I made a batch of cornbread yesterday to use in cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving. So, I thought I'd share my recipe with you. This is a pretty basic recipe--simple and flavorful. There are many ways to flavor cornbread by adding cheese, herbs, corn, or jalapenos. I'll save those jazzed up versions for another post. I'm starting with this basic recipe. This is the one I use for Thanksgiving dressing. It's also good with chili and soup. Simple, wholesome stoneground cornmeal flavor.
It is so darn easy to make cornbread. It's pretty hard to make a bad batch.
Here are the ingredients: flour (you can substitute some whole wheat pastry flour for part of the white flour, if you wish), stoneground cornmeal (I use medium grind), baking powder, kosher salt, honey, and buttermilk (I use the convenient buttermilk powder, but you can also use fresh). There is just enough honey in this recipe to give it a hint of sweetness, but it can be omitted altogether if you prefer.
Step 1: Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Step 2: Whisk the wet ingredients together in a separate medium bowl.
Step 3: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir them just until they're combined--don't over mix.
Step 4: Bake it in an 8" square pan--or you can use muffin tins or a cast iron skillet.
DONE. Doesn't get much easier than that.
If you'll be using the cornbread in dressing, crumble it up and spread it out on a baking pan to let it dry out for a day or 2. If you need to speed up the drying time, put the baking pan of crumbled cornbread in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes.
Or, cut the cornbread into squares and eat it by itself, with butter, with honey, with jam, or dunked in a bowl of chili or soup.
For a Southwest version of this cornbread, check out my post and recipe
Cheesy Jalapeno Cornbread.
Make it a Yummy day!