Honey Cornbread
About this Recipe
There is a little restaurant near where we live that makes cornbread in these mini cast iron pans and when you order it they bring it to you hot and fresh from the oven. It is worth going to that restaurant just for this one menu item. This honey cornbread recipe is one your family may even request as a birthday cake! Well maybe not really, as it still is a bread and not a cake, but for a real honey cornbread lover, maybe! Drizzling a touch of honey on a piece of warm cornbread does certainly turn it into a lip smacking delight. We did cut the honey down to half a cup from its original recipe and we think it is the perfect amount. This honey cornbread stays moist because of the honey, so you can count on it not drying out quickly like some cornbread recipes tend do. This honey cornbread is a more healthy recipe and you may want to keep handy as likely it'll be requested over and over.
Grandmother's Tips for Honey Cornbread Recipe:
1. If you don't have buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon pure lemon juice (or vinegar) to 1 cup milk to sour.
2. Make sure the butter is softened to room temperature.
3. Cast iron pans are very nice for baking in but the pan must be seasoned so that the cornbread does not stick to it. The cornbread should brown nicely in a cast iron pan.
4. When cooking with honey, the cornbread will get a golden brown finish when it is baking, so keep an eye if you have an oven that tends to cook hot. Ovens can vary 90 degrees even though set to the same setting. Oven temperatures can range up to 25 degrees using the bottom or the top rack. Cook your cornbread on the middle rack.
5. Stir your dry ingredients together before adding to your wet ingredients. This is a technique you will see in most recipes. It means you are more evenly dispersing the flours and rising agents before adding to the liquid ingredients. This process also means you need to do less mixing to combine with the wet. By not over beating batters you get a lighter result in the cake. Over mixing strengthens gluten in flour which makes for a tougher batter.
Here are a couple more recipes from Grandmother's Kitchen using cornmeal and cornflour.
Ingredients
Makes one 8-inch cast iron pan size
8 portions
1 cup buttermilk, or you can put 1 Tablespoon pure lemon juice into 1 cup 10% cream or whole milk
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal, we used medium grit
1 teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1/8 cup butter, at room temperature
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Grease an 8-inch cast iron frying pan. You can use a cake pan if you don't have a cast iron frying pan.
3. If you do not have buttermilk and are making your own, pour 1 Tablespoon pure lemon juice into 1 cup whole milk or 10% cream.
4. Stir together the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
5. Put the honey, eggs and butter into a mixing bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, beat until combined. Beat on low for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the buttermilk and beat in.
7. Add the flour mixture a little at a time beating in as you add. Beat just long enough to combine the ingredients. Use a spatula to stir in from the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.
8. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan.
9. Place to bake on the center rack of the preheated oven. Bake 25-30 minutes.
10. Do a toothpick test in the center of the cornbread at 25 minutes. If the toothpick comes out clean it is ready, if not leave in the oven 5 more minutes. Our cornbread took 30 minutes to bake.
11. Remove and place onto a cooling pad. Let the cornbread cool a little before cutting it.
12. This cornbread is extra delicious warm from the pan. It will keep nicely for 3 days. Refrigerating breads make them last longer.
ENJOY!
Return to this Honey Cornbread recipe or check out more recipes at Grandmother's Kitchen
You have a few options when it comes to cornmeal. Stone-ground cornmeal means the the corn is ground leaving the germ intact thus making it a whole grain. The germ in stone ground maintains some of its fat which means it can go rancid. If you have a large amount that will not get used up right away, it will keep best if frozen.
What are a few kinds of cornmeal? A fine ground cornmeal is perfect for recipes calling for a softer texture, things like pancakes, spoon breads and muffins. Fine ground cornmeal offers a delicious flavor. If you are looking for a bit more texture, choose a medium-ground cornmeal. That is the cornmeal we used in this recipe. When you bite into your cornmeal bread made with medium-ground cornmeal, it likely will be more of the consistency your are expecting. Cornbread recipes that are 'rustic' and 'Southern-style' come out really well with a medium-ground cornmeal. Coarse-ground cornmeal is the third option and is for those lovers of a more grainy texture. With coarse-ground cornmeal you can expect to find crunchy bits that will add a bit of extra roughage.
Sweet OR Savory? You can make cornbread as a sweet or a savory. There are cornbread lovers out there of both types. We have to admit, if you are having a sweeter urge, this honey cornbread brings great satisfaction. For those that love cornbread, and we at Grandmother's kitchen sure do, we haven't found a cornbread recipe that we haven't enjoyed eating. Cornflour muffins, loafs and breads offer that good old comfort food feeling and smell amazing when they are being baked.
Be adventurous! Be adventurous when baking with corn meal. You can split the recipe with fine and textured corn meals. Some recipes even call for frozen or canned whole corn kernels, being added to the cornbread. Many recipes also suggest spices and herbs as well as cheese. Cornbread is one of those fun quick and easy bread recipes because you can try so many various ingredients. Polenta is also ground corn, native to Italy and is made by grinding dried flint corn.
