Dinner tonight was cornbread and baked beans. It seemed like an appropriately autumnal dinner, given the chilly weather and lowering snow clouds. Also, both the kids really seem to like cornbread, which is fantastic, because it is not only gluten free, but also dirt cheap-- I don't know of any other flour-ish substance I can get for 20¢/lb. And it's super easy to make...like literally the easiest quickbread ever. I could make this without even touching a measuring cup.
What is your cornbread recipe?? So many seem to have 50/50 flour and cornmeal, and I'm always looking for one that is just cornmeal!
Recipe? Lol!!! I wanted a recipe, and looked for one on the internet and there's only a gazillion of them. I knew I couldn't use flour, since Kiddo is gluten free, so that helped me narrow it down a bit, but there was still only a few hundred thousand. I basically just looked at the general basics that tended to be in common, and then kind of winged it. So here's what I do:
Cast Iron Skillet. This was insisted on in all the recipes touting their authenticity.
I put in a big dollop of bacon/pork grease. I probably use about the equivalent of 1/3 stick of butter. ish? Basically, be generous, and then use a little extra still.
It should be about as hot as possible without smoking. I want a nice crust on the bottom, so I'm shooting for a serious sizzle as soon as the batter hits the pan. Medium to medium-high will usually get the pan there while I mix up the batter.
Preheat oven to 375°F
Batter:
-Corn meal
-Salt
-Sugar
-Baking soda
-Baking powder
-Eggs
-Buttermilk/substitute; I've been using watered-down homemade yoghurt, since that's what we've had on hand lately
-Water
I don't know that any real precision is needed here, as long as you keep in mind what the ingredients' functions are.
Corn meal is the body-- starch and fiber, mostly;
Salt, for umami delicious flavour enhancement;
Sugar, because fresh corn/meal is sweet, and modern corn meal just...isn't;
Baking soda for leavening (starts immediately, but needs the acid from the buttermilk/etc to work);
Baking powder for leavening (works without the acid, but takes longer);
Eggs are critical as a binder (without them, you have a pan of super-crumb);
Buttermilk/etc is to provide an acid for the baking soda, and to provide a bit of creamy, buttery flavour-- but any slightly acidic liquid combo should work (milk with a bit of vinegar, watered-down yoghurt, plain water with some lemon juice, etc);
Water to allow the corn meal to soften and to allow all the other ingredients to do their chemistry magic.
I start with about 1.5 cups of corn meal, then I take my tablespoon (not a measuring spoon, just a large spoon from the silverware drawer) and add about 1/3 spoon of baking soda + powder + salt, plus about 4-6 spoons of sugar. I use 2 eggs, and about 1-1.5 cups of buttermilk (or whatever). Then I add water until it's a bit thicker than pancake batter.
Skillet should be pretty screaming hot now, so I pour it into the pan-- it should sizzle as it touches the pan, the grease should smush up around the sides as it pours in, and it should look like it's starting to rise a bit around the perimeter. Then pop into the oven for about 20 minutes. Maybe 23. Should be done when a butterknife comes out clean.