I know that you can buy a box of cornbread mix from the store and that takes all the headache of thinking about how to make it at home, but it's always better when you do it yourself. AND there's a recipe I'll be sharing later for cornbread salad, which is really yummy, so if you have leftovers you can repurpose them into a fun summer side salad.
This cornbread recipe is surprisingly easy to make. Cornbread is a bread I've always found seemed intimidating, but not so with this recipe. It uses ingredients you probably have on hand and cooks in about 15 minutes. An easy addition to any meal.
To tell you the truth, cornbread is about my least favorite form of bread. I just don't like the texture that much. But this bread is wonderful, it's flakey and has a nice texture.
My Grandmother liked to list out the needed tools in order to make the dishes. For this one she listed a cornbread skillet. I do not have this thing. I have many many cooking tools (a bunch more were accumulated in the process of making this book), but I do not have this special fancy skillet. So I used a normal cast iron skillet. It was fine. It seems as if the biggest difference between the two is that a cornbread skillet is pre-divided.
If you're using a cast iron skillet it shouldn't need to be greased, but if you're using something else make sure and grease it well. After you do that go ahead and preheat your oven to 425 none of the prep work will take much time!
First you'll need to mix your dry ingredients together: 1 1/4 cup cornmeal (how else do you think it gets the name cornbread!), 1/2 tsp. salt, 2/3 cup all purpose flour, 2 Tbsp. sugar, and 1 Tbsp. baking powder. Mix them together well.
To that you'll add one egg beaten. You'll want to go ahead and beat the egg before adding it to the dry ingredients. Then 1 cup milk. Then you add 1/4 cup salad oil. From what I can learn salad oil was just a hodge podge term for whatever cooking oil you have around you. I used vegetable oil. Stir well. Then add 3 Tbsp. mayonnaise.
Pour that whole mixture into your greased skillet and bake for 12 - 15 minutes.
Easy breezy! It'll taste great and make your house smell fantastic and you very likely have all these ingredients on hand so it's a very easy add on to a meal!
CORNBREAD
SERVES: 20 ROLLS | PREP TIME: 15 MINS | COOK TIME: 12 - 15 MINS
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup salad oil
3 Tbsp. mayonnaise
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
If necessary, grease and flour a skillet (cornbread skillet if you have it, if not cast iron is preferred!)
Mix together the dry ingredients
To the dry ingredients add the wet ingredients, mixing after each addition.
Bake for 12 - 15 minute.