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

FAQs

What's the difference between Southern cornbread and regular cornbread? ›

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.

I want to keep the cornbread taste, just less crumbly! I recommend extra egg yolk, adding corn, and using cast iron to bake. Also, try a little lower temperature.

Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.)

Wrapping your cornbread will keep it from drying out. Place your cornbread in a dry, dark place. You don't want your cornbread to be exposed to moisture or direct sunlight or it could go bad sooner. Put your cornbread on a shelf in your pantry, or put it inside of a bread box if you have one.

Sugar in the cornbread interferes with the flavor of the vegetables. Don't put sugar in your cornbread! Traditional cornbread isn't sweet, but many favorite recipes have sugar in them.

It ranges in texture from fine to coarse. For this recipe, I like to use coarse cornmeal because it adds that traditional cornbread texture. When you mix it with flour, it provides the perfect crumb. I prefer to use stone-ground cornmeal, which you can find in the baking aisle or bulk bins.

The yolk will make the texture more dense and smooth, a bit brownie-like, while the fact that your original batter was too thick means that the additional liquid will help the baking powder achieve better leavening, giving you an airier texture.

1Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Note: 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.

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.

If you're substituting baking soda for baking powder, you also need to add an acid to the recipe. If you do not, you'll be left with that metallic or soapy taste and flat, dense, hard baked goods. Try this instead. (1 part baking soda to 2 parts cream of tartar).

Can you overmix cornbread? ›

Pour the wet ingredients and the corn to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Using a silicon spatula, gently fold in the wet ingredients and corn into the dry mix, pulling the dry ingredients up from the bottom. Don't overmix; just stir long enough that no dry flour is left.

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.

In a medium bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir the corn flour and cornmeal with the buttermilk until there are no dry pockets remaining. Cover and refrigerate overnight (or for as little as 1 hour if you want to make the cornbread right now). Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Need more time to eat your cornbread? Store it in the fridge. Follow the same method of wrapping it in aluminum foil or plastic wrap and then a sealed plastic bag. Cornbread stores well in the fridge for up to five days.

LET the batter sit for 15-20 minutes before baking. This allows the baking powder to activate and incorporate more air.

Southern cornbread has traditionally been made with little or no sugar and smaller amounts of flour (or no flour), with northern cornbread being sweeter and more cake-like. Southern cornbread traditionally used white cornmeal and buttermilk. Other ingredients such as pork rinds are sometimes used.

In a large mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients: cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. Take the cast iron skillet out of the oven and pour the batter into it.

Real, traditional, Southern-style cornbread is savory, not sweet, and always has been.

In 1892, a Times correspondent, after enumerating the many types of corn-based breads eaten in Virginia, noted, "It will be observed that in none of them is sugar used. There are cornmeal puddings served with sweet sauces, but no Southern cook would risk the spoiling of her cornbreads by sweetening them."