Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner: Cornbread

Showing posts with label Cornbread. Show all posts

Savory Sour Cream Cornbread, it's Divine!

Cornbread is the perfect vehicle

for sopping up the things

that are

on your plate!

Those cracks are a good thing in cornbread!

Everyone has their foibles ~ for me, it’s that corner slab of cornbread ~ the slice with two crispy edges. Grandma liked it crumbled, submerged in a glass of cold buttermilk, and eaten with a spoon ~ whatever floats your boat...

SAVORY BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD

Remember the old

Southern saying,

“If there’s sugar in the cornbread,

there’s a Yankee

in the kitchen!”

My trusty iron skillet is older than dirt

If you’re looking for a sweet cornbread, you won’t find it here; in my way of thinking, real cornbread is not sweet. This is southern-style corn bread, plenty of buttermilk and sour cream, and not a touch of sugar. This is some tasty cornbread ~ just ask Bubba...

Tasty Sour Cream Skillet Cornbread

Take a guess...

what's more American than

apple pie.

It's cornbread, of course!

The English brought apple pie to our shores, but the Powhatan Indians taught the early immigrants how to parch, grind, and then mix the corn with boiling water to make "johnny cakes."

Woo hoo! It's Moist and Easy Cornbread Time!

I’m passionate about cornbread ~ I've tested a lot of cornbread recipes, and I’ve learned one thing about it ~ many other people get worked up about it also!

There is quite the debate as to how it should be prepared...

It’s either about the type of cornmeal: stone ground or not; yellow or white?

OR...
How much flour?

How many eggs should I add?

Which is better: milk, buttermilk, or sour cream?

Should I make it with butter, lard, Crisco or bacon grease?

Contaminate it with sugar, or not, or how about honey?

Bake it in a cast iron skillet or baking tin?

And, finally ~ a 375° or 425° oven?

In other words, give it to me if you’re not!

Presidents even reacted to it: George Washington started by savoring hoe cakes, a simple corn bread fried in shallow grease.

During James Polk’s presidency, of a trip to New Orleans, he wrote that "all the dishes were prepared in the French style of cooking, and to one unaccustomed to it it was difficult to tell of what they were composed... I took a cup of coffee and something on my plate to save appearances, but was careful to eat none of it. As soon as an opportunity offered, I asked a servant in a low tone if he could give me a piece of corn-bread and broiled ham."¹

James Polk

Abraham Lincoln loved corn cakes, and it was said he ate them “as fast as two women could make them.”

Way back in the 1920's, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge preferred to start their day with corn muffins. Herbert Hoover loved fried cornmeal mush, and so do I, almost as much as cornbread!

Warren Harding

Herbert Hoover

Calvin Coolidge

As a matter of fact, cornbread was served in some of the White House’s more formal settings. Franklin D. Roosevelt served it at a 1939 state dinner for King George VI.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

King George VI

On to the 40's, when farm boy Harry Truman had simple tastes; he favored his cornbread with sorghum molasses bought on trips home to Missouri. We've often heard, John F. Kennedy was a small eater and nearly always had to be reminded it was dinner time, with corn muffins being his favorite. Peanut farmer Jimmy Carter liked dining on corn fritters at the Carter family's big weekend breakfasts.

Harry Truman

Jimmy Carter

Then there's Paula Deen!

Thanks to her for this cornbread recipe!

Paula Deen’s Moist and Easy Cornbread

Flour and cornmeal

ready for the oven

It's a truly Southern melt-in-your mouth cornbread ~ especially when it's piping hot out of the oven with butter melting on it!

Give it a try!

Author: PamPin it

Moist and Easy Cornbread

This is a true Southern cornbread ~ melt-in-your-mouth good ~ especially when it's straight from the oven, slathered with butter, thanks to Paula Deen's recipe!

prep time: 15 MINScook time: 25 MINStotal time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons melted, plus butter for baking dish unsalted butter
1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large lightly beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425º. Lightly grease an 8-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, buttermilk and butter. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture and fold together until there are no dry spots (the batter will still be lumpy). Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.

Bake until the top is golden brown and tester inserted into the middle of the corn bread comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the cornbread from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

¹As quoted in Mark Eaton Byrnes' James K. Polk: A Biographical Companion

Enjoy!

The Only Cornbread Recipe You'll Need: Dragonwagon's Skillet-Sizzled Corn Bread!

She, Crescent Dragonwagon, that is, came to understand, cornbread “not only is hot, just baked cornbread delicious, it evokes ~ powerfully ~ the heart, soul, and taste of home.”

