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

[0jack]

I was raised on the Texan version of this, a different ratio of cornmeal/flour and less baking powder but with soured milk to increase the rising. It's lovely.

The next day, it makes an excellent hot breakfast, if you're into that kind of thing. Break up a large piece in a bowl, drizzle with molasses or honey, and pour steaming-hot milk over top.

This bread is also used for half the bread in a traditional dressing made to go with turkey or chicken. It freezes well so if it gets a bit stale, keep a bag of it and bring it out later for the dressing which is basically a savoury bread pudding. (dry bread of varying kinds, sauteed onion/celery, stock, eggs, spices)

[metawidget]

I should try the hot breakfast use of it; it sounds delicious and would get around the tendency of the bread to dry out fairly quickly.

I guess in general, corn bread needs a little extra oomph rising — Anna Thomas seemed to want readers to know that all that baking powder is not a typo, and using soured milk is another way to get that boost in rising.

[0jack]

Anything with less gluten requires more lift, in general. Because the cornmeal itself doesn't rise, the wheat flour needs to do far more work. If one wants a lighter bread with a higher cornmeal content (or is making it GF entirely), egg whites beaten until they hold peaks, then gently folded in at the last, are useful. I am very used to the soured milk as I grew up with it. :)

The hot breakfast is a rather happy childhood memory for me. We didn't have a lot of money but it's hard to feel sorry for one's self with something so tasty to eat before school.

[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.