Chi-Chi's Sweet Corn Bread

A while back I guilted VM into making me some veganized Chi-Chi's cheese and onion enchiladas.  You might remember the post, in which I implored my vast, worldwide audience to find me the recipe for Chi-Chi's sweet corn cake to accompany such delicious enchiladas.  Well, thanks for nothing followers; not one of you complied.  Lucky for you I have found the secret and am sharing it with you now.

Some recipes call for a long list of hard to find ingredients, considerable preparation time, and pages of cooking instructions.  After hours of effort you are then rewarded with goodness. 

This is not one of those recipes. 

This is a simple mix that rewards you with goodness almost immediately!

Yes, you heard me.  Chi-Chi's restaurants may be a thing of the past, but check the "ethnic" aisle of your local supermarket and you just might find this envelope for under $2.  Get yourself a half a stick of butter, some water, and a can of creamed corn, and you'll be scooping yourself some authentic, Chi-Chi's, sweet, corn cake in no time.

One packet's recipe fills a loaf pan about 2 1/2 inches high; do not expect this to rise.  I am not usually successfully at baking loaves, as the edges always burn crispify while the center remains gummy slightly undercooked.  I kept a close eye on the progress and chose to cook this twenty minutes longer than the 45 minutes expected.  Surprisingly, the entire resulting loaf was cooked to perfection. 

For the sake of authenticity, serve the corn cake warm out of the pan using a medium/ standard size ice cream scoop.  I found that one packet yielded 8 "Lula" scoops (my family's code for generous, packed scoops).  Since it would be very easy to eat the entire, scrumptious smelling pan by yourself over-indulge, you might want to make more than one packet at a time if you're sharing.  Try them in a muffin pan for more crispy edge to moist center ratio, but don't cry because they're not scoopy; scoopy rules.

Note: I'd recommend baking this to order, as the leftovers aren't as moist and buttery as the first serving, whether re-heated in the oven or microwave.