I grew up eating hot cereal for breakfast.  My mother always told me that it would keep me warm on cold days.  “It’ll stick to your ribs”, she’d say.  I loved Cream of Rice and Cream of Wheat.  I liked Farina too.  With some milk and a sprinkling of sugar, breakfast couldn’t get any better in my book.

I was looking for a recipe the other day and found this great blog called Joy the Baker.    Almost everything she makes looks appealing to me, as did this breakfast polenta.  I’ve made polenta as a side dish before, but never for breakfast.  This is very reminiscent of the hot cereal that my mom made for me on cold days before school.   It’s a nice comfort food.

Vanilla Brown Sugar Breakfast Polenta
From Joy the Baker

1 cup corn meal
3 cups cold water
2 cups whole milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

In a small bowl measure out 1 cup of dried corn meal.  Top with 1 cup cold water and stir.  Set aside.  In a medium saucepan add 2 cups cold water and 2 cups whole milk.  Bring to a low boil.  Add salt and stir.  Slowly add the corn meal and water mixture, using a whisk to stir out any possible lumps.

Once all of the corn meal is added, turn the flame to low and simmer, stirring frequently, until the polenta has thickened – about 10-12 minutes.  Once thickened, add sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon.

Place polenta in small bowls and top with a sprinkle of additional brown sugar and milk if desired.

Yield:  4 servings