Mealie Bread (South African Sweetcorn Bread)
Mealie bread is a traditional South African quick bread made from mealie, known in other parts of the world as maize, or corn.
Maize was first grown for food in indigenous Mexico, and it is thought that the Portuguese were the first to bring maize from the Americas to Africa.
It became quite popular in many parts of Africa where it was (and is) used to make a number of pudding, porridge, and bread dishes.
Steamed mealie bread
Mealie bread was traditionally made by steaming rather than baking.
A large pot of boiling water would have been put on the stove (or campfire) with a can, or something similar, inside to act as a platform for the bread pan.
Then, the loaf pan with the bread batter was placed into the boiling water so the water came about halfway up the sides of the pan.
The pot was then covered and the bread steamed.
Steaming is a gentle cooking process that cooks the corn slowly, creating a very tender consistency. The resulting bread is very moist, more like a cross between a thick, cooked corn pudding and a very dense quick bread.
This traditional, moist and dense mealie bread is still very popular today.
But, while we were in South Africa, we were served mealie bread that was a bit more bread-y than pudding-y. It had a a dry crust from baking and a crumbly texture. This corn bread was more similar to the Southern US cornbread that we were familiar with.
With one difference that made this cornbread stand out as something definitely different from any cornbread we had ever tasted.
There were distinct kernels of corn in this corn bread.
It is this baked, more bread-like version of mealie bread that we experienced while on safari that we used as the model for today's mealie bread recipe.
African sweetcorn bread
This bread is definitely more of a sweetcorn bread than a traditional American cornbread. The emphasis is really on the sweetcorn, because it uses whole corn kernels in the batter.
The sweet corn kernels are partially ground, giving the bread a moist texture and a fun pop of flavor as you bite into the whole kernels.
There's nothing like fresh sweet corn. And this sweetcorn bread really captures the essence of the sweet corn harvest in a delicious and comforting loaf!
How to serve mealie bread
One important thing to note is that due to the corn in this bread it can be quite crumbly. While we first crafted this recipe to be more similar to the crumbly mealie bread we had on safari, much of the feedback from our readers was requesting a cornbread that held together better.
We have since adjusted our recipe a bit to make it a bit closer to the more dense and moist, steamed mealie bread, which does hold together better.
If you prefer your mealie bread to have a bit more of a dry crumb, we recommend increasing the cornmeal by 2 Tbsp.
Either way, we do recommend letting your bread cool slightly before slicing it, as this helps the slices hold together better.
More corn side dish recipe
Who doesn't love a corn side dish, particularly when it's in season in the summer. These other corn side dish recipes are sure to fill your craving!
(And, if you're looking to explore more veggie-laden quick breads, you have to try this Southern sweet potato bread. It's even better than pumpkin bread!)
Mealie Bread (South African Sweetcorn Bread)
Kernels of sweet corn stud this sweet and flavorful Mealie Bread, a South African sweetcorn bread that is sure to delight any cornbread fan.
Ingredients
- 2 c (330 g) sweet corn kernels, (thawed if frozen, cut off of the cob if fresh), divided
- ½ c (118 ml) milk
- 2 eggs, beaten lightly
- 2 tablespoon (28 g) salted butter, melted
- 1 ½ c (180 g) unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon cornmeal
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Butter a 8 ½ x 4 ½ loaf tin.
- Place 1 cup of corn and the milk into your blender and blend until the corn is nicely pureed.
- Add the remaining 1 cup of corn and blend just enough to chop the kernels coarsely.
- Transfer the corn and milk mixture to a medium bowl. Add the beaten eggs and melted butter.
- Add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and paprika to the bowl. Mix until incorporated and evenly moist.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake the mealie bread for 45-50 min. Until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool the bread in the pan for 5 minutes before turning the bread out onto a wire rack to continue cooling.
- Serve warm.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1 sliceAmount Per Serving: Calories: 139
Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.
I’m South African. You sure do know that this is the best recipe for Meilie Bread. You can also use this recipe in to make waffles in your waffle machine. Once the waffle is made put all your pizza ingredients on top and grill till the mozzarella cheese is sizzling and golden brown. Walla a tasty lunch.