Amen! CORNBREAD, I love cornbread!

After making this cornbread, I know why it was the single most requested recipe at the Dairy Hollow House in Eureka Springs, Arkansas!

I’ve tried what seems like a ton of cornbread recipes and I’ve made more than one from this great cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon. I’m just trying to figure out what took me so darn long to make this one!

Crescent Dragonwagon is her real name ~ read here ~ or buy her great cookbook, if you want to know more about it.

Dragonwagon’s cookbook, The Cornbread Gospels, is a surprising eccentric read, filled with curious antidotes and tales along the cornbread trail from the Appalachians to the Rockies to the Green Mountains. I was hooked from the beginning to the end ~ this is just not a recipe book to take up space on your kitchen counter, it’s at home in any room.

Here’s a sample of what Crescent Dragonwagon has to say about this cornbread:

"This is the cornbread I served when I owned and ran Dairy Hollow House; it was its single most requested recipe. It is the first Southern food I ever learned to fix and the one that started me on my cornbread journey. I learned how to make it in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, New York, in 1969, when I was very young and living in a brownstone with 7 other people. Viola, the soft-spoken lady friend of a kind neighbor, taught it to me. Viola was from Georgia, and it was she who initiated me into baking cornbread in an already-hot skillet.”

Cornbread batter over sizzling butter-oven ready!

To me, the secret of this recipe may just be the already-hot skillet that’s filled with melting butter that’s brought to a sizzle. And stone-ground cornmeal only makes the bread even better. If you’ve been around my blog a while, you know it’s stone-ground cornmeal and grits in my kitchen.

This cornbread truly surprised me, and Bill too. It is simply delicious!

Thank you, Crescent Dragonwagon for the great recipe, great cookbook!

Author: Pam

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread

This cornbread recipe, courtesy of Crescent Dragonwagon, is the best you will ever make! Use stone-ground cornmeal for a crispy crust, made in a sizzling iron skillet. It is my "go-to" cornbread recipe!

prep time: 15 MINScook time: 20 MINStotal time: 35 mins

INGREDIENTS

Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt (I added ½ teaspoon)
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1¼ cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
¼ cup mild vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter, or mild vegetable oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 375°.
Spray a 10-inch cast iron skillet with oil and set aside.
Sift together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
In a smaller bowl, stir baking soda into the buttermilk.
Whisk in the sugar, egg and the ¼ cup oil.
Put the prepared skillet over medium heat, add the butter, and heat until butter melts and is just starting to sizzle.
Tilt the pan to coat sides and bottom.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry and combine them quickly, using as few strokes as possible.
Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake the cornbread until it is golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Let cool for a few moments, and slice into wedges to serve.

This cornbread is the créme de la créme of cornbread!

Enjoy!

Baked Cornbread-Stuffed Zucchini

I might live in the Midwest now, but I’m a Southerner at heart!

One of the reasons; besides, delicious cornbread, a warmer climate, friendly people and good food, and did I mention cornbread (?), is that Southern Living has been delivered in our mailbox ever since I was married ~ way back when Mom gave a subscription of it to me.

Which leads me to zucchini and this recipe!

The gardens are starting to fill up with the vegetable; consequently, this slightly adapted recipe from SL is perfect for the season!

They are tasty zucchinis stuffed with a delicious blend of corn, onions, garlic, cheddar cheese, chicken and spices. Choose squash that are uniform in shape so they will cook evenly. The best kind are long, straight and not too skinny.

I will admit there was one problem with my finished dish: I bought ready-made cornbread from the grocery store to speed up the process, unfortunately, I did not sample it first. Too late, I realized the cornbread was very sweet, sort of like Jiffy mix, cake-like. I’m not a fan of sweet cornbread, and seldom add sugar to the batter when I make it.

Southern cornbread is traditionally made with little or no sugar (I do claim to top it with butter and a swirl of honey at times) while northern cornbread is sweet and more cake-like.

In Bill’s opinion and mine also, this zucchini mixture would have been much better with savory cornbread, the finished dish was too sweet for us. And it was a touch on the dry side; the next time, I would add ½ cup chicken broth to the mixture, somewhere along the line. It's definitely worth another try!

Whether you get your zucchini straight from the garden, or the farmers’ market, stock up on it and enjoy this cornbread-stuffed zucchini.

Just pay more attention than I did as to what type of cornbread you make it with!

Enjoy!

