I think it is a national known fact. I used to buy squares from Whole Foods on a daily basis when I worked above one. I have made it from scratch a million times. Each time I was left just mediocrely happy. That isn't a word, I know, but it fits here.
Well on Thanksgiving I made an announcement to my family that I would no longer be trying to make cornbread from scratch because my roommate made a batch from a box and it was to die for and super moist. I vowed I would just stick to boxes from now on.
Then Christmas happened and I got this:
So I am back in the kitchen trying again.
This was the biggest success yet, so I guess Crescent Dragonwagon knows her stuff. (The author of the book with the weirdest name on the planet.) Her book is kind of an overload of cornbread information. As if I wasn't already overwhelmed with the abundance of variation of recipes online, now I have a whole book of them. So for my first go at one of her recipes, I actually altered it and didn't stick to the plan.....She has a whole chapter on Southern Cornbread and another on Northern Cornbread. I know Southern always complain about us Northerners, but guess what? I'm from the North, so I like my cornbread sweet.
My pursuit has always been to find a recipe that comes out moist. My new idea was to make one that called for creamed corn. I feel like zucchini bread and carrot cake come out moist and they have a vegetable in them, so having corn in it sounded like it might be the trick. The thing is that I don't like whole kernels of corn in my bread. The recipe didn't call for pureeing the creamed corn, but I would recommend it if you don't want any stray corn in your bread. Creamed corn I think is the trick. After all different combos of butter, oil, cream, milk and not getting a moist result, I found the secret ingredient!
Here is the recipe:
Creamed Corn Cornbread
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup creamed corn
- 1 cup milk (I used 1%)
- 1 egg
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Put the butter in the pan and put the pan in the oven.
3. Combine the dry ingredients: cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the creamed corn, milk and egg.
5. Combine the dry and wet ingredient. Stir together to combine, but don't over mix it.
6. Remove pan and pour warm butter into the mix.
7. Stir the butter in and then pour the mixture into the hot pan.
8. Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees.
9. Bake for roughly 25 minutes.
Enjoy!
I alway have to try a piece warm, but cornbread taste way better cool or the next day.
