It's not cornbread if it is not baked in a cast iron skillet!
This is the #1 rule. If you bake it in some other pan, you will get a facsimilie, but it is just not the same. I see recipes all the time now that call for baking it in a Pyrex dish or a non-stick baking pan and I just cringe!
Cornbread should have a nicely browned, crispy crust on the bottom and sides. To achieve that crust, you need to heat your iron skillet on the stove top with some oil in it while you are mixing up your batter. When you pour your batter into the hot skillet, it starts to form the beautiful crust. With other pans you do not get this crispy brown crust.Then there is also the business about the ratio of cornmeal to flour, and whether or not you should add any sugar. Traditional cornbread should not be more than a 1:4 ratio of flour to cornmeal. If you see a recipe that calls for equal parts or 1:2, put it aside and go look for another recipe. That's not southern cornbread. As to the sugar, there are many southerners that eschew the use of it altogether. Sugar helps with browning, so we add just a small amount of sugar to our batter. You can leave it out, if you so desire.
Cornbread goes with so many different southern foods that it is something we serve fairly often. It is our favourite accompaniment for vegetable soup, as well as peas, greens and many other veggies..
While not absolutely necessary, I like to use stone ground cornmeal and I get it from Falls Mill, an old waterwheel mill in Belvidere, TN, which makes it a local product for me. Today I'm also using organically grown free-range duck eggs from my CSA box, but normally I use chicken eggs.
Heating the skillet - you can see how the oil is getting hot.
Wet and dry ingredients
Note: If you use duck eggs, they will need to be beaten more than chicken eggs to incorporate some air.
Ready to bake
Lovely cornbread turned out of skillet
Sliced and ready to serve on one of my favourite Fiesta plates
People at this house could inhale this cornbread. Tori and I have both been known to eat only cornbread for supper sometimes. LOL. This is one of those recipes where I don't really need to get the recipe out to look at. I just make it. It's really easy and if you try it I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do.
| Country Cornbread Serves 8 3 Tbsp oil, divided 2 cups yellow corn meal 6 Tbsp flour 2 tsp sugar 4 tsp baking powder 2 tsp salt 4 eggs, beaten 2 cups milk 8 pats of butter Preheat oven to 425°F. Heat cast iron skillet on stove top with 1 Tbsp oil. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients. In a batter bowl, whisk the eggs, 2 Tbsp oil, and milk. Pour the liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and stir to just combine. Pour cornbread batter into hot iron skillet and bake about 30 minutes or till done. Cut in 8 wedges. Slice the wedges in half horizontally and place a pat of butter in each one. Serve immediately! |
With this recipe I'm joining:
Michael Lee's Foodie Friday @ Designs By Gollum
Friday's Favourites by Sandi & Bill @ Whistlestop Cafe Cooking
Kim's Recipes to Run On
Thanks so much for stopping by today!
namasté,
I believe the entire bed of his pick-up truck arrived at the farm piled FULL of fireworks!!!
With a digital thermometer measuring the lemon curd that's being cooked over a hot water bath. It's important to keep on whisking as the curd cooks, or else the eggs will end up cooking at the bottom and you will end up getting scrambled lemon eggs. Not very pleasant to eat at all! Keep that whisk going!
Making French bread is quite the thrill!!.. HA.. no.. not really. It's actually quite boring. The only fun part of it is the shaping aspect. The dough is so soft and easy on the hand to play with. I started yesterday with a poolish, which in simple terms is just a starter dough that will give you a boost of flavor in your bread with early fermentation. What is interesting about the Poolish or starter dough is that, it is actually ALIVE! Yup, it's alive. Like frankenstein alive. And just like all living organisms, you need to feed it food to keep it alive and healthy. As for the Poolish, it eats flour, so every morning you feed it with some flour and it's happy. There are stories of crazy bakers, mostly frenchies, where they would bring their poolish around as they travel. This way they can feed it everyday and also make delicious bread where ever they go. It's pretty neat. I think. 
As boring as making bread is for me, I still admire the process of making it. It makes me happy to see perfectly shaped dough, ready to be scored and baked. The feel of working with lots amount of flour, eggs, yeast and salt.. getting messy with your hands, sometimes it's annoying but there are times, where you just feel so relaxed with kneading all the ingredients together into a soft dough. The feel of your hands and finger tips, crusty with the bits and pieces of dried dough, yes.. it's quite annoying also but hey! It's well worth the effort and the mess. 
So sometimes we would make up to 40-50 loaves a day of french bread or other types of breads, pastries and desserts, but by the time I get home, I only have 1 loaf of bread in my hand. Yes, I give them all away to people I see. People who I don't even know that I bump into, people who happen to sit next to me on the train, or neighbors that just happen to walk in the elevator when I'm in it. 
Final note. People are always so surprised when I offer food to them, and although I'm shy and I don't really like confrontation of such behavior from strangers. I know this loaf of bread, cake, or pastry will make the rest of their night a more positive one. They will go home and say, " Hey honey! guess what.. some asian kid just gave me a free loaf of bread ! " .. lol. strange.. but is it? Should it be? It makes me wonder.. what has this world become to when the thought of giving without asking for anything in return is a suspicious motive. But I'm not going to let that thought stop me from sharing what I love the most. Making YOU happy by doing what I love to do. Sharing the food that i make DUH!!!