Millie Peartree Transcript
Jessie Sheehan:
Hi, peeps. You're listening to She's My Cherry Pie, the baking podcast from The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Jessie Sheehan. I'm a baker, recipe developer, and author of three baking books, including my latest, “Snackable Bakes.” Each Saturday I'm hanging out with the sweetest bakers around and taking a deep dive into their signature bakes.
Today's guest is Millie Peartree, the chef and humanitarian who makes everything she touches taste delicious. Millie is a regular contributor to the New York Times, and she's been featured on shows, including “Good Morning America,” “The Today Show,” and “Rachael Ray.” Millie is the founder of the organization, Full Heart Full Bellies, which helps provide meals and groceries to children in need and their families. Not only is Millie a wonderful human, but she makes a mean cornbread. We're going to walk through the recipe for her honey butter cornbread, which is a wonderful treat anytime of year. Stay tuned for my chat with Millie Peartree.
Thank you to Plugra Premium European Style Butter and California Prunes for their support. I've been a fan of Plugra for some time, as anyone who has peeked in my fridge can attest. I was introduced to Plugra by my coworkers at my very first bakery job, and I continue to use Plugra today in my work as a professional baker, recipe tester, and cookbook author. Because of what I do for a living, I go through a lot of butter, as you can imagine. I especially love that Plugra contains 82% butter fat, because the higher butter fat content means less moisture and more fat. As bakers know, fat equals flavor. Plus, it's slow churned, making it more pliable and easy to work with. I use Plugra Premium European Style, unsalted butter when making either my easy-peasy melted butter pie dough or my traditional cold butter pie dough. I also love the buttery flavor Plugra adds to my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which also calls for melted butter. Can you tell melted butter is one of my ingredient obsessions these days? However you use it, Plugra Premium European Style Butter is the perfect choice, from professional kitchens to your home kitchen. Ask for Plugra at your favorite grocery store or visit Plugra.com for a store locator.
I'm a California Prunes fan when it comes to smart snacking and baking. First off, California Prunes are good for your gut, your heart, and even your bones. Prunes contain dietary fiber and other nutrients to support good gut health, potassium to support heart health, and vitamin K, copper and antioxidants to support healthy bones. Of course, prunes are a great addition to scones, cakes, and crackers. Anything you're baking that calls for dried fruit, consider California Prunes. Prunes work perfectly in recipes with rich and complex flavors like espresso, olives, and chilies, and they enhance the flavor of warm spices, toffee, caramel, and chocolate. If you love baking swaps and experimenting with natural sweeteners, you can replace some of the sugar in a recipe with California Prune puree. Prune puree is a cinch to make as it's a blend of prunes and water. You can find more details on the California Prunes website, CaliforniaPrunes.org. While you're there, be sure to check out all the delicious recipes, including the salty snack chocolate fudge with pretzels and California Prunes inspired by the recipe from my cookbook, “Snackable Bakes.” Happy baking and happy snacking.
Let's check in with today's guest. Millie, so excited to have you on She's My Cherry Pie and to talk about cornbread with honey butter, with you and so much more.
Millie Peartree:
I love that. She's My Pie, such a wonderful name.
Jessie Sheehan:
You began cooking and baking at a very young age in the Bronx where you grew up, and you were inspired to cook and bake by your mom and also by time spent visiting relatives in the South. Can you tell me about your mom's cooking and baking and also the kind of cooking and baking that was happening when you went down South?
Millie Peartree:
Absolutely. My mom's cooking was just so... It felt like a warm hug per se. It was just one of those things. It just made you feel welcome and just the smells of something being cooked and the stories that she used to tell us. But it wasn't by recipe. So oftentimes people will ask, "What is your recipe?" I'm like, "well, we didn't really cook on recipes. It was more or less get your tail in the kitchen and learn something." It was just a way that we created those joyful memories. You know hindsight is better than foresight.
It's a way that I currently cook. I remember my mom, and that's a lot of my technique in my writing is childhood memories. The baking, we did a lot of baking out the box. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was just a way that we got in the kitchen, me and my siblings, and just created those memories through food.
