Cornbread: one or many?

[bobmark226]

In the month or so that I was oven-less, I think the thing I missed most was being able to throw together a quick pan of cornbread for breakfasts and snacking. There were plenty of corn muffins around to buy, most too sweet or fat-laden, but I prefer the bread with less crust and (hopefully) lots of tender crumb. Like many of you, almost anytime a new twist appears in CL, I'll try it, but until recently, while I mostly made a Jane Brody recipe, I never settled into one I thought I could live with until....

Right after the stove arrived, I made CL's Honey-Jalapeno version from the 2000 Annual and knew I'd found it. The honey browned the outside beautifully and the crumb was exceptionally tender. I did it twice with the peppers, which lent it a nice bite here and there, but decided to start leaving them out so I could enjoy it with other things like jam or peanut butter. I also like the nutritional stats on this one.

So, at last, I have a "house standard," but I'm wondering what your preferred one is...or is it many rather than one?

Remember...I'm a Yankee. I like it sweet, but not too and I didn't find this too sweet at all, though I do reduce the honey a tad here too.

Bob

*****

Honey Jalapeno Cornbread

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons butter or stick margarine, melted
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425�.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, honey, butter, peppers, and egg in a bowl; add to flour mixture. Stir just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425� for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Yield: 12 servings

CALORIES 156(17% from fat); FAT 2.9g (sat 0.7g,mono 1.1g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 3.3g; CHOLESTEROL 18mg; CALCIUM 93mg; SODIUM 239mg; FIBER 0.9g; IRON 1.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 29.8g
Cooking Light, JULY 1999

[mbrogier]

I'm Southern, so ours isn't sweet. (although I do like that.) My preferred way of doing cornbread is in a cast iron skillet. I just mix the cornmeal mix with buttermilk until it looks right and fry them in the skillet like you would hot cakes. More crust, and they are a nice vehicle for butter and onion. I use olive oil and if I have it, a little bit of bacon grease. (I do not keep a jar of grease. My heart hurts looking at those...)

If I make a pan of cornbread, I just mix up the bag of cornbread mix--there are regional varieties like White Lily. The cornbread gets baked in the oven in the cast iron skillet.

That's just the way my grandmother always did it, and hers tasted so good, I never improved on it. My husband had never had the cornbread cakes before, but he loves them now. He actually requested that I make them again soon.

[wallycat]

I posted my version...a small alteration to one printed in CL's southwestern mag.

I do not like sweet (I am not southern) so mine has no sugar/sweetener of any kind.
I grind my own corn for the cornmeal so I get nice bits of corn...sort of creamy crumb with an occasional bite to it

SOmetimes I will toss in seasonings, corn, cheese, etc.

[susan_foster]

I don't actually have a cornbread that I have fallen in love with - I've tried a couple recently, but one was too dry (a CL recipe) and one was too rich (from A Year in A Vegetarian Kitchen). Thanks for bringing this one to my attention - I think it will be the next one I try. I will admit, I've never done cornbread for breakfast - always as a side at dinner. I think this would be a nice switch from my customary muffin (always homemade, of course).

Susan

[bobmark226]

Originally posted by mbrogier
My preferred way of doing cornbread is in a cast iron skillet. I just mix the cornmeal mix with buttermilk until it looks right and fry them in the skillet like you would hot cakes. More crust, and they are a nice vehicle for butter and onion. I use olive oil and if I have it, a little bit of bacon grease. (I do not keep a jar of grease. My heart hurts looking at those...)

I love the cast iron skillet method, but I'm afraid if I tried this one that way, the honey would cause it to burn. This would convert to a nine inch size, but I'd be concerned. Any thoughts or suggestions on that, anyone?

Wally, you've probably explained this all before here, but how do you grind your own? What's your source for dry corn and what equipment?

Susan, I love cornbread with just a few slices of turkey ham in the morning, but I also put away individually wrapped squares the same way to nuke the same way most of us do muffins.

Bob

[Canice]

I'm just beginning to experiment with cornbread, so this is very timely!
I posted this recipe a few weeks back. I'm not even close to being a cornbread expert, but I liked that these were moist and tender. I served them last night, warm with sweet butter and jalape�o jelly, along with black bean soup:

Garden Muffins
From "The City Gardener's Cookbook"

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup peeled, seeded, and finely diced tomatoes
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup chopped green onion

Preheat oven to 400F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt and mix well. In a small bowl, beat together the egg, milk, oil, and butter. Stir in the dry ingredients. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, carrot, and green onions, blending thoroughly. Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins, filling about three-quarters full. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.

[wallycat]

Bob,
I get my field corn from my buying club (or any health food store has bulk bins of it).
I have 2 grinders. One is the KA attachment for days I am lazy.
THe other is the Country Living (I think that's what it is called) hand mill and I have to manually grind it...though if I wanted to spend more $$ it offers an electric attachment.

