cornbread

[derien]

I just googled for cornbread recipes and there are like hundreds of thousands of them out there, and I'm feeling overwhelmed.  I don't want anything made corn kernels and sour cream and hot peppers, not today.  Just plain, basic corn meal and flour (I'm planning on using Pamela's all purpose gluten free mix to substitute for the flour, the pancakes and etc one in the yellow bag).  I expect a somewhat sweet flavor and am supposing I might prefer honey as the sweetener.  Anyone got a recipe they'd like to recommend? 

Comments

[blnkfrnk.livejournal.com]

Hi, I found you via aimless surfing, and it seems there's a question I can potentially answer! Hope you don't mind my jumping in.

The generic recipe on the back of the cornmeal bag is usually okay, but rarely very sweet. One super-secret thing that nobody ever talks about is the fact that some Very Traditional Cooks just use Jiffy brand boxed mix, but it's not even remotely gluten-free and probably totally unhealthy besides. (And if you put in half a cup of sugar, it tastes exactly the same as their yellow cake mix.)

This is how my mom makes it:

Preheat oven to 400F aka you would only leave your hand in there for about a second.

Melt three tablespoons of butter in a cast iron skillet. Some people will claim that you can't ever use the skillet for anything else, and that's just not true. It should be a seasoned skillet that's more or less clean. (The main rule for cast iron is to avoid ever cooking fish in any but the designated fish skillet, since it's the one odor that really lingers forever.) While it's melting, mix together:

2 cups yellow cornmeal (some people look down their noses at yellow cornmeal, but they are wrong to do so), 1/2 cup all purpose flour, a spoon of sugar (up to half a cup-- I don't know how to convert it to honey, can't be too hard. You'd need to add it with the liquids, though.) 1 tablespoon baking powder, a pinch of baking soda, a pinch of salt.

In another bowl: 2 cups buttermilk (or buttermilk substitute. I get along okay with plain or soy milk mixed with plain yogurt, but there's other ways to get a sour-milk equivalent), three eggs, and a couple tablespoons of melted butter. Lightly beat the liquids. If you make this very sweet, you might like vanilla in it. Stir the wet into the dry until it is well mixed, then pour it into the skillet and bake until somewhat browned and a sharp knife in the center comes out clean.

I don't know how long. I think it's less than 30 minutes.

Turn it out onto a rack and cool, then cut it into wedges.

I'm not really certain whether these measures are exact, so you'll need to eyeball it: the batter ought to be a very thick liquid when you're about to pour it in, a little grainy due to the cornmeal but thoroughly wet. And if you don't have a skillet, an ovenproof dish will do. Try to make sure your skillet only gets filled halfway or two-thirds up, or it might slop over, like any other oven-rising cake. (It's really only marginally more healthy than cake.)

James Beard's "Beard On Bread" has three pretty good recipes, I seem to recall. So does "How To Cook Everything" which is large and yellow and doorstop-like. Enjoy! I hope it works out!

[derien.livejournal.com]

For some reason LJ didn't deliver your message and I only saw the comment today as I was looking for something else, but thank you immensely! These are directions I think I can understand and follow, and I happen to be home sick, so today might be just the day for me to actually cook cornbread rather than just thinking about it. :)