Jessie Sheehan:
Were there specific things that she cooked or even baked from the box that you remember that were important to you?
Millie Peartree:
I always remember my sisters and I, we used to make brownies from the box and strawberry and vanilla cakes from the box, because I was part of church bake sale. When you always brought something for the building fund or something like that, and I used to always think, I'm like, I never even saw you. I changed a light bulb in here in this church where we have in a building fund, but those are the cakes that we ate in church. There was a yellow cake with a chocolate ice thing or some brownies or a strawberry cake with a vanilla icing, maybe some cookies or something like that.
So I always remember those memories of trying to bake something really quickly, like I said, from a box and just bringing it to church or just having something idly hanging around the kitchen, which I like to call center of the table cakes now.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I sometimes call them counter cakes. They're always just on the counter. You grab a little piece whenever you walk by.
Millie Peartree:
You don't have to offer anybody a piece. It's just more or less something that just sits there and you can just nosh and nibble on it while you're idly walking around the kitchen or looking at someone, just to see what they're going to make next, right?
Jessie Sheehan:
When you would go down south to your relatives, was there a different kind of cooking and baking happening there or sort of similar to what your mom was doing?
Millie Peartree:
When I went down south, the cooking was pretty much one and the same. My aunt lived in Beaufort, South Carolina. I remember she lived in a trailer. I never knew what trailers were. I mean, now I know what they are, but I thought it was the most fascinating thing. She had all this land and all these acres, and she used to pick figs and okra and tomato, and she had a wonderful neighbor that lived across the way and they used to swap vegetables. It was just one of those things I never knew until now, all about farming and how special that land was and all the memories that I had traveling to Beaufort, South Carolina.
I remember she had a groundskeeper and he used to ride around in his tractor trailer. But I asked my Aunt Maurice, she's my oldest and my only living aunt, she's 92, and she said, I'm going to still try to find out for you. I don't think that she really did, but I wish that there was a way that I don't know if the land was sold or anything like that, but it was a beautiful memory.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, I love that. You've said that you first knew that maybe a culinary career was in the cards for you or made sense for you after you won your first baking contest. Can you tell me about the contest?
Millie Peartree:
Absolutely. So my first baking contest when I worked in corporate America and around the holidays, everybody has something, whether it's a holiday party, but we used to have these baking competitions, and I remember one year I bought biscotti and then one year I bought some cupcakes and it was like, these cupcakes are store bought, right? I'm like, no, absolutely not. I went on one of those online shopping sites and I got the clamshells and the baking wrap, and I made sure I had piping tips and everything because I knew that I wanted to have the best cupcakes ever. I think that was how it essentially started on how I developed an affinity for baking and creating these happy and joyful memories through food.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. How old were you then?
Millie Peartree:
Oh, I was a grown woman, child. I was in my was 25, 26.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my God, I love it. I didn't get into this until I was, I don't know, late thirties. So I feel you. I love that. You've described your cooking and your baking style as kind of classic soul food, favorites of childhood. Can you kind of unpack what that means exactly?
Millie Peartree:
I think my recipe style is more or less growing up in the Bronx, of course, I grew up in a southern household. I grew up in a section of the Bronx where it's not predominantly one culture. So when you think of the white plain section of the Bronx is predominantly West Indian. A lot of people migrate from Jamaica and Trinidad and things like that. But the area I grew up in, I had a Korean neighbor, I had a Jamaican neighbor around the corner. I always talk about my Puerto Rican neighbors where I learned a lot of my recipes, bacalaitos and arroz con pollo and so many wonderful things I still eat to this day. So I think the fusion of cooking is the Bronx, if I can categorize that into a cuisine of food because it's so multifaceted and multicultural. But the traditional things that I ate in my household, especially around the holidays, Sunday dinner, special occasion meals, were all southern food inspired, which there's so many different sects of southern food.
