merrifood

Cornbread

Posted by merrifood on January 13, 2013 · 2 Comments 

So the holiday season may be over but I’m not done sharing holiday recipes with you yet, because I firmly believe certain foods shouldn’t just be enjoyed over the holidays.  One such food is cornbread.  In America we typically associate it with Thanksgiving, and in Australia I doubt it’s associated with anything at all.  Anyway, I decided to make it for my Christmas dinner, and not just make cornbread, but make it and then make a delicious stuffing out of it.  That recipe will come next, but for now I leave you with a simple and delicious recipe for cornbread that you can whip up in 10 minutes tops and then half an hour later, it comes out of the oven all delicious smelling and ready to go.  Unlike other breads, obviously it does not require yeast or rising time, so this is definitely a recipe for the beginning baker who still wants to impress.

Attention anyone who may read this who lives in Australia: I just need to temporarily rant about how difficult it is to find cornmeal here!  I scoured my usual grocery store and found nothing (cornflour is actually what we Americans call cornstarch…that would not go well), and finally found out it goes by the name polenta here.  Now that I know that I do in fact keep finding it in random higher class stores and the like, so at least now I know…but I was quite annoyed for a solid hour in the grocery store.  And don’t even get me started on the fact that frozen cranberries are nowhere to be found.

I adapted this recipe from a gluten free one I found on the blog I found the stuffing recipe on and then combined it with a more typical cornbread recipe to produce a bread that has some flour  but much less butter than many versions, so really as breads go it’s much healthier than most.  Unless of course you eat the whole pan in one sitting, which you might be tempted to do because there are few things better than warm cornbread.

Cornbread

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups cornmeal / polenta
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoons table salt
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk (as I’ve said before, I rarely/never have buttermilk on hand, so just squeeze a tablespoon of lemon juice into the milk and you’re good to go)
• 2 tablespoons (~35 grams) butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten together

Please note how few lines these instructions take up because this bread is honestly so simple.  First, preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C.   You can make this in a loaf pan or a square pan – I chose the latter since I’d be cutting it into little squares for the stuffing.  Prepare your pan by greasing it and/or lining it with parchment paper.  Stir together your dry ingredients first: baking soda, baking powder, sugar, flour, salt, and cornmeal.  Once the butter is melted add the eggs to it and beat thoroughly.  Add the butter egg mixture to the batter and stir.  Once it’s stirred but not thoroughly mixed add in the buttermilk gradually and stir until it’s blended well and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  If you are making it in a loaf pan it could take longer.  Just watch it carefully and test it with a toothpick or knife.

The dry ingredients

Adding the wet ingredients

Prepared batter in the pan

Golden brown finished product!

This bread is so delicious.  I was sneaking little squares of it the evening before I made the cornbread stuffing until I knew I finally had to stop or I would not have enough to make the stuffing the next day.  This would go great with a Sunday dinner or as always, make it to share with some friends!