Blue Cornbread

In honor of the Hopi People and the Blue Corn Maiden, I made cornbread from blue corn flour. You can see a piece of it above. It tasted great and was quite quick and easy.

                        Hopi cornfield at the village of Moencopi - 1941. 

              Photo NAU.PH.96.4.14.10 by Bill Belknap 

                                                    courtesy of Cline Library Special Collections, Northern Arizona University.

The Hopi  are sometimes considered the world’s greatest dry-farmers. They live in the high desert region of Arizona and have developed farming practices that allow them to grow corn by carefully using water. 

The Hopi consider themselves to be in their fourth way of life. As they moved from the third to the fourth way of life, Ma'saw offered them corn. The other peoples took the largest ears of corn and the Hopi were left with the short blue ear. 

Different Hopi clans have different versions of how this happened, but because they ended up with the short blue ear, the Hopi knew that their fourth way of life would be difficult and centered around corn. In this way, the Hopi believe that they have always had corn and agriculture. 

The recipe I used to make blue cornbread was incredibly easy! The image above on the left shows the blue corn flour I used. 

For this recipe, you will need

1 cup blue cornmeal 

1/2 cup all-purpose flour or any flour 

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt (optional) 

1 tablespoon honey 

1 egg beaten 

1 cup milk

I mixed the liquid ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients in another bowl. I actually used agave syrup instead of honey, and it substituted well. I then mixed all of the ingredients together and poured the batter in an 8 inch square pan. You can use a muffin pan for 6 large muffins instead  of using the square pan.  I baked it at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until it was golden brown. It is best served warm.