Corn Bread

A nice accompaniment to any meal, corn bread also makes a delicious snack. Unlike most breads, I like to eat it immediately after it comes out of the oven, while its still steaming. Tonight I made it as a side dish with dinner--vegetable soup, salad, & corn bread--yum!

Choosing a good bread recipe is more difficult than one may think. The first time I made corn bread, I found one called "Grandma's Corn Bread", thinking this would be delicious. It took forever to bake, and was still soggy on the inside when the outside was brown and crispy. It was also incredibly buttery. Sorry Grandma, but this recipe was just okay.

This time, I pulled out my favorite bread book, "Bread Winners" by Mel London. It's an ancient text, with yellowing pages and a torn cover, but the recipes it holds have yet to disappoint. My goal is to try everything in this book at least once.

The index listed several recipes, including: Sour Milk Corn Bread, Texas Corn Bread, Sourdough Corn Bread, Buttermilk Corn Bread, Extra Corny Bread, and 2 for just plain Corn Bread. I glanced at the ingredients list for Texas Corn Bread (which I had bookmarked previously), and the plain Corn Breads. I settled on making the following corn bread recipe because it called for plain milk instead of buttermilk (which I did not have), and had less sugar than the other recipes.

Ingredients
1 c flour
1 c yellow cornmeal
2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/8 c milk
2 eggs
4 T melted butter
3 t honey

Preheat oven to 425 F & grease 12 muffin tins. Alternatively, you can bake in an 8''x8'' square pan, but it will take a few minutes longer.

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl & make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, honey, and eggs, slightly beaten. Pour your liquids into the well in the dry ingredients and mix together to combine. Do not overmix. Pour into prepared muffin tins and bake for 18 minutes.

The recipe says to bake 20-25 minutes, but mine came out a bit crispy. I'm not sure why, but 18 minutes seems to be the secret number with muffins or cupcakes. That being said, the cornbread was still moist and delicious--unlike past attempts--and my whole family was pleased with the result. I wouldn't change anything about it, there was a perfect balance of sweet, salty, and buttery, and I will definitely be making these again.