I had a conversation recently with somebody, they were like, "well, where are you guys getting there six?" I'm like, "well, I know of six, I know of a few more." However, as you grow, there's other traditions and other cultures of southern food that may pop up. I correlated to this at some point in time there were four colors in the whole entire world, right? Red, black, brown, and green, let's say that. But as you grew and as people did their research, they found that there were other colors. So even though six may be acknowledged like Creole, Cajun soul food, et cetera, I'm pretty sure that there are more sects of southern food and I'm hoping to explore that through my writing. So I'm happy to see where I go with all of this in my recipe writing and all the things that I've eaten over the years.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. Can you tell us about Full Heart Full Bellies?
Millie Peartree:
Yeah. So Full Heart Full Bellies is a non-for-profit I created during the pandemic to help feed children and families in the Bronx. The reason why I chose the Bronx, number one, I'm from the Bronx, and number two, the Bronx is the poorest borough of all of the five boroughs of New York City. So for 11 months straight, I partnered with wonderful people like Amazon gave us their kitchen and a whole staff, and we cooked for people. Then we had wonderful donors like Coca-Cola and Noor and Target, and the list goes on and on and they were able to help and individual donors, we set up a GoFundMe and people actually dug in their pocketbooks and donated and we're able to feed people for 11 months straight. Then after that I started to pivot because we often say you teach a man how to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime.
That's when I pivoted into the food donation space while I work with some of the same sponsors again over and over again like Tyson and Noor and Target, et cetera. I do random food drives. People always give away food, Christmas, Thanksgiving, but what about the off months? I like to celebrate my culture, Black History Month, Juneteenth, et cetera. But it might be like a random day in September and I'll say, okay, let's go to South Bronx and give away some food. I recently did something with the Food Bank of New York City. I had Tyson send them like 50,000 pounds of product just because I wanted to make sure people can continuously get what they need, everything for the nourishment of our body.
If we don't eat, then we can't be successful and productive people. So that's my mission moving forward is to continuously get people what they need, whether it's through lunch bags and backpack drives, we get children's snacks and book bags. We did a greenhouse in the Bronx and we partnered with Target on that and we cooked up all the food with McCormick and they sent the donation and we made sure we cooked for an entire hood. So I want to make sure I continue even though it's small, but it's mighty and I want to be impactful. I'm blessed that through Full Heart Full Bellies and all our wonderful donor supporters and volunteers, we're able to help people in food deserts.
Jessie Sheehan:
We'll be right back.
Kerry Diamond:
Hi everybody, I'm Kerry Diamond, the founder of Cherry Bombe and the editor-in-chief of Cherry Bombe Magazine. The Cherry Bombe online shop is temporarily closed because we're switching warehouses. If you are looking for the newest issue of Cherry Bombe, be sure to visit one of our amazing stockists. Cherry Bombe is carried by great bookstores, cafes, magazine shops, and culinary boutiques across the country and abroad. Places like Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Good Cakes and Bakes in Detroit, and Le Dix-Sept Patisserie in San Francisco. Visit cherrybombe.com for stockist near you.
Jessie Sheehan:
So now I want to talk about your recipe for cornbread with honey butter. I wondered if there was a particular inspiration for the recipe, maybe a cornbread you grew up with or anything that got you excited about cornbread or made you develop this recipe?
Millie Peartree:
Right. So ate a lot of cornbread growing up. Of course growing up in a southern household and many different variations of it. Some with corn, some made with buttermilk, some made in muffin form, some made in skillet form, some made in bunt pan, et cetera, et cetera. But this recipe in particular, it's kind of like all the things that I love in cornbread. It was moist, it was not too sweet. I didn't like it like poundcake. I still wanted to have that gritty crumbleness.
I wanted to be able to taste the cornmeal and have the texture of it, but honey and butter makes everything better and it's nothing like that slather of butter at the end that actually melts into the cornbread and has a slight stickiness when you eat it. It's just a great 360 burst of flavor. I also served it in my former restaurant, Millie Peartree Fish Fry & Soul Food, and we served it in muffin form and it was just one of those things I was like, you know what? People can't get it any longer at the restaurant, but I can give you a recipe for it and you can make it at home.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. At the restaurant, would people order it a la carte separately or did it come with a platter of food?
