“Cornbread! Ain’t nothin’ wrong wid dat!”

January 18th, 2006

Those words were once uttered by Chris Rock. And I say, “No there isn’t, Mr. Rock, indeed there is nothin’ wrong wid dat.”

Now, when it came to cornbread…my Grama Dee was known for just poppin’ a box of Jiffy cornbread mix in the oven, and callin’ that shit a day. Which, yeah I know…not very southern of her…but then again? It WAS pretty dang tasty. Anyway…as I was making my “good luck” beans this year, I didn’t happen to have a box of Jiffy in my vast and expansive pantries just then (SHOCK, i know since just about everything else is in there). I did have, however, a box of yellow cornmeal that was just begging to be joined with a little sugar, milk and eggs. So I scoured the web for a decent cornbread recipe and I stumbled upon a pretty tasty one from Jeremy Jackson found in his book titled “The Cornbread Book” and so I share it with you all here:

SWEET CORNBREAD recipe from Jeremy Jackson’s “The Cornbread Book”

INGREDIENTS (see photo)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1-cup cornmeal
5 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2-teaspoon salt
1-cup milk
1/3-cup canola oil
1 large egg, slightly beaten

RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease and 8 or 9-inch square pan.
2. Sift dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Form a well in the mixture and add the milk, oil, and egg. Stir just until everything is combined – there should still be scattered clumps of flour, about the size of baby peas or BBs.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 24 to 30 minutes, until the cornbread is starting to brown slightly (especially at the edges) and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve hot.

The only thing I changed was that instead of the square pan, I used a cast-iron skillet, it just seemed more legit to do it that way. As for the recipe…it was pretty tasty. Could you expect anything else from a mizzoureh-raised hillbilly boy? Nice work, Jeremy.

Entry Filed under: breads,hillbilly recipes