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More on flaxseed pones…

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I’ve made a lot of flaxseed pones in the last couple of weeks, and I’ve learned from my mistakes. Most important: Don’t put too much liquid into the batter. If the batter is too wet and runny, the pone will never finish baking, and the texture will be gooey and disgusting. Keep the batter thick, so that it stands up when you put it into the baking pan. If the batter is so thin that it runs out to the edges of the pan, then the batter is too thin. Don’t worry if the batter mounds up in the baking pan. It will fill out once it starts to rise in the oven. I don’t quite understand the chemistry of this, because the opposite is true of biscuits. For a proper texture, biscuit dough needs to be as moist as possible. But flaxseed pone batter needs to be thick, thick, thick.

A second hint: Though I think there is no nutritional difference between golden flaxseed and brown flaxseed, the golden flaxseed makes a much prettier pone, the same color as corn bread. In fact, if you get your batter recipe right, many casual eaters of flaxseed pone would think they’re eating cornbread. It’s that good, and the texture of the bread is totally agreeable, in spite of the fact that flaxseed meal is much more like psyllium seed meal than corn meal.

Experienced makers of cornbread already know this, but for the newbies: Well-seasoned cast iron skillets are best for making pones. Get the skillet hot in the oven before adding the batter. If you’re making a supper pone, add some finely chopped onions to the skillet when you put the skillet into the oven to preheat. Half butter and half olive oil in the bottom of the skillet, with the onions sizzling during the preheating of the skillet, will make a fine crust for a supper pone. For a breakfast pone, omit the onions. Onions or not, the batter should sizzle when you pour it into the hot skillet.

The late-winter diet here in North Carolina is starting to change a bit. The Florida oranges seem to be getting more expensive and a bit more dry. But some fine turnip greens are showing up in the stores, cheap and fresh. And I still can’t get over how much better the onions are here than they are in California.

Here’s my earlier post on flaxseed pones.

Also, some Californians don’t seem to know what a skillet is (Hi, Clint and Joshua).

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