Millie Peartree:
Both.
Jessie Sheehan:
Both.
Millie Peartree:
So it'll come with any platter, a dinner you purchased and then you could get three, I think it was for like a dollar 25 or something like that.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yum, yum, yum. So first things first, with this recipe, we're going to whisk the dry ingredients together and we're going to have a medium-sized bowl. Do you like glass or metal or what kind of bowl do you like as a mixing bowl?
Millie Peartree:
In commercial kitchens I always use metal because that's the nature of it. It holds up to heat. If you drop it won't break. But I have glass at home, but it doesn't matter, even if you have a cereal bowl, if you want to mix in a pot, if that's all you have, I always tell people, you don't have to buy specialty equipment. These are suggestions. But if a pot does it for you, if a salad bowl does it for you, use what you have. It's all about the love that you put into it when you're putting together a recipe.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love it. Is there a particular brand that you would recommend to listeners, either of the metal bowl that you would use in a commercial kitchen? Maybe that's just from restaurant supply...
Millie Peartree:
That's just like restaurant supply stuff.
Jessie Sheehan:
Or at home, is it just like a Pyrex bowl?
Millie Peartree:
At home I think I have Pyrex dishes and then I have some dishes that you could buy on Amazon and Target. I have different variations of them, but the glass bowls I do keep at home, they are heatproof because sometimes I like to melt in my bowls, sometimes I like to get things warm if I do a double boiler. So I would always recommend when you're buying equipment, make sure it's universal for all the cooking styles that you want to attempt at some point because at some point in time you're going to run out of space.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love using glass Pyrex bowls at home because I love my microwave and I love to melt my butter in the microwave and then use that same bowl to add the rest of my ingredients. So I am like a big glass Pyrex person. Then you're going to grab a whisk, do you have a specific brand or a specific type of whisk that you like to use?
Millie Peartree:
I think the one that I use the most is like a OXO one and they have collapsible whisk. You can use a metal whisk if you're really good at folding ingredients and you can use a wooden spoon, but you want to make sure you get the lumps out. So if you have the technique on being able to whisk without over whisking and activating the gluten and making your cornbread tough. So there's a little bit of a technique with that, but whisk kind of aerates it a little bit. So I would recommend a whisk.
Jessie Sheehan:
So we're going to whisk together our yellow cornmeal. You like it to be finely ground, medium grind. How do you like the corn?
Millie Peartree:
I use a fine one because I like to sieve. Again, when I do a lot of baking, I like to incorporate as much air as possible so I can get this light texture. But it's a matter of preference. You can use stone ground, you can use anything. You can use whatever you have. I don't think that you necessarily have to go out there and buy a specific corn meal for everything. I think you should find one that is to your liking, whether or not you're making Johnny cakes or cornbread and then you can... It's universal. You could use it across the board.
Jessie Sheehan:
If you had a medium or something else, would you put that in a spice grinder or if one wanted to do it your way, we could probably take that kosher corn meal-
Millie Peartree:
I'm pretty sure you could-
Jessie Sheehan:
And kind of grind it down to get something a little more fine. It's yellow cornmeal and not white cornmeal. So we're going to whisk together our yellow corn meal and some all-purpose flour. Do you have a brand of all-purpose that you like?
Millie Peartree:
I use pretty much anything. I use Pearl Milling, I use Pillsbury. It's just, again, whatever you have on hand. I wouldn't use a bread flour for this, but you can use bleached, unbleached. It's just whatever you have. Again, the purpose of baking and creating recipes is find what you like, keep that in your pantry because this is the pantry recipe. Then from there you don't have to do too much mixing and maneuvering. We want people to be able to feel like these recipes are accessible and they're not breaking the bank every time they go to supermarket.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, makes sense. Now we're going to add sugar.
