Facebook can be dangerous, as can pinterest. You're just sitting there, minding your own business, reading everyone else's business ... and then you get hit by a photo of something delicious. That happened to me on Monday. I was just reading everyone else's business, when suddenly a photo of steaming hot cornbread in a cast iron pan was staring me in the face. Then I wanted some nice hot cornbread sitting in front of me for real! I already had Monday's supper under control, but I decided Tuesday's meal had to include cornbread. You can't ignore a craving like that when you're 11 weeks pregnant and some foods still don't sound good to you.
Tuesday I did indeed prepare home made chicken noodle soup with mashed potatoes (some of my family eat their chicken noodle soup over mashed potatoes) and of course, cornbread. I pulled out my friend LeeAnne's (from Dairy Berries blog and Swede Farm Dairy) cornbread recipe because it is simple and delicious! It's close to the sweet and cakey cornbread my Mom used to make, but better when cooked in my 12 inch cast iron skillet! Plus, it's already large-family sized, so I don't need to double it ... yet. If I'd wanted more than two leftover pieces today, I should have doubled it.
I was rapturizing over my hot, buttered cornbread yesterday evening, because that's what you do when you satisfy a pregnancy craving. (Like my new word, rapturizing?) Then I found myself just WISHING that this was my own recipe so I could blog it, or that I'd tweaked it in some way to make it my own. But, alas, I hadn't. So I asked my friend LeeAnne (who I've known online for 13 years, and have met in person twice) if I could pretty please, with sugar on top, blog her recipe and link back to her. I also suggested she could blog it on her Dairy Berries blog and pair it up with one of her goat milk products, so I could just link to her post. But she's backlogged on dairy posts, so she gave me permission to blog the recipe instead.
{If that goat milk comment has you wondering, no I didn't use goat milk in this recipe. LeeAnne might, but I only have 2% store-bought cow's milk at my house. I did use my own farm-fresh eggs, though.)
So now that you're wondering what's so special about this recipe, I'd better hurry up and share it. But first you have to understand that my Mom used to make cakey cornbread when I was growing up. As an adult, I started out using boxed mix cornbreads and they were always dry, not very sweet, and dense ... not cake-like. They were good but I always felt I needed to pour my soup or beans over them to moisten them. I tried finding a recipe that was similar to Mom's but didn't settle on one I liked.
Mom told me her cornbread was really more of a johnny cake, so I asked my Mom once if she had the recipe still and she tried to find one for me, but the two she came up with included vinegar or cream of tartar. That just didn't sound right to me. I tried a honey recipe, and didn't care for it. Then LeeAnne shared her recipe, and I tried it. It was very close to my Mom's old recipe, though maybe a bit more cornmeal and with a crispy crust from the cast iron pan. I loved it, and I've been using it ever since.
And now, LeeAnne's Cornbread Recipe
Preheat oven to 375* F
Mix Together In A Large Bowl:
1.5 cups cornmeal
2 cups flour (white or whole wheat)
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. baking powder
1.5 tsp. salt
At this point, put 5 Tbsp. butter into your 12 inch cast iron skillet or a 9x13 pan. Put the pan in the oven to melt the butter.
Add to Dry Mix:
2 cups milk
2 well beaten eggs
5 Tbsp. melted butter (pour the melted butter from the pan into the batter, then spread the remaining butter around the pan to grease it)
Mix well, then pour back into the buttered pan, we always use my 12 inch cast iron skillet.
Bake at 375* for 20 - 30 minutes.
Last night I checked the cornbread at 22 minutes and it was definitely done, with browned edges and just starting to have a golden-brown finish on the top of the cornbread. We sliced it into 16 wedges and everyone loved it! It's been quite awhile since I made cornbread, but from the family's response, I definitely need to make it more often.
We usually make it with supper, but LeeAnne's family has been known to make it for breakfast, too. I like having a leftover piece for breakfast, but I haven't yet made it specifically for breakfast.
Enjoy!
April E.
