Is there anything so good as GOOD cornbread?! A dry one is always a disappointment, but I promise this cornbread is the best ever. Magically moist, a little sweet, with a buttermilky flavour and a big dollop of melting butter on top. Maybe some honey or jalapeno for a sweet and spicy match made in heaven. Personally, I can literally never stop at just one slice... let me know if you can ;)
Cornbread is one of my favourite winter side-dishes! It seems like to a lot of other people, it's a summer dish. Maybe that's because it's a southern thing, and I guess the south doesn't really have winters! I just find it so heartwarming and cozy. When we had family ski days, my mom would always slow cook some ribs while we were out all day and serve them with cornbread, so in my mind a windblown face, tired legs and happy feelings are just like another side accompaniment of cornbread. Now I love to serve it as a side all winter long, with ribs (of course) or chili, and the next day heat up the leftovers with a bowl of homemade soup. The carbs and sugar are also great recovery food!
I've made a few different renditions of this over the years, but the base recipe is always the same. This cornbread holds additional ingredients well. Some recipes will turn out flat because the bread can't rise with the weight of the added ingredients, but this one is great. Some of my favourite things to add are:
Jalapeno Cheddar: Cheddar cheese mixed in the batter with a diced jalapeno, and more jalapeno slices on top. Sometimes I'll cube the cheddar, and big chunks of cheese throughout your cornbread is amazing too, trust me.
Maple bacon: I have substituted the sugar in this recipe for maple syrup, and mixed chunks of bacon in to the batter. Ryan coined me the "cornbread queen" after that one. I actually prefer a savoury version!
*Note: if you substitute the sugar for maple syrup, you'll need to reduce the moisture content (aka the milk in this recipe), since maple syrup has more water content than sugar. As a general rule, you can replace 1 cup of sugar with 3/4 cup of maple syrup. This recipe calls for 3/4 cup of sugar, and I wanted to keep it just as sweet. I added 3/4 cup of maple syrup, but then I needed to reduce the milk by 25%, so I only added 1 cup + 2 tbsp of milk instead of 1.5 cups.
Tex Mex: Finely dice 1 onion, 1/2 red pepper and 1 jalapeno. Fry them in a greased skillet until softened. Mix them in to the batter with 1 cup corn kernels, 1 cup grated cheddar, and chopped cilantro.
Chilli cornbread: I had leftover chili, so one time I spread it in the bottom of the baking pan and spread the cornbread batter over top. After it was baked, the cornbread sort of soaked up some of the chili but still had a delicious layer in the bottom... it was messy but DELICIOUS. Picture tasting a sloppy joe on a cornbread bun, which can only be a good thing.
Honey-butter on top: Once your cornbread is baking, just mix some softened butter and honey in a bowl at a 50/50 ratio. It's sooo delicious spread on the top!
I love this cornbread because it's a bit sweet, fluffy, not coarse, super moist, and you can add whatever you want without it falling flat. It still has a rustic flavour that's not completely cake-y, and good corn flavour without being overly corn-y or crumbly. Occasionally I'll try a new cornbread recipe that gets really good ratings, but I always just come back to this one!
I use a finely ground cornmeal for this recipe. I have tried a coarser grind, but I didn't like the crumbly closed texture and graininess.
Best Ever Cornbread
Servings: 9-16 servings (depending on how large you cut the slices!)
Prep time: 15 minutes
Bake time: 30 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups finely ground cornmeal
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups buttermilk. *Note: Often I don't have buttermilk, so I'll use 1 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons of milk, then I'll add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. Mix with a fork and let sit for 5 minutes. It's not AS good as buttermilk, but the results are close enough!
DIRECTIONS
Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C), and grease a 9x9 aluminum pan with butter.
I like to start by melting my butter, and if I don't have buttermilk I'll mix my buttermilk (see note above in Ingredients).
In a large mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together until just combined.
Then, mix your wet ingredients. In another large bowl, combine the butter, eggs and buttermilk.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together until just combined. As with any baking, you don't want to over-mix or it will turn out flat. If you want to add any additional ingredients and flavours (as suggested above), add them now.
Spread the mixture in to the 9x9 inch baking pan. Cook in the center of the oven at 375°F (190°C) for 30 minutes, or until it looks risen in the center and doesn't jiggle when you give the pan a little shake. The edges should be a little browned and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving. I like to slice them in to 9 giant slices, and serve with honey-butter on top!
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