Millie Peartree:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
I know some people think, oh, you can't have sugar in cornbread, but I like it that yours has it... Me too. Would brown sugar work? I know you call for granulated.
Millie Peartree:
You can use brown sugar. I'll give it more of a molasses taste. Brown sugar is a little bit more sweeter in my opinion, so you might want to scale back some. Again, we're putting the honey on top of it, but you can totally use brown sugar. I wouldn't use it too tightly packed either because we don't want it to turn into something so heavy and so sweet. It might change the flavor profile a little bit too much. I'll lean on not necessarily that, but then again, if you like it that way, totally use it.
Jessie Sheehan:
Go for it. Yeah. What's nice is it's such a simple recipe that you could try it with brown sugar and then if it wasn't your cup of tea, the next time you make it you can go back to granulated.
Millie Peartree:
Correct. Absolutely.
Jessie Sheehan:
Then we're going to whisk in some baking powder, some kosher salt. I was going to ask you always use kosher in your baking or do you sometimes use fine sea salt?
Millie Peartree:
I don't. I use what I have. Sea salt is a little bit too salty for me. It's very oceany. I think that those are great for pastas. I use Florida salt maybe for some cookies, but I'll use kosher salt because that's my universal salt in the house. I use it for savory and baking. But again, if you have fine salt, you can totally use that, iodine salt.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now this ingredient is so interesting, but talk to me about adding cinnamon.
Millie Peartree:
I just like the warmth of cinnamon. It just adds that special sweetness. It's so warm and it just had something unique to it that makes it different from traditional cornbread. So you have, depending on texture of flour, but it's like, hmm, what is that? It's not overpowered cinnamon flavor, but it's just something like warm in the background, like you know what? This is familiar. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I like it.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, so it's almost like you won't be able to say, oh, it's cinnamon cornbread. It's just almost like a background note. Yeah. I love that.
Millie Peartree:
I love the warm undertone or something. It's not cinnamon toast crunch or anything where it's like, oh my gosh, this is cinnamon, this is french toast. Something like that. It's not that. It's just something like, I like it and it's good.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I've never seen cinnamon in cornbread. I think that's so great. Then in a second bowl we're going to whisk together the wet ingredients, which is an egg, buttermilk, which I love. Could you substitute regular milk or heavy cream?
Millie Peartree:
I wouldn't necessarily do heavy cream. Maybe if you have some half-and-half, maybe if you want to use up something you have in your refrigerator, but whole milk, 2% milk will work. Not necessarily sure on how almond milk will work because this is one of those recipes you want kind of that anxiousness of that full fat, but I'm certain it will work. But this is just one of those things like that buttermilk, it just gives it that tang, the counter balance of the tanginess, the tartness. If you want to make buttermilk, you could add some vinegar to it, but it's just something about the balance of flavor and that's what all, what recipe, writing and developing is. It's like developing a certain flavor profile and I feel like with the cinnamon, the sugar, the buttermilk, it gives it this unique delicious flavor that is without equal.
Jessie Sheehan:
I feel like that buttermilk, that tang will be so nice with the honey and so nice with the sugar just to kind of like, the contrast there would be so yummy. I think buttermilk tends to be a pretty regional ingredient, but is there a particular brand of buttermilk that you use?
Millie Peartree:
I'm thinking about it. It just depends on what store I'm going to. If I buy something off of Fresh, it might be their brand because a lot of these stores have their own brand now, but if I go to a local mom and pop shop, it might be a national brand, so it doesn't matter. Just make sure you give it a good shake as buttermilk can settle and you don't want it to be too thick coming out, but just shake it up really well and any brand will definitely do for this.
Jessie Sheehan:
The thing you were referencing before with the vinegar, I think the idea is we would use the same amount of buttermilk, but let's say in whole milk, but we could add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to every cup of milk.
Millie Peartree:
Absolutely. There you go. That's the measurements. Yeah, that's a good one.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. Then some unsalted melted butter. I also love that the butter and this recipe is melted because it just means you don't have to cream anything. There's no stand mixer or anything. It's just easy-peasy, which I love.
