Beans & Wieners Under Cornbread

 

This casserole is an old family favourite that I like to dig out from time to time and bake. I love casseroles like this.  Simple, using store cupboard ingredients, and delicious!

 

It might look a bit like a dogs-dinner, but this is a case where you really don't want to judge a book by its cover.  You would be missing out on something really tasty  . . .

 

The crowning glory of this tasty bake is the cornbread topping.  A buttermilk batter, it is moist and delicious! 

 

Light and fluffy it has chopped spring onions, grated cheddar and some chopped green chili to give it an added boost of flavour. If you don't like chilies or spring onions, just leave them out.

 

This is baked on top of a delicious filling of baked beans and hotdogs/frankfurters/wieners.  Whatever you want to call them.

 

I use tinned baked beans and doctor them up with a few things to make them taste homemade  . . . 

  

Molasses, dark soft brown sugar, vinegar, tomato ketchup, mustard . . . . 

 

And a bit of heat from the liberal use of tabasco sauce. You can use either the red or the green, and of course adjust the amount depending on how spicy you like things! 

 

I cut the hotdogs into pieces first and then brown them lightly, but you really don't have to do that if you don't want to.  I just think they look better  . . .

 

All of that gets heated together and then poured into a casserole dish  . . . 

 

The cornbread gets spooned over top and then a light dusting of more cheddar goes on top before popping the casserole into the oven . . .

 

The beans get all bubbling and yummy . . .  lightly smoked in flavour from the hotdogs  . . .  the cornbread all puffed and golden brown.

  

Altogether this is very tasty!  It makes a great midweek meal for a hungry family!  I like to serve it with a salad on the side.

Beans & Wieners Under Cornbread

Yield: 4

Author: Marie Rayner

This makes a delicious and simple supper. Hearty and family pleasing. Todd really enjoys this when I make it and I can say with a certainty that the leftovers taste even better the next day, so it’s worth making the whole recipe, however you can quite successfully cut the recipe in two if you wish.

ingredients:

• 1 package of smoked frankfurters
• 2 (415g) tins of baked beans (2 (14 oz) tins)
• 2 TBS tomato ketchup
• 1 TBS Dijon mustard
• 1 TBS dark soft brown sugar
• 1 TBS cider vinegar
• 1 tsp hot pepper sauce (Tabasco)
• (You can cut this down if you don’t like your food too spicy)
• 1 TBS dark molasses (in the UK you can use a combination of dark treacle and golden syrup)

For the Cornbread Topping:

• 140g plain flour (1 cup)
• 45g  caster sugar (1/4 cup)
• 2 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 115g yellow cornmeal/fine polenta (2/3 cup)
• 240ml buttermilk (1 cup)
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
• 1 green chilies, trimmed and finely diced
• 90g grated strong cheddar cheese (3/4 cup)
• 2 spring onions, chopped

instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4.  Butter a  medium sized shallowish casserole dish.
2. Cut the frankfurters into 1 inch pieces and brown them in a large hot skillet. (There is no need to add any fat to the skillet). Once they are browned add the beans, tomato sauce, mustard, sugar, molasses, vinegar, and pepper sauce. Stir it all together really well and bring to a simmer. Let cook for about five minutes, on low heat, while you make the cornbread mixture.
3. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the cornmeal and 60g/ ½ cup of the grated cheese. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil and egg. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry just enough to combine, without over mixing. Fold in the  chopped chili and onion.
4. Pour the hot bean mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Spoon the cornbread mixture over top. Sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese.
5. Bake in the heated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cornbread is well risen and golden.  A toothpick inserted in the centre of the cornbread should come out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Created using The Recipes Generator

 

I have oven woes again. To be honest, it has never truly worked properly since the last engineer had a go at it. It doesn't really heat up to the temperature it should do, and it is taking three times as long to cook anything in it.  Not satisfactory in the least.  We have an engineer coming again on Wednesday.  This casserole is normally a lot juicier than it looks, but because it took three times as long to cook, a lot of the juices got absorbed.  After half an hour, the cornbread was lovely and golden on top, but still raw beneath.  I had to cover it with a sheet of foil and pop it back in.  I tested it periodically over the next hour and a half that it took to cook through. Not good at all.  😢  

I really hope you will try this and realise how lovely and juicy and delicious it really is!   this is an old, old photo of it that I took over 10 years ago now, so you can see that is is meant to be much juicier.

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