Crispy Colby Cornmeal Cakes

8 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes

Cheddar Cornmeal Cakes Side

These crispy Colby cornmeal cakes are a cross between a mozzarella stick and cornbread. Cheesy, soft, warm and delicious served with your favorite tomato sauce. They take a bit longer than most of our recipes and require chilling time so this may be a meal you make when you have a bit of extra time on your hands.

Some people collect stamps, others collect comic books or baseball cards. I, on the other hand, collect cookbooks. I suppose it could become problematic, what with how heavy and large cookbooks can be. But just like you may sit down with a new novel by your favorite author, I am attracted to cookbooks of my favorite chefs. Thomas Keller happens to be one of these chefs and I wasted no time in getting each of his cookbooks as they were released. In his cookbook for Ad Hoc, he has a recipe for Grits Cakes served with an Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce. These two recipes, which I made on a whim one day when I had some excess cornmeal and tomatoes, have gone into a pretty regular rotation for us. These cornmeal cakes are an easier version of those grits cakes.

We start by adding 6 cups of water to a heavy bottomed pot, then add the cornmeal in soon after. Some recipes call for you to wait for the water to boil. Don’t! Having made these many times, I tried multiple times to put the cornmeal in and whisk as well as I can to prevent lumps. Bottom line is it really doesn’t work and the polenta will start to attack you as it bubbles away, like bubbling hot lava.

Cheddar Cornmeal Cakes liquid small

Colby Cornmeal Cakes collage

And if you thought I was kidding, here is the lid, after it is done cooking. You have to be careful to whisk and cover while avoiding the polenta!

Colby Cornmeal Cakes Lid

Did I mention it is a lot of cheese?Colby Cheese Cornmeal Cakes shredded cheese

Mix in the salt, milk and cheese

Colby Cornmeal Cakes Milk Cheese Small

and look at your delicious cheesy reward…

Colby Cornmeal Cakes Cooking

Stir the polenta until it starts to pull away from the side of the pot. Then pour into a rectangular pan and cool in the fridge or freeze until it sets up firmly. Set up a dredging station of flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. Cut the cornmeal cakes to your desired size and thickness. Dredge into the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs and cook in a skillet with ¼ inch of canola oil until both sides are crispy. Serve with your favorite tomato sauce.

Cheddar Cornmeal Cakes served on plate

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Crispy Colby Cornmeal Cakes

These crispy Colby cornmeal cakes are a cross between a mozzarella stick and cornbread. Cheesy, soft, warm and delicious served with your favorite tomato sauce.
Yield 8 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Main
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 6 cups water
  • 2 cups cornmeal
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/2 cups grated Colby Jack cheese
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • Olive oil , for frying
  • grated Parmesan cheese
  • 3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Instructions

  • Add 6 cups of water to a heavy bottomed pot, then add the cornmeal in soon after. Some recipes call for you to wait for the water to boil. Don’t! Having made these many times, I tried multiple times to put the cornmeal in and whisk as well as I can to prevent lumps. Bottom line is it really doesn’t work and the polenta will start to attack you as it bubbles away, like bubbling hot lava.
  • Mix in the salt, milk and cheese.
  • Stir the polenta until it starts to pull away from the side of the pot.
  • Pour into a rectangular pan and cool in the fridge or freeze until it sets up firmly. Set up a dredging station of flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.
  • Cut the cornmeal cakes to your desired size and thickness.
  • Dredge into the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs and cook in a skillet with ¼ inch of canola oil until both sides are crispy. Serve with your favorite tomato sauce.

Nutrition

Calories: 352kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 65mg | Sodium: 862mg | Potassium: 232mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 451IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 223mg | Iron: 3mg
Keyword: Colby cornmeal cakes, cornmeal cake

 

Colby Cornmeal Cake served on plate

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I am making these today for our new year dinner and this looks amazing with shrimp,will let you know how yummy it is.

  2. I can down some cheese sticks, and you have my mouth watering just from looking at the photos! I really want to try these Colby Cornmeal Cakes!

    1. Yeah, they’re just too good. Sometimes I top them with jalapeno jelly instead. That combination is just heaven.

  3. We have far too many cookbooks that I rarely use. I should part with most of them, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. This recipe sounds really good. I’ve never seen anything quite like it!

    1. My husband jokes about how many cookbooks we have in the house too! They are my guilty pleasure, I sit down and read them with a cup of coffee 🙂

  4. I have never had anything like this but it looks wonderful! Great pics of the process, love it!

  5. We used to have a Mexican restaurant that made the best cornmeal cakes, but they went out of business. I am printing this recipe now to try making them myself! Thanks for sharing!

  6. You just made my day. For the most of my life I thought this was something that a friend of mine just made up. I thought I would never see another person make this recipe. She told me everyone in her family ate it /made it. Until now, she was the only one I knew!

  7. I’ve never heard of this, much less ever tried it, but I can tell you without a doubt, I’d love it. I will give it a try, or two, since I’m sure it may take me a couple of tries to get the hang of it. 🙂

  8. Looks and sounds amazing… might have to beg my husband to try to make this. He is a much better cook than I am, I prefer the cleaning up part over the cooking part. ha ha.

  9. Wow! I am amazed at how pretty this meal looks on the plate. I love cornbread, I love cheese, so I would assume that I would love this version of fried cornbread and cheese.

    1. Thanks! They are absolutely addicting. I also make them with jalapenos and spices sometimes 🙂

  10. Anyway you do a house delivery? I would love to eat this right now and I am too lazy to go to the store.

  11. Oh wow I haven’t ever heard of this before, but they look amazing! I will have to give these a try!

  12. Wow, I’d love to try these out. It seems like a recipe that takes a few tries but yours turned out amazing looking!

    1. Liz, thanks! It did take a few tries with the water to cornmeal to cheese ratio, but the real trick is don’t take your eye off the pan when frying them up! They brown quickly!

  13. I’m so glad you’re blogging about food again. Your recipes are so great. I’m going to have to try this one, I’m pretty sure my baby will love these. xo

    1. Thanks! First time I tried it was from Ad Hoc and I was skeptical but had total faith in Thomas Keller. He did not steer me wrong!

  14. This sounds so good! It’s like a fancy take on the fried cornmeal mush my grandmother used to make. Yum!

    1. I don’t know why but “fried cornmeal mush” sounds amazing! Thanks for stopping by 🙂