Millie Peartree:
If you want to use salted butter, you totally can. I use unsalted butter in my house because when I develop recipes, that's what it particularly calls for. Again, adding salted butter will change the flavor profile some. But if you're a salted butter person, feel free to use it.
Jessie Sheehan:
The next thing we're going to do is we are going to make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and we're going to pour in all of those liquid ingredients and slowly whisk because as you said, you don't want to over mix the batter, until a smooth batter is created. You don't want any lumps at this point.
Millie Peartree:
There won't be. So the fact that we sieve some of it and we created that well, it's kind of like you're folding the dry over the wet. So it gives an even consistency. So that kind of, in my opinion, it helps mitigate the over whisking because once it starts to combine-
Jessie Sheehan:
You're done.
Millie Peartree:
That's what it is.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. You're done. So are you saying that in the beginning with that corn meal, we should actually use a sieve to make the ingredients a little bit more fine and to put a little bit more air in them?
Millie Peartree:
I technically would, but again, if you don't have a sieve, of course I don't want you to go out and buy one. But I just feel like it adds so much more air to a recipe when you have it. The salt, if you're using kosher salt, of course the salt is not going to go through the sieve, so you can just throw the salt in the bowl and use a fork or a wooden spoon just to combine it all the way through.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. Then the oven has been preheated to 400 and you've greased either a nine-inch round cake pan or a cast iron skillet or as you said, a muffin tin. Is there a brand of cake pan that you love? Or again, are you just kind of getting them at a restaurant supply store or on Amazon?
Millie Peartree:
I have a lot from restaurant supply stores and online shopping. But when I did a lot of my dessert baking, I used to use Wilton a lot. But then I have my old school, I have my mama's old school cast irons. I have a Le Creuset one. Again, you don't have to keep going out there buying things, like listen, you can find something heatproof, get it in the oven, it'll work perfectly. But again, preheat in the beginning because you want the oven waiting for you. You don't want to have to wait on the oven.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Do you have a preference to like, do you like to make this in a skillet as opposed to a cake pan?
Millie Peartree:
It just depends on what I'm trying to do. Of course, a skillet will give you more surface room, so it'll be a little bit more thinner and you'll get those crispy edges. If you're doing a cake pan, it'll rise a little bit more, so it'll be more cake. But it's all about what you want. You just have to be mindful of your cook times, all cast iron skillet has a 360 heat. It may cook a little bit quicker, the cake pan a little bit longer, of course, muffin's 12, 15 minutes. So it just all depends.
Jessie Sheehan:
So then you're going to pour the batter into the greased pan, whether it's your cake pan or it is your cast iron skillet or muffin tin, and you're going to bake until golden brown on the top. Then a tester inserted in the center comes out clean like 25 to 30 minutes. But like you said, it'll depend on the kind of pan you use.
Millie Peartree:
Correct.
Jessie Sheehan:
I mean, obviously when we write recipes, we have to put in an amount of time, but really people need to look and they need to smell and because you don't always know when everybody's oven is different.
Millie Peartree:
Absolutely. Depending on gas and electric. I always say, you know what, use the light, especially if you're doing muffins, you need at least 12 to 13 good minutes. I don't think that anybody should be opening their oven at 10 minutes because you're going to let a lot of the air out and you'll risk the pastry, I guess we call it a pastry, right?
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Millie Peartree:
Dropping in the center and uneven cooking time. But I think you know when things get brown, there's a light in there. You could take a peek in, just watch it a little bit, but you don't have to keep opening and closing the oven door.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, I want cornbread right now.
Millie Peartree:
Me too.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're going to talk about how to make the honey butter, but do you like the honey butter to already be made, so the second that the cornbread comes out, you can brush it on top?
