What a gift that pan of cornbread was! Even better, Candace gave me the recipe so I could make a batch myself later. The recipe can be found on her blog Ain’t Enough Gravy, and I suggest you look around there, but here is just the recipe on its own.
The photo is of the last pan I made, and I’ve already had it mentioned that it’s probably time for another.
Candie’s Cornbread
Preheat Oven to 425 degrees (I know it sounds hot, but this is a quick bread, they need hot and you want a crispy crust)
put 1 stick of salted butter(use real butter) in a 9″square or round pan, like a good heavy cake pan, if you have a 9″cast iron skillet you are gonna have an extra degree of wonderful, put it in that warming up oven to melt the butter. But keep an eye on it.
crack 2 large eggs (need I say fresh) in a medium size ceramic bowl, I use Egglands Best eggs because they are the freshest I can find, as I no longer have a coop of my own, beat them up slightly with a fork.
Keep you eyes on the melting butter, you want it to brown slightly and sizzle but not burn!
Add 1 2/3 cups of fresh WHOLE buttermilk to the bowl (Purity Butter Milk in the yellow carton is what I use) don’t use the 2% buttermilk its not as good. Beat that in good, I use a long tine fork.
Add 1 3/4 cup of White Lily Self Rising Buttermilk Cornbread Mix (flour is included in the mix so its lighter) it has GREEN writing on the front (they sell White Lily everywhere now so you should be able to find it, go ahead and get the 5 lb bag you’re gonna want to do this again) Mix that well until its smooth and thick about like pancake batter, if its too thick add more buttermilk. If it’s too thin add more cornmeal.
Check the butter, it should be browning and sizzling, if it burns throw it out and clean the pan and start again, burnt is gonna ruin the whole pan of cornbread. (yes I have burned the butter!) Once it has melted and browned carefully take it out of the oven, swirl it around the pan to coat the sides good and pour in into the bowl of batter, this is why you use a ceramic bowl, and it WILL sizzle when it hits, stir the butter into the batter good and pour the whole thing back in your pan.
Stick it back in that hot oven and it will rise and turn golden brown on top. As for how long you cook it, well… until it’s done. Generally about 15 to 20 minutes, but stoves vary so keep an eye out. Some folks (me) like to turn it out onto a plate so the crust stays crisp, but let it cool a few minutes before you do that, this is really moist cornbread and you don’t want it to fall apart on you
Cut you a big old hunk, slap some butter on it, get a tall glass of cold sweet milk, a large bowl of Candie’s Vegetable soup and enjoy a little piece of the happy life.
I know this sounds like a lot of work, it really isn’t and you actually end up having food for 3 days. It also freezes well but use in within 3 months.