I used to buy the arrowhead mills whole grain corn meal (not de-germed or de-branned). It was great; but after you grind your own, WOW...it is so sweet and fresh and ....a pain to do but a noticeable (IMHO) taste difference.

Editing to add: my cornbread recipe has only cornmeal, no flour to adulterate it

[Gracie]

Originally posted by wallycat
Editing to add: my cornbread recipe has only cornmeal, no flour to adulterate it

Ana - can you link me to your recipe? My searches just yield thousands of results. I can't think of a somewhat-unique word to use that will weed some results down.

Thanks!

Loren

[wallycat]

Loren,
here is the recipe as I posted it ..

From the Ultimate Southern LIving cookbook (yes, I bought this because someone posted it as a favorite )

P. 70...Buttermilk Cornbread [my changes in brackets]

2 cups self-rising cornmeal [I used organic stone-ground..then checked on food subs for self-rising--added 3 tsp. ( or 1 TBS) baking powder and 1 tsp. salt to equal "self rising"]

1 TBS sugar [I skipped this...hate sweet cornbread ]

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1-3/4 cup buttermilk [I used unflavored soymilk with 2 TBS. lemon juice]
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)

1. Combine cornmeal [and for me the salt, bkg powder] sugar (if using) in a large bowl; add egg, buttermilk, and oil, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistenened. should be a thin batter
2. place a well-greased 9" cast-iron skillet in a 450 degree oven for 5 minutes or until hot. Remove from oven; pour batter into hot skillet. Bake at 450 for 23-25 minutes or until golden. Yield: 6 servings
(calories 281; fat 13.7g )

Serve with butter if desired...alters nutr. info

[SusanMac]

I have only 1 recipe, from Sunset years ago. Every once in a while I'll try a different one, & DH complains & tells me not to mess with a good thing. I've had company tell me they've never had better cornbread. It's very standard, but fool-proof. I don't have it electronically, but can post. It's very similar to all the ones above. There are just minor differences between most recipes (mine doesn't have honey in the batter)

I do like the blend of corn meal & flour. I don't like it to taste sweet, although it does have a bit of sugar.

And, I do prefer it baked in a cast iron skillet. I make the whole pan at once, though, not cakes like described above.

The only time I wander from my fav cornbread recipe is the recent cornmeal scones from CL. I was wary at first, but they really are a very good twist from typical cornbread.

[greysangel]

Every once in awhile I try something different, but I love the crumb and the slight sweetness of this one.

Golden Cornbread CLBB LLR
Prep Time: approx. 10 Minutes.
Cook Time: approx. 25 Minutes.
Ready in: approx. 35 Minutes.
Makes 1 - 9 inch round pan
(12 servings)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar (1/2)
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk (used lowfat)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (used 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9- inch round cake pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour,cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

[Varaile]

I recently fell in love with Cooks Illustrated's corn bread from the Jan/Feb 05 issue (I think that's the one).

I thought this was so tasty and quick that I made it three times over a couple of weeks! They do offer a chedder/jalepeno version as well but I haven't tried it yet. They did talk about a particular kind of cornmeal that wasn't the Quaker brand, but I just used good old Quaker and it seemed to do just fine.

It's a cornmeal/flour blend baked in a glass dish (well, I made it in a glass dish). DH and I think it's absolutely fantastic warm with a touch of butter and honey drizzled over it.

I'm at work and I don't have access to CI website. I can post later when I have the magazine around.

[bobmark226]

Originally posted by greysangel
Every once in awhile I try something different, but I love the crumb and the slight sweetness of this one.

JeAnne, the one you posted is almost a ringer for the honey one, just slightly less sweet, 2 Tbsps. of butter for the oil, and buttermilk (powder in my case) and soda.

Varaile, while I agree you can't tell the difference using Quaker, it is stripped of the germ. I like to think I'm getting something a bit healthier so I prefer Arrowhead Mills if I'm buying at the supermarket. I think I got more than a little defensive about this when the low-carb fad started and everyone was branding corn products as food for pigs. :mad:

Bob

[sneezles]

Originally posted by bobmark226
the low-carb fad started and everyone was branding corn products as food for pigs. :mad:

Bob

Boy are they wrong...pigs get fat on dry milk powder!


I have posted the recipe I prefer on many threads so I won't bore you with it again. It only has a couple of tbs of sugar so it's not too sweet but there are nights when I have guests that prefer sweet and I'll up it to half a cup but still make it in the cast iron skillet...can't beat that crust.

BTW, Bob, jalape�os and peanut butter go very nicely together!

[Varaile]

Ah-ha! Thanks for the insite Bob! I recall the article wasn't very clear about the "other" type of cornmeal, much less giving a brand recommendation. Hence my confusion.

I'm almost out of cornmeal so my next purchase will be Arrowhead Mills or a similar brand.