Millie Peartree:
Absolutely. Because the only thing it's going to seep in. Then sometimes I'll take the cake tester and I would recommend cake tester or toothpick, have those things around in your kitchen because when you start stabbing it with the fork, you'll open it up. Especially if you're serving, it won't look as pretty. But cake testers and toothpicks is like a small prick and you can make a whole bunch of little holes and it could just seat down into it and get all the nooks and crannies off the cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
So to make the honey butter in a medium bowl, we're going to whisk or use a fork. I don't know what tool you think is best for this, but we're going to whisk together the honey and some unsalted melted butter. Do you just do that with a little whisk or would you do that with a fork?
Millie Peartree:
Sometimes, you know what I'll do? I'll just put the butter and the honey in the same bowl, put it in the microwave, and of course you're going to watch the intervals because they'll foam up because of the milk solids in it. So do like 10, 15 seconds at a time, make sure it doesn't overflow, and then it's ready to go. Then you can whisk it. The honey might drop to the bottom a little bit, but just take a fork and mix it together and pour and slather or brush.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my God, I'm going to say it again. I love my microwave and I love melted and I love honey butter. Is there a particular flavor of honey that you like or you'll just take whatever you have?
Millie Peartree:
I'll take whatever I have. Don't forget grade A, the better kind. But again, if you find an inexpensive one, just use what you like or use maple syrup like I said.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's what I was going to say. For people that don't have honey at home or don't like the flavor of it, maple syrup works as well. Then do you brush the honey on with a pastry brush? Is there a brand of pastry brush that you like?
Millie Peartree:
You can use a paintbrush from the hardwood store. Just make sure you wash it and make sure you don't paint anything with it. But listen, you can just go straight with it. Or if you don't have a pastry brush or a paintbrush, you could just, like I said, prick holes and just pour it on top and use the back of a spoon to get it in those holes the best that you can. There's no right or wrong way when it comes to that, or you can just take your cornbread and dip it.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh. Yum. I forgot about that technique too, to maybe when it comes out of the oven to use your toothpick to make a million holes, so when you do brush on that honey butter, it seeps seeps-
Millie Peartree:
Right down.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. Yum, yum, yum. Then you serve the cornbread hot? Yes.
Millie Peartree:
Yes. I like steam coming out of my food. You do not have to let this rest. It may crumble some, but that's all the better. I'm a hot food person. I'm not a big room temp person. If I could eat something hot, I'm going to eat it hot. But it's equally delicious, warm room temp. If you like it cold, feel free to eat it that way. There's no right or wrong way to eat cornbread.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love it. I'm a little bit extra, but I might put extra butter on it. Would you?
Millie Peartree:
As you should.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay, good.
Millie Peartree:
Some room temperature butter and you just slather it on.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes, that's what I want to do.
Millie Peartree:
Do what you like.
Jessie Sheehan:
I'm so hungry right now.
Millie Peartree:
Me too.
Jessie Sheehan:
I just love all your recipes on New York Times Cooking, like your pimento cheese dip and your spoon bread and your 7UP sheet cake. I'm just obsessed. But will you tell us about the southern mac and cheese recipe? I do think what makes it unique are the eggs.
Millie Peartree:
So I feel like the eggs gives it a more custardy, velvety, smooth consistency. Just think about when you make a bechamel sauce. When you scoop it might run on the plate a little bit. This will kind of stabilize it a little bit more. So it adds this custard feel to it. It's not quiche, but it just adds another level of flavor and some balance to it. I just love the way the flavor of it. Another thing that you can't really put your finger on because even when you eat a cake, you can't taste the egg in it, but you know that you put eggs in it. But it's just one of those things like this is the way I grew up making it. This is the way I was taught how to make it. I don't know the reasoning or rhyme behind it, but I know it does add that extra flavor to it that just reminds me of those happy and joyful memories cooking with my mom in the kitchen.
Jessie Sheehan:
Listeners, please make Millie's southern mac and cheese recipe. It's so good. I consider it baking, which is why we're talking about it.
