Corn Cake Breakfast Stacks with Maple Butter

Ingredients

Corncakes:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup fresh sweet corn kernels
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Maple Butter:

• 1/2 pound softened butter
• 1/2 cup dark amber maple syrup
• 8 strips thick-cut smoked bacon
• 2 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced
• Ground cinnamon to taste
• Salt
• 1/2 cup dark amber maple syrup, warmed
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• Mint, confectioners' sugar and blueberries for garnish, if desired

Directions

For the corncakes, whisk together eggs, buttermilk and melted butter in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in corn kernels. Sift together cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the buttermilk-corn mixture and stir until just combined. Let stand for 20 minutes in a cool place.

For the maple butter: blend the softened butter with 1/2 cup maple syrup in a small bowl and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. In a 10-inch nonstick skillet, brown the bacon strips. Drain them on paper towels and transfer to a cookie sheet. Sprinkle the apple slices with cinnamon and salt to taste. Sear them in bacon renderings until golden brown and place them on the sheet pan with the bacon. Wipe out your skillet and return to medium heat. Add just enough butter to coat the bottom of the skillet and ladle 1/4 cup corn batter. Let cook until the edges of the pancake start to brown and bubbles appear on the surface, about 2 minutes. Flip, cook another 2 minutes, then transfer to the cookie sheet with the apples and the bacon. Repeat until you have a dozen corncakes.

Place the cookie sheet and your serving plates in the oven until everything is warm, about 4 minutes. On each plate, place 1 corn cake, top that with 2 strips of bacon, another corn cake, 2 slices of apple and another corn cake. Top with maple butter and drizzle the plate with some of the warmed maple syrup. Garnish with a sprig of mint, powdered sugar and a few fresh berries if you desire.