22 March 2017
Welcome friends. Well, it has been I while since I added a recipe. It has been even longer since I was able to ride my bike along the lake. A few weeks ago we had some warm days and I took advantage of the beautiful weather. The picture above is from my first ride this year. If you live in Chicago and you get a nice day, you get outside and enjoy it.
I've been making a lot of cookies for work events. Shortbread cookies for our annual valentine's day event and sugar cookies for a baby shower. I'm going to hold onto those for a while so that I can post something other than a cookie recipe. Today I am adding my cornbread recipe.
When I decided to post my cornbread recipe, I compared all of the cornbread recipes that I have. I got a sudden panic that I wasn't posting the best one. Turns out, there isn't a lot of variation in the recipes. The main difference is using whole milk with butter or buttermilk. I use buttermilk because I like the crumb texture. I also add a little bit of sugar. It makes a big difference to the texture, making the bread firmer.
I was making cornbread infrequently to have with stews and soups. It is really good just out of the oven. Recently, I've been eating it for breakfast with some poached eggs. It will keep for 4 to 5 days, so there is no need to make it right before breakfast.
Cornbread
10 min. prep time | 20 min. bake time | 5 min. cool time
Ingredients
makes 9 squares
- 3/4 Cup cornmeal
- 3/4 Cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- pinch of sea salt
- 3/4 Cup lowfat buttermilk
- 1 egg, plus 1 yolk
- 1 Tbl sugar
- 1 Tbl maple syrup (I like "b-grade")
Directions
preheat the oven to 375° F.
spray an 8 by 8 inch baking pan with cooking spray or coat the bottom with a little bit of olive oil.
combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt in a large bowl. Use a whisk to combine the dry ingredients.
pour the buttermilk in a measuring cup. Whisk in the sugar, maple syrup, and egg.
pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to fold the ingredients together. This is where all of the recipes caution to not over mix the batter. Imagine that I just told you that 4 times. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place the pan into the oven. It can bake in the middle of the oven or in the bottom third.
bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the top is golden. The top may begin to crack along the sides. A toothpick in the center will come out clean. After I baked it a few times, I skipped the toothpick test. Allow the bread to cool for 5 minutes before slicing.