Basic Corn Bread

[metawidget]

This recipe is adapted from The Vegetarian Epicure and is our go-to recipe for bread warm out of the oven. It's also very straightforward and doesn't require any particularly fancy ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

1¼ cups

white flour (unbleached if possible)

¾ cup

cornmeal

2-3 tablespoons

sugar

5 teaspoons

baking powder

pinch

salt

1

egg

1 cup

milk

2 tablespoons

melted butter

Sift together the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.

Beat the egg into the milk, add it and the butter to the dry ingredients (separately — you get butter globules floating in your milk if you add the butter to the milk-and-egg mixture).

Spread batter in a buttered 9-inch pie plate or oven-proof frying pan (e.g. a one-piece cast iron one) and bake 30-35 minutes, until the top starts to brown near the edges.

This bread is at its best right out of the oven with butter, but it will still be nice the next day. It is excellent with baked beans and coleslaw, or on its own for breakfast.

I've sprinkled grated cheese on it before sticking it in the oven, mixed garlic, roseamary and/or chopped onions in, and done it up plain; it's a good base for improvisation.

Cross-posts: boilingwater, my journal

Comments

[carolyn_claire]

We've used the Okie version of this for generations, with 1 C cornmeal (yellow or white) and 1/2 C flour, 1 tsp each sugar and salt, 3/4 tsp each baking soda and baking powder, 1 1/2 C buttermilk (or 1 1/4 C milk), 1 egg and 2 Tbl oil (though I usually use 1 Tbl). It has a firm texture but rises beautifully, especially in a divided cornbread pan; the important bit is to mix the dry ingredients VERY well before adding the wet. For a snack, we also eat it with a spoon, broken up in a glass of milk. We use it in stuffing, too, half and half with stale bread, sauteed in butter with onion and celery and sage, moistened with chicken or turkey broth and milk before baking. It's great with chili, and you can add diced jalapeno, too.