Author: Pam

Cornbread-Stuffed Zucchini

Cornbread makes everything better!

prep time: 20 MINScook time: 45 MINStotal time: 65 mins

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups coarsely crumbled cornbread (about 10 ounces)
4 zucchini
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
16 ounces ground chicken
1 small red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced (2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon seasoned pepper
6 ounces cheddar cheese (about 1½ cups)
½ cup fresh corn
3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 375°.
Spread cornbread in a even layer on one end of a baking sheet. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Using a melon baller or spoon, scoop out zucchini pulp to equal 3 cups pulp, leaving a ½-inch shell intact. Coarsely chop 1½ cups of pulp, reserve remaining pulp for another use.
Brush zucchini shells with 2 tablespoons of oil. Place shells on baking sheet with cornbread, and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon of the salt. Place in 375° oven and bake until cornbread is lightly browned, about 10-11 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°.
Heat remaining oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add ground chicken to skillet, cook, stirring to crumble, until browned, about 6 minutes.
Add onion, garlic, paprika, pepper, reserved 1½ cups zucchini pulp and remaining ¾ teaspoon salt to skillet, cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender, about 3 minutes.
Transfer mixture to a large bowl, and stir in cornbread, cheese, corn and parsley. Divide chicken mixture evenly among zucchini shells. Place shells on a baking sheet.
Bake stuffed zucchini at 350° until filling is lightly browned and zucchini is tender, 25 minutes.
Serve

Created using The Recipes Generator

Southern-Style Cornbread Lightened Up

Cornbread is a favorite of mine and I found this lightened up version that’s delicious. I’m not saying it’s better than the traditional cornbread, but it fills the bill for a cornbread craving!

This cornbread is moist and fluffy with a bit of tang from the buttermilk. It’s adapted from a Cooking Light recipe; using stone-ground cornmeal to give it a great coarse sandy texture. Simple, good and easy!

Southern-Style Cornbread Lightened Up

Ingredients:

1½ cups stone-ground cornmeal

3 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup fat-free or low-fat buttermilk
Egg substitute equivalent to 1 egg
1 tablespoon canola oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Coat and 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Add cornmeal and flour to a large bowl.
Whisk in salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Make a well in the center.
Combine buttermilk, egg substitute and oil in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.
Pour buttermilk mixture into well of dry ingredients and combine, do not over-stir.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cut into squares and serve warm.

ENJOY!!!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog, @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and delicious easy recipes.

Mexicali Hamburger Bake

I’m hooked every time I see the word “cornbread!”

This recipe combines one of the great flavors of the South ~ cornbread ~ with spicy Mexican flavors. It’s exactly like having salsa with your cornbread and meat.

I came across this in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and couldn’t wait to try this homey quick recipe. It’s a zippy ground beef dish with the added goodness of tomatoes, corn and cheese. Covering it all is a smooth layer of corn bread.

If you like cornbread and Mexican food, you’ll like this spicy dish!

Mexicali Hamburger Bake

Ingredients:

1½ pounds ground beef

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 (10 ounce) can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies, undrained

1 cup frozen whole kernel corn, thawed

1 cup shredded Mexican-style cheese, plus 3 tablespoons for topping

For corn bread topping:

½ cup yellow cornmeal

½ cup flour

1¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons Mexican-style cheese

For olive topping:

¼ cup each of sliced green olives, black olives and pimentos.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add beef to a very large skillet.

Season with chili and garlic powders, salt and pepper.

Sauté beef until brown; drain off fat.

Stir in undrained tomatoes and corn; heat through.

Transfer to a greased 2-quart baking dish.

In a medium bow, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

Stir in egg, milk and oil.

Spread evenly on beef mixture.

Sprinkle with remaining 3 tablespoons cheese.

Bake, uncovered about 30-35 minutes or until topping is set.

Let stand for 5 minutes.

Scatter olive mixture over top.

6 servings

YUM!!!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes and cookbook giveaway!

Pages

Savory Sour Cream Cornbread, it's Divine!

SAVORY BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD

Tasty Sour Cream Skillet Cornbread

Woo hoo! It's Moist and Easy Cornbread Time!

Moist and Easy Cornbread

Ingredients:

Instructions:

The Only Cornbread Recipe You'll Need: Dragonwagon's Skillet-Sizzled Corn Bread!

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Baked Cornbread-Stuffed Zucchini

Cornbread-Stuffed Zucchini

INGREDIENTS:

INSTRUCTIONS

Southern-Style Cornbread Lightened Up

Mexicali Hamburger Bake

DINNER PARTY

ᴡᴏᴏ ʜᴏᴏ!!!

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