We all love cornbread but I don’t seem to make it often somehow. However, I barbecued ribs for Memorial Day and you just have to have cornbread with ribs I think! I tried Mark Bittman’s recipe for Cornbread Baked in an Iron Skillet, which had a heavier corn meal to flour recipe than my old standby recipe for cornbread. I freely substitute buttermilk, yogurt or soured milk (add a tablespoon of vinegar to a cup of milk and let sit a few minutes) for milk in most any baking recipe or pancake recipe. I used buttermilk for this and it came out great.
Cornbread Baked in an Iron Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or yogurt)
- 2 tablespoons melted butter or oil
- 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar (or more if you like sweeter cornbread)
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Put the butter in an oven-proof skillet over medium heat and heat about 2 minutes, flipping the pan around so the butter coats the pan.
- Stir together the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar).
- Whisk the egg and buttermilk together, then add to the dry ingredients. Don’t overstir but stir enough to mix well. If it seems really dry, add another tablespoon or so of buttermilk.
- Pour the batter into the hot skillet. Use a spatula to smooth the top if needed so it’s fairly level.
- Bake about 30 minutes. The sides will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. To check for doneness, stick a toothpick in the middle and pull it out. It should be clean.
- The cornbread will slide right out of the pan so you can cut into wedges and serve, with butter and honey hopefully.
If you have leftovers, you can make a nice hot breakfast by crumbling up the cornbread and heating with some milk and maple syrup.
Recipe from an earlier edition of How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
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