My Favorite Cornbread Recipe - Sally's Baking Addiction (2024)

FAQs

What is the best cornmeal for cornbread? ›

As for the best cornmeal for cornbread, either fine- or medium-grind cornmeal is a great choice. Medium-grind cornmeal will bring slightly more texture and grittiness to the batter, which you may or may not want (it's up to you!). You can use fine or medium cornmeal in these extra corny muffins.

Northern cornbreads tend to be more cake-like, on the sweet side, with a finer crumb due to more flour in the mixture. Southern cornbread is flavored with bacon grease, and cooked in a cast iron skillet, a perfect side for barbecues, or chili. It also tends to be rather crumbly.

The consistency of the batter should be a bit like pancake batter—a little on the thin side. Thick batter can result in dry texture and cornbread that crumbles easily after baking. If you feel your batter is too thick, simply add a splash of extra milk.

Cornmeal gives cornbread its classic color and flavor, but too much can make your bread crumbly. Try replacing a little bit of cornmeal with flour. The specific measurements will depend on how much cornmeal and flour is in your recipe, but you should try to have more flour than cornmeal in your batter.

While either white or yellow cornmeal will technically work when making cornbread, yellow does make for a softer more tender bread. Milk is what is going to make sure our bread stays nice and moist as it acts as the binding agent. Baking powder is key for getting a nice tender and fluffy crumb.

Soaking the cornmeal in buttermilk for a few hours, or even overnight, tenderizes the large grains of cornmeal, making the bread more moist and tender. This step is optional, however, and the bread is still delicious without the soaking step.

The most common theory is a change in cornmeal itself. Until early in the 20th century, Southern cornmeal was made with sweeter white corn and it was water-ground. When industrial milling came along, that changed. The steel-roller mills used yellow corn that was harvested before it was ripe, so it had less sugar.

Among them was a version of Indian bread made of cornmeal, salt and water called pone or corn pone. The name came from the Algonquin word apan, meaning "baked." The Narragansett word for cornbread, nokechick, became no-cake and then hoe-cake.

White bread is rich in calories, whereas cornbread is 60% lower in calories — white bread has 238 calories per 100 grams, while cornbread has 96 calories. Therefore, cornbread has more nutrients than white bread. Consequently, you can consider it to be healthier.

We recommend allowing cornbread batter to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before baking, so if you prefer, you can delay heating the oven until you make the batter. 2Melt the butter, and then set aside to cool slightly.

Can you use half-and-half in cornbread instead of milk? ›

If you don't want to use water though some other milk substitutes are usually other dairy products like yogurt, sour cream, or half and half. For cornbread though water is probably best.

Preheat your pan

You WANT some sizzle here. This helps develop the perfect crust and keeps your cornbread from being too crumbly. Stick your skillet in the oven to warm up as it preheats; it usually takes 10 to 15 minutes to get your skillet to just the right temperature!

While not a professional chef, my experience with corn bread, be it packaged or made from scratch is if you over mix it, it's gonna fall! Also, let it sit for 4-5 minutes after gently scraping it into the pan and let the ingredients start their magic reactions. No peeking while baking!! That can make it fall too.

The recommended coarseness of the cornmeal you buy depends on how you intend to use it. Regular “cornmeal” in fine or medium grinds is best for baking and dredging, while medium or coarse grinds (including those labeled polenta or grits) are better suited for porridge.

The one concrete difference between corn meals may be that, according to some studies, meal ground from darker corn kernels—particularly ones with deep orange, yellow, or purple hues—are richer in nutrients like Vitamin A and beta carotene and therefore slightly more nutritious.

Ingredients. WHEAT FLOUR, DEGERMED YELLOW CORN MEAL, SUGAR, LARD (HYDROGENATED LARD, BHT AND CITRIC ACID PRESERVATIVES), CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF: BAKING SODA, TRICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID, WHEAT STARCH.