Simple and Delicious Cornbread

While we were at the ranch, I decided to make some chili for Cousin Chris. We bought the ingredients, but that night he made a batch of delicious deer chili. He served the chili with cornbread. The next week, I made my chili for him. I usually like biscuits with chili, but I decided to make cornbread from scratch since that’s what Chris enjoys.

I looked for recipes on the internet and found a Bless This Mess recipe claiming to be the best homemade cornbread recipe. Of course, I had to give it a shot.

Cornbread

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup melted butter

1 large egg

1 cup milk

I remember having once read something about toasting cornmeal to give it a richer flavor. While the oven heated to 400-degrees, I toasted the cornmeal in a cast-iron skillet until it was golden and set it aside. I greased the cast iron skillet. I didn’t have shortening, so I used vegetable oil instead.

I combined the dry ingredients, flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder, together in a mixing bowl, whisking them well.

I attempted to make a well in the dry ingredients. I realized my well wasn’t deep enough when I added the melted butter, egg, and milk. Instead of staying in the well, they overflowed and ended up in a circle around the dry ingredients. I stirred the ingredients just until they came together, with only a few lumps.

I poured the batter into the greased cast-iron and baked it for about 20 minutes until the internal temperature was 194-degrees.

When we were ready to eat, I used a spatula to separate the cornbread from the pan gently. The spatula I used did not reach entirely to the center. The middle of the cornbread stuck to the pan when I turned it out. I would probably have had better success if I had used shortening to grease the pan. The next time, I will cut the cornbread in the skillet and serve it like slices of pie instead of turning it out.

While it didn’t look the way I wanted it to, the cornbread was delicious and had a wonderful texture. I don’t think it was a bad outcome for the first attempt. I want to make another recipe that uses actual corn, but this is a great one for a quick, tasty cornbread.

The recipe makes ten servings. Each slice has 221 calories, 8 grams of fat, 35 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber, and 4 grams of protein.