Corn Bread

I am definitely behind on blogging, so stick with me here.  I've been super busy and not writing a bunch of what I've been doing down on a list to share, so yeah....my bad.  I will share a list on Friday of some of the things I've been up to, but I'm determined to start getting some of the back log (which keeps getting longer) of blog posts up here.

First up is a recipe I've been meaning to share and it is for a recipe that pretty much every American has in their family recipes.  Cornbread.  I know a lot of people are probably not impressed *laugh* but I wanted to share this because for one, having corn meal in your food storage is a really good idea to help stretch your flour and other grains and two because this cornbread is light and fluffy, which I love about it.  Also, cornbread is actually surprisingly versatile.  We will eat it for dessert with honey, for breakfast with jam and butter, for a snack...heck I've been known to eat it with sausage gravy on top or some other savory thing that you'd normally reserve biscuits for.  So, when I started thinking of basic recipes to share, this one seemed like a good idea to me.

Now, there is one thing I want to recommend with corn bread recipes and it will probably get me some hate from coarse corn meal fans, but I really am not a huge fan of the crunch of coarse ground corn meal in my cornbread, so when I make this recipe I use this.  It is a polenta grind cornmeal, so it is super fine grind and I like it better in my corn bread (no associate link on that cornmeal by the way, I'm just sharing because that is what I buy).  But, if you prefer coarse corn meal, go for it.  The cornbread will still turn out super yummy either way.

So, onto the recipe!

Cornbread:

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Yellow Corn Meal
• 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 2 to 4 TBS sugar (depending how sweet you like your cornbread)
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (375 if you are using a glass pan).  Grease an 8" square (or round...doesn't really matter) baking pan.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, sift together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder (or you can just add all the ingredients and then whisk the dry ingredients together).  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

3.  In a separate smaller bowl, combine egg, milk and oil and mix well.  

4.  Pour the wet ingredients into the well you created in the dry ingredients and stir together until combined  and the dry ingredients are moistened.  It takes about 15 to 20 strokes for me (do NOT over mix).  Pour the better into prepared pan.

5.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the corn bread comes out clean.

We like to serve ours with spreadable/whipped honey and butter, but I've been known to eat it for breakfast with butter and jam on it :).