavors. I made sure to not only get this event written down in my planner, but also wrote down the day I’d be making the dish in my “to-do” column last week.

I’m not the biggest fan of peaches, (or so I thought) but my husband is and so I thought of him in coming up with an idea. I thought of doing something with the grill, maybe a salsa? And then all of a sudden an idea of cornbread came to me! I’m not sure where the inspiration came from, but I ran with it. I thought about grilling the peaches and then chopping them up into the dough. But let’s be honest, I don’t work the grill and I didn’t want to have to wait for Stuart to get home from work. So, “upside down cake” became the direction I went.

Peach upside down cornbread is such a fun take on the southern classic side dish. And one that makes cornbread that much better. I always find cornbread to be dry and begging for a dunk in honey or barbecue sauce. Not this one, it’s got the sweetness and moisture baked right on top of it!

Oh, and you know that side bar “or so I thought?” We’d picked up white peaches from Whole Foods instead of yellow and surprise! I found them to be amazing. Evidently I much prefer white peaches to yellow. Now I can’t wait to check the farmer’s market for some white peaches!

Peach Upside Down Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 2 C cornmeal
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 C buttermilk
• 1 C canned creamed corn
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1/3 C loosely packed brown sugar
• 2 peaches, sliced

Steps:

1. Place a cast iron skillet in the oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl whisk together cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. In another bowl whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and creamed corn. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix until combined.
4. When oven is preheated remove the skillet. Carefully swirl the oil into the skillet and evenly spread out the brown sugar. Lay the sliced peaches into the skillet, covering the area. Pour cornbread batter over top.
5. Bake 20 minutes until golden. Allow cornbread to cool in the pan 10-15 minutes. Place a large plate or cutting board on top of the skillet and turn it upside down.

*The cornbread recipe is adapted from Alton Brown at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/creamed-corn-cornbread-recipe.html*

To see the other bloggers who participated in this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge click on the link below.