Popcorn is notoriously hard to grind. Many grinders specifically forbid the use of popcorn in their units. Not having a grain mill yet I had never really tried grinding popcorn for fresh cornbread but was looking forward to it when I do finally break down and pick up the grinder I’ve had my eye on.

This past week I had stopped by the local Goodwill looking for goodies when I ran across a coffee grinder for a few dollars. I think I paid about 8 or 10 for it after the discount for that day. It is a Capresso Infinity Burr Grinder. It is the stainless model which sells for about $120 or so. It had never been taken out of the package that I could tell. Not bad for less than $10. It grinds from course to very fine (for Turkish coffee) and, since it had never been used it didn’t come with a coffee bean smell that I had half expected. I thought, why not try it on popcorn. What is the worst that can happen? I lose a few dollars.

First I ran some white wheat through as a test. I thought if it couldn’t handle the wheat, there was no way it could handle the popcorn. The wheat was ground into a consistency slightly finer than cream of wheat but coarser than flour. I ended up running the popcorn through twice. It did get hung up a couple of times but it was easy to take apart and clean. I looked for a recipe online and found a good sweet cornbread recipe on the All Recipes site. I used the flour and cornmeal I had just ground. It ended up taking a little more milk than the recipe called for. I let the corn soak up the milk for about 10 minutes before mixing in everything else. I baked it in a cast iron skillet in the oven. VERY good flavor but a little crumbly. I will probably add another egg next time. All in all I am very pleased with my grinder. I can see fresh cream of wheat and cornbread in my future.