Cornbread

I wanted to play with my new cast iron skillet after spending a couple of days trying to season it. I read in several places that cornbread was best baked in a cast iron skillet. This was perfect, because I had little time to bake last week. So, although this is not a yeast-bread, it has the word 'bread' in it's name and hence qualifies for this blog. Not that I need to justify what I post, right?

The recipe
It turned out that I didn't have enough cornmeal at home to make either of the recipes from Laurel Robertson's book. I saw several versions online, but what I finally ended up making was simply based on what I had around and what I was willing to add (sugar and fat).

1 C cornmeal
1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 t baking powder
½ t salt
2 eggs
1½ C buttermilk
1 T honey
2 T vegetable oil

Putting it together
This bread is extremely simple to put together.

The oven is preheated to 450 F. I added the oil to the skillet, swirled it around and put it in the oven as it heated. I had read about this method in one of the numerous recipes I had perused online and found it interesting.

The ingredients

The first four ingredients are mixed together very well. The eggs are beaten in a separate bowl and the honey and buttermilk are added to the eggs.

Dry and wet ingredients

The wet ingredients are added to the dry ingredients and stirred until just blended. When the skillet has heated for about 10 minutes, it is brought out and the hot oil is added to the bread mixture and stirred just a little bit more. The mixture is then poured into the skillet and the skillet is put back in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes.

Ready for the oven

Out of the oven after 25 minutes

Cross section

Bottom view

The bread
The bread slid right out of the pan. The bottom and sides were nicely browned. The bread was not sweet at all. I haven't eaten a lot of cornbread to know a good one from a not-so-good one. If it had to be eaten by itself, I would probably like a slightly sweeter flavor. But this bread could go either way, depending on what it is offered with, chili, butter or honey. All in all, a fun dish to make in the skillet and nice enough to make for company.

-RPH