[funniegrrl]

Bob, did you somehow miss the Great Cornbread Wars of '05?

http://community.cookinglight.com/sh...threadid=70905

This thread contains my family's ultra-southern, no-sugar-no-wheat cornbread recipe (which may not interest you), along with many others (which might).

[bobmark226]

Originally posted by funniegrrl
Bob, did you somehow miss the Great Cornbread Wars of '05?

http://community.cookinglight.com/sh...threadid=70905

LOL, somehow I managed to stay out of that one. Very odd, very odd indeed. Thanks.

BOB

[SusanMac]

So, aside from brands, what do I look for on the ingredients/contents list to know whether or not the cornmeal includes the germ or not? Does it actually read "corn germ"?

[jtoepfert100]

Might not be appropriate for breakfast, but I made this one about a month back and LOVED it. Course, DH couldn't eat it because it was too spicy so much of it went to waste (which happens a lot in our house because corn bread recipes typically make so much), but I thought at the time it was the best cornbread I had made to date:

Chipotle-Bacon Corn Bread
From Cooking Light


Bacon and chipotle chiles give this corn bread double the smokiness to offset the buttermilk's tang.

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/3 cups fat-free buttermilk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425�.
Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well. Combine buttermilk, butter, chiles, and egg in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist. Fold in bacon. Pour batter into an 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 425� for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Yield: 9 servings

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 165(28% from fat); FAT 5.1g (sat 2.4g,mono 1.6g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN 4.9g; CHOLESTEROL 34mg; CALCIUM 82mg; SODIUM 460mg; FIBER 1.2g; IRON 1.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 25.1g

David Bonom
Cooking Light, JULY 2004

[LaraW]

For some reason, I have never been able to make cornbread that is fit for anything other than stuffing a turkey. I just cannot seem to get it right. It ends up dry and crumbly or just plain tastes bad.

The only thing that I have been successful with is the Jiffy Corn Bread mix. So, on the 2 or 3 occasions a year that I make cornbread, this is what I make.

[acginkc]

Originally posted by funniegrrl
Bob, did you somehow miss the Great Cornbread Wars of '05?

http://community.cookinglight.com/sh...threadid=70905

This thread contains my family's ultra-southern, no-sugar-no-wheat cornbread recipe (which may not interest you), along with many others (which might).

Ahh the fine memories. I always thought of myself as a rather peaceful individual, but alas, when it comes to cornbread I have the power to start wars, all over sweetness .

[sneezles]

Originally posted by acginkc


Ahh the fine memories. I always thought of myself as a rather peaceful individual, but alas, when it comes to cornbread I have the power to start wars, all over sweetness .

[funniegrrl]

*giggle*

[wallycat]

Originally posted by SusanMac
So, aside from brands, what do I look for on the ingredients/contents list to know whether or not the cornmeal includes the germ or not? Does it actually read "corn germ"?

Check the fiber and fat content.
Germ adds fat and bran adds fiber
I think the Quaker would be zero or 1 for fiber.

[mbrogier]

Originally posted by LaraW
For some reason, I have never been able to make cornbread that is fit for anything other than stuffing a turkey. I just cannot seem to get it right. It ends up dry and crumbly or just plain tastes bad.

The only thing that I have been successful with is the Jiffy Corn Bread mix. So, on the 2 or 3 occasions a year that I make cornbread, this is what I make.

Try baking it for less time, you do want it moist. The tasting bad may be that you have stale cornmeal. I've noticed that a lot of places don't have a huge turnover in cornmeal so the meal goes stale before you even buy it. Cornmeal should not taste like lye or hominy. Storing the meal in a waterproof container and then in the fridge or freezer will make it last longer.

Bob, I don't see why your batter wouldn't make "hoe cakes". The trick to the cast iron is that you want that pan HOT. I know we're used to the medium heat of the All Clad, but you want it almost smoking. I don't think the honey will stick if you grease the pan and it is well seasoned. (my pan is only a year and half old)

[dlaboriel]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SusanMac
[B]I have only 1 recipe, from Sunset years ago.


Susan, please post your recipe from Sunset. Thanks.

[Kay Henderson]

Lara--

I agree with Micah on not cooking too long to retain moisture.

I also notice that you live at altitude as I do. Flours and meals dry out in the low moisture environment of the high country, so you may need to add a bit more liquid. A recipe with more fat or adding another egg may help, too.

Your local newspaper food section probably has cornbread recipes that locals find successful. With your central location, I expect that they would have both unsweetened and sweetened versions. (And there is nothing wrong with Jiffy!)

Kay

[manetta]

Thought you might be interested in a book called The Cornbread Book... a love story with recipes by Jeremy Jackson. It is a fun read and some of the recipes are quite good. As for this Southern girl, there is only one way to make cornbread! Recipe posted on the cast iron skillet thread, but happy to post it here if you are interested.