Cornbread recipe

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Use Jiffy. It’s pretty sweet right out the box.

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Agreed. If you are going to wreck cornbread by adding sugar to it, why waste the time and effort to make it from scratch?

Pioneer brand has a sweet cornbread with better texture than Jiffy. I don’t care for sweet with few exceptions.

1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup or more sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon baking powder if using self rising flour, 2 if using all purpose
Mix dry ingredients well
Then add 1 cup milk,
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup oil ( best to put oil in a black iron skillet and heat up and add to mixture but leaving enough in skillet to keep from sticking)
Mix but only enough to incorporate, don’t over mix, pour in skillet and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or until browned and tooth pick comes out clean

I hail from Alabama but live in Mississippi. Cornbread with sugar is cake, not cornbread.

My cornbread recipe is pretty simple:
- 1 c cornmeal (white or yellow)
- 0.25 c AP flour
- heavy pinch of salt
- 2 eggs
- buttermilk until the consistency is right
- a big pat of melted butter stirred in right before I put the batter in the screaming hot skillet

An old post:

Depression Era Cornbread
This is the old family recipe straight from the Great Depression by way of Granny Cooksey of Isola, Mississippi. It has no eggs and no sugar, since those pantry items were better used for other things during hard times.

This is all that has been made in my family for as long as my memories go back. It is all that my mother and her seven sisters made, and each of their children who can cook, and all that is made in my house too.

Ingredients:

With AP flour:

1 cup Martha White Corn Meal
1 1/4 cup Martha White AP flour, 1/2 tsp Baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt

With Self Rising flour

1 cup Martha White Corn Meal
1 1/4 cup Martha White Self Rising Flour with 1/2 tsp salt

For either recipe

1 1/2 cup Buttermilk
Sufficient additional water to make mix slightly thicker than pancake batter

You also need a good seasoned cast iron skillet

This recipe uses an 8 inch. For the 12 inch skillet, double the recipe. For the 6 inch skillet, cut recipe by 1/3.

You also need a 400 degree F preheated oven.

I stick the skillet in the oven as it preheats. You don't need the skillet until the oven gets to temperature anyway. And the skillet must be hot when the batter goes in. The preheating oven is a good place to get it hot, but not too hot.

Mix the ingredients, Flour and Cornmeal with butter milk to make a thick batter and add it to the hot skillet with a tablespoon of vegetable or bacon oil added before the batter. It should sizzle when the batter is placed in the skillet.

Place the skillet in the center of the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes. Cooking times will vary, and you will learn what your oven does. My grandmother baked hers in a wood stove for years. The cornbread from Granny's wood stove was pretty good. Thank goodness an electric or gas oven works just as well.

The top should be somewhat browned when the pone is ready to come out of the oven. The skillet side will be crunchy magic if a couple of teaspoons of oil are used! And if your skillet is properly seasoned, the pone falls right out.

Turn the pone out onto a plate, with a table knife under one side of the pone (between it and the plate), to keep condensation from wetting the top of the pone. In my opinion, a perfect wedge will be tender, slightly moist and you should see individual grains of bread. Serve as cut wedges, sliced open with butter between the halves

Pan Fried Cornbread

Right or wrong, we call these Hoe Cakes, or just skillet fried. They look like cornbread pancakes and taste great. I think they are quicker than baking the pone and you get a nice oiled skillet crunch on both sides! The taste seems a little different too. Not better or worse, just different.

For skillet fried, make the batter slightly thinner than if baking in the oven. I usually do oven thick batter, then thin it a little with water to pancake consistency.

Heat the skillet on the burner eye and drizzle in a little oil, almost covering the bottom of the skillet. Spoon the batter on the hot oil like a pancake. You can make then 3-6 inches wide, or like silver dollars – your decision. It should sizzle. The edge will be browned slightly when it is time to flip the bread.

IMO there is nothing better than corn bread in a bowl with purple hull peas, chopped onion and the juice, or butter beans the same way, or in a glass with cold milk and maybe some chopped onion. If you've never tried this, you have my pity.






Baked Pone:













Hoe Cakes:

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what was leftover was eaten in a glass of milk or cream at supper.

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My mother's mother did the same. Every evening for supper.

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what was leftover was eaten in a glass of milk or cream at supper.

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My grandfather did this too except he mixed the leftover pone with buttermilk. Big lunch, small dinner and he weighed the same at 80 as he did at 18.

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With AP flour:

1 cup Martha White Corn Meal
1 1/4 cup Martha White AP flour, 1/2 tsp Baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt

With Self Rising flour

1 cup Martha White Corn Meal
1 1/4 cup Martha White Self Rising Flour with 1/2 tsp salt

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This is my only complaint with this recipe. I believe cornbread should be more corn than flour. I'd be putting 1 1/2 cups corn meal and 3/4 flour. I want a more grainy and less cakey consistency to my cornbread. Just my preference.

Love the fried cakes!

I use Martha White self-rising buttermilk cornmeal mix.
Butter for greasing the baking vessel if it's a sweet cornbread, but bacon fat if making a savory cornbread.
Jalapeños are a nice addition if you’re into that. Shredded cheddar cheese is also good stuff.


2 Cups Cornmeal Mix
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 teasp Salt
2 teasp Baking Powder
½ teasp Baking Soda
3 Eggs
2 Cups Buttermilk
1 Cup Sugar (optional)
2 cups Frozen Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional)
Jalapeños (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°.
Mix the first 5 dry ingredients together in a bowl. Make sure you mix them together, don’t just dump them in a bowl and let them sit.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. When well blended, start slowly folding the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, a little at a time until all of it is blended together into a thick wet batter.
Now is the time to add the sugar if you’re making sweet cornbread, or jalapeños if you’re going that route. You can use the “nacho style” sliced pickled jalapeños if you like, but I prefer using diced fresh jalapeños sautéed in a little butter. The amount is up to you depending how much you like jalapeños.
If adding cheese, this is the point you want to add the frozen shredded mild cheddar cheese.
Fold everything together and set it aside for a minute while you get the baking dish ready. This allows the batter to “set up.”
If using cheddar cheese, I like to sprinkle a little on top of the batter once it’s in the pan for a nice “cheese crust.”
Bake at 425 for 15 to 20 minutes until the top is slightly brown and the edges are crispy.

I bake this amount in a 1/2 sheet pan ... I cut in in half when using a 1/4 sheet pan, and cut it in 1/4 if using a 9 inch baking pan or skillet.