Thank you Linda! And thanks for sharing the waffle tip. We will have to try that!
Very nice recipe chef 👍👏👌. Yammy 😋. Thank you for your effort 🌞😎
Thanks Jasson. We're glad you enjoyed the bread!
Hi Hannah
Cornmeal is sold in the UK. If your store has a world foods section, it's likely to be there. I have seen and purchased it from Morrison's, Tesco and Sainsbury's in London
ALso check your local Asian supermarket. I have also seen in it some Turkish supermarkets
Very yummy, not at all bland veggie stuffed bread! I made it, cut it and froze it. Have been enjoying as accompaniment to breakfasts, lunches and dinner.
Glad you enjoyed it Maria!
Hi- am doing an international week at my school & my class have South Africa. Would love to cook this with my class- do you have the measurements of the ingredients in grams? Thank you - also we don't have corn meal in the UK... would polenta be a suitable substitute? Thanks!! 🙂 x
Hi Hannah. How wonderful! I have updated the recipe to include grams. Corn flour would be a better substitute than polenta, as polenta tends to be more of a coarse grind. If you don't have it available, you can also substitute the cornmeal for more all purpose flour. Enjoy!
@Sarah Ozimek, Thanks Sarah- we are doing it next week so fingers crossed it all goes well!
Let us know how it goes!
Tried this recipe yesterday and it came out perfectly, thank you so much ?
So glad you enjoyed it!
A disaster. Did not turn out like your photo. Dense and heavy inside. Had to throw it out as not edible.
Hi Barbara. We're very sorry you had trouble with this bread. It is a different consistency that traditional American cornbread, and will be more dense and heavy due to the moisture content from the corn. Did you check to be sure that the bread was cooked through with a toothpick as instructed? Possibly it had not baked long enough.
My son is making this for an international food day so I am going to be maki g this in a more shallow pan and making recipe by 4x.to feed sample sized bites to about 100 people. Any thoughts on how Kong this should bake in a rectangular cake pan?
Hi Renee. How fun! I would maybe start with around 20 minutes, and test it with a toothpick. I would definitely suggest making a trial run using a similar depth pan. This bread can be crumbly, so if you find that in your trial it is falling apart too much to stay in nice “bites”, try cutting the corn back to 1 cup. It still tastes wonderful, but it holds together batter that way. Definitely stop back by and let us know how this turns out for you and how the kids like it!
The steamed method sounds interesting, but I can't blame you for going the baked route. I've not seen cornbread baked in a loaf pan before, either.
Baked in a loaf was a bit more familiar. And, it was the way we had it while in South Africa. We'd like to try the steamed method some time in the future though!
Love this - we used to have it once a year as part of our "international food" day at school since 3 teachers were from SA. Can't wait to make it now!
An international food day sounds like so much fun!
Corn is loved everywhere. I never heard of steam cooking bread. Thanks for sharing the info and this recipe!
Thanks Cindy! We'll have to give the steam cooked bread a try some time so that we can compare it to the baked version.
How cool! It is hard to imagine steaming the bread, but I know a lot of cultures steam puddings and bread. I'll have to give that a try sometime. This looks delicious!
Steamed breads are something that we have yet to tackle too. We're looking forward to trying some out one of these days!
I love the addition of fresh corn to this recipe. I really enjoyed your telling how is dish was made in S. Africa.
Thanks Cynthia! The fresh corn really does make the bread.
I keep meaning to try making this so it's so nice to see your recipe - looks tasty!
You guys would love it! Hope you get to try it!
Hi Sarah, l made this recipe it looked and tasted great but it crumbled badly....Any ideas why? l admit l used selfraising flour instead of all purpose flour as its all l had at the time...could this have caused it to crumble?
Hi Rina, This cornbread is slightly crumbly, but it shouldn't be excessively crumbly. It could be that the extra baking powder in the self rising flour didn't play nicely with the rest of the ratios. We will give it a test and let you know what we find out.
Mmmm....what a delicious loaf! Good to know cornbread is popular all over the world 🙂
Oh yes! It's so fun to try different versions too!