Professor Butter Beard’s “Young Corn Deity”
“When you eat a lot of spicy food, you can lose your taste. When I was in India last summer, I was listening to a lot of Michael Bolton.” – Jimmy Carr, British-Irish actor and comedian
On this fifth day of a swollen heat wave at the shore, I woke from a dream of hot honey. Yes, my dreams are often of strong flavors and new (and sometimes weirdly surprising) taste combinations. In these sultry and sticky days, I find myself craving spicy foods: tickling cauliflower curries, wildly spiced gazpachos, fresh corn and basil salsas featuring hot peppers from my garden, and sweet baked goods glazed with hot honey. Hot honey is a new toy for me. Aromatic and teasingly sweet, it initially dances on your tongue like a soothing ballet and then seductively morphs into an exhilarating hoedown.
I was recently perusing through my books of Latin American Art (another craving on sweltering afternoons) and focused in on this hand-modeled ceramic sculpture depicting the head and torso of a youthful Maize God emerging from the center of a ripe ear of corn. I chuckled out loud realizing he could easily be a leading actor in one of my midsummer night dreams. The young maize deity has minimal idealized facial features on an elongated head. Over his corn silk hair, he wears a fringed headdress, perhaps of feathers, along with a jade bead necklace and ear spools with projecting centers. He confidently folds his arms across his chest, a proper left under proper right, and rests his forearms atop the folded down corn husk bearing six ripe corn kernels.
Dating back to the 8th century, this depiction of the Mayan god is thought to have been created on Jaina Island (present-day Campeche) in Mexico. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, fertility, jade, beauty, and the idea of being young were all things the ancient Maya combined when they thought of the Maize God.
In the Popol Vuh, a sacred Maya book, there is a passage describing how the gods formed the first humans from a dough made out of yellow and white maize after their attempts to use clay and wood had failed. It also introduces the myth of the Maize God who was believed to be decapitated once harvesting began and then reborn by forcing himself back above the ground at the start of the new growing season. The resurrected god was therefore not just associated with maize itself, but also with the cycle of rebirth, the cycle of seasons and the life-sustaining re-growth of crops. According to Mayan scholars, his life cycle could possibly also have provided the Maya with a way of understanding the human life cycle.
The shape of the emerging god from his corn husk brought my madeleine pans to mind and a recipe evolved combining fresh corn from Sunday’s market, my obsession with Chinese Five Spice, the aroma of toasted cornmeal and the dance of hot honey. As part of my recipe research, I made a test batch and brought them to our auditions for “Little Women, the Musical.” My soul smiled each time I witnessed the initial reaction of “yummy” evolve into a wide-eyed revelation of “spicy.” Try the hot honey dance and do pay attention to those sultry night dreams.
Hot Honey and Sweet Corn Madeleines
32 Madeleines – using two Madeleine baking trays
Madeleines:
13 Tbsp unsalted butter – plus 3 Tbsp more to prep the madeleine trays
2 Tbsp hot honey
4 large eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp vanilla paste
The zest of one lime
1 cup all-purpose flour – plus more to dust the madeleine trays
4 Tbsp toasted cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Chinese Five-Spice
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp kosher salt
The kernels cut from one ear of the freshest corn possible
Glaze:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
4 Tbsp hot honey
The juice of one lime (the same one you zested for the madeleines)
1) Place the 13 Tbsp of butter and 2 Tbsp of hot honey in a small saucepan over low heat until the butter has melted. Stir to combine, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
2) Whisk together the flour, toasted cornmeal, baking powder, five-spice, chili powder and salt.
3) Place the eggs, sugar, vanilla paste and lime zest in a food processor and process until smooth and combined. Add the flour mixture and pulse a few times to combine. Pour in the cooled butter/honey and pulse again to combine. Pour the batter into a bowl, fold in the corn kernels and then cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for one hour.
4) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the remaining 3 Tbsp of butter and use to brush the madeleines trays. Then dust the trays with all-purpose flour (like prepping a cake pan).
5) Portion the batter into the individual madeleine wells - 2/3 full. Bake one tray at a time for roughly 10 minutes until the “humps” are just solid. Remove from the oven and let sit 3 minutes before turning the cakes out onto a cooling rack.
6) While the madeleines bake, slowly melt the 4 Tbsp butter and 4 Tbsp hot honey in a small pan. Remove from the heat and whisk in the lime juice. While the madeleines are still warm, brush the ridged side with the glaze until they soak in no more.