Millie Peartree:
I do. I also say, you got to make sure your noodles are cool enough when you add the eggs, the eggs won't scramble. Make sure they're evenly incorporated. Then even with, if there's a little bit too liquid after the first baking process, before you put the cheese on, you know what I noticed? If you stir the macaroni and cheese, it kind of brings it together the same way a cheese sauce would. Then you could put the cheese on top. So if it's a little bit too wet during the baking process, once you pull it out, it's like, oh, I still see a lot of milk. Stir that bad boy together, and it'll turn into this creamy cheese sauce. When you put the cheese on it broiler, you scoop it out perfect every time.
Jessie Sheehan:
I want that right now with the cornbread. I want both.
Millie Peartree:
And some fried chicken.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes, please.
Millie Peartree:
All southern dinner.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes. This is another New York Times recipe that I love. Tell us about sock it to me cake.
Millie Peartree:
Oh, sock it to me cake. So sock it to me cake is like a hybrid cake, right? It's kind of like a coffee cake and a pound cake, and they had a baby. But instead of having those crumbles on top, it's actually mixed in the middle. It's famous in part through Aretha Franklin, "Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me." So it's a wonderful cake that has such history and culture, and I call another center of the table cake, and it doesn't even have to be served for dessert, is good enough to have in the morning or an after dinner treat.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh. I love the idea of mixing coffee cake and pound cake.
Millie Peartree:
It's so good.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Finally, your caramelized banana pudding.
Millie Peartree:
Oh, another one.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh, Millie.
Millie Peartree:
So it's so good. So I always hear people say, when banana starts to ripe, they start to oxidize, right? It's like they turn black and it's like, well, doesn't mean that it's not equally good, but I was like, but we're going to mitigate some of the conversation on whether or not you're going to eat it based on the bananas turning black. So I was like, you know what? If you kind of caramelize it, and number one, if you have over ripe bananas, this is a great way to make them ripe, make them more sweet. You can actually caramelize them and toss them in some sugar, and it just adds this smooth consistency. Again, this is one of those recipes, you make it your own. Nothing wrong with just adding sliced bananas, but I feel like this is another way to add flavor. It's just so good. Listen, I'm at a loss for words on what this caramelized banana pudding means to me.
Jessie Sheehan:
You kind of cook those bananas with butter and sugar.
Millie Peartree:
Butter and sugar. Listen, it's dessert. You don't eat it every single day. It's just something that just makes you feel good. That's just a different version on making banana pudding.
Jessie Sheehan:
Well, I love it because when I was little, if there was no dessert in the house, I would literally take a banana, slice it in half, cover it in butter and brown sugar, and then put it in the toaster oven, and that would be dessert.
Millie Peartree:
With some ice cream.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my God.
Millie Peartree:
I used to always make this caramelized banana with french toast or pancakes or with some granola. So you don't only have to use it in the pudding. You can find a different way to use it in dessert and add some rum or some Cognac.
Jessie Sheehan:
Does the pud... Yum. Does the pudding also have fresh banana in it or it's just exclusively the caramelized?
Millie Peartree:
It's just exclusively the caramelized banana. So the same way you'll make any custard with eggs and heavy cream or half an half and the whole cooking process of that. Then it's just layered with the caramelized bananas and the vanilla wafers, and you put it in the refrigerator and you let it set, and then you pull it out. You have those tender cookies with the sweet banana and the custard, and it's just a delicious recipe.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I also love banana pudding. It's been made a million different ways by a million different people. So it's so hard to find something, to find a way to make it unique and to make it your own correct. I feel like that's such an excellent use of bananas in a banana pudding. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, Millie, and I just want to say that you are my cherry pie.
Millie Peartree:
Oh, thank you so much my love. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Plugra Premium European Style Butter and California Prunes for their support. Don't forget to subscribe to She's My Cherry Pie on your favorite podcast platform, and tell your baking buddies about us. Be sure to check out our other episodes and get tips and tricks for making the most popular baked goods around. From birthday cake to biscuits to blondies. She's My Cherry Pie is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network and is recorded at CityVox Studio in Manhattan. Our producers are Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker. Our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu, and our editorial assistant is Londyn Crenshaw. Thank you so much for listening to She's My Cherry Pie and happy baking.