By: Chengetai Zamchiya
Whether it’s served as a side dish, snack, or even a meal, cornbread is one of the most convenient and notable quick breads in American history. With roots from Native Americans, European colonists, and enslaved Africans, the modern cornbread recipe contains cornmeal, flour, a raising agent like baking soda or powder, eggs, milk, butter, and salt.
There’s a longstanding debate about whether cornbread should be savory or sweetened with additives like honey, sugar, or molasses. However, this is my mother’s recipe, so we’re gonna be using sugar (no debate here). Served with a spicy chili; a tangy pot of collard greens; or even on its own; this simple, sweet, and crumbly cornbread is sure to satisfy and sustain.
Ingredients:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 tbsp of baking powder
¼ tsp of kosher salt \ ⅛ tsp of table salt
¼ cup of sugar
1 cup of yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp of melted butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit. Grease a medium cast iron skillet or 9 inch round cake pan with a tablespoon of butter.
- In a medium sized bowl mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and sugar. Mix until homogeneous in color to combine.
- In a smaller bowl whisk together the milk, eggs and cooled, melted butter until no streaks of egg remain.
- Add wet ingredients into the dry mix until no lumps remain.
- Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cornbread is golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing.*
- Enjoy!
*Optional: Drizzle 2 tbsp of honey on top of the cornbread while still warm and before slicing.