Recipe Corner: Skillet Buttermilk Cornbread — A Fall Favorite!

This past weekend we held our hands-on Souper Saturday class.  To accompany the soups, the students made this buttermilk skillet cornbread.  I was reminded at how PERFECT it is for fall meals.  In fact, since there were ingredients left, I whipped up a batch to bake while I was cleaning up from the class and took it home to enjoy with our dinner (and breakfast the next day!).

If you are STILL buying the boxed cornbread mix, it is time to STOP!!!  Just look at the label — probably lots of stuff you can’t even pronounce!  (Here is the ingredients of a popular corn muffin mix — it even contains animal lard!)

This recipe is all natural ingredients full of goodness and flavor! Make sure you get stone-ground cornmeal.  If you don’t have buttermilk or are substituting a non-dairy milk, place 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice in liquid measuring cup and add scant 1 cup milk (or alternative) to make 1 cup. The acid is necessary to react with the baking powder in this recipe.

If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you can use a regular baking pan, but it will not get the deep golden color that the cast iron provides.  Also, the recipe calls for a 10-inch skillet,  if you use a different size, the baking time will be shorter (for a bigger pan) or longer (for a smaller pan).

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!  Leave me your comments, I LOVE to hear from you!!

Until Next Time,

Mrs. Dornberg (your kitchen BFF)

Skillet Buttermilk Cornbread

Yield: one 10” cornbread (8-12 servings)

½ Cup boiling water
1 ¾ Cup medium-grind stone-ground yellow cornmeal, divided
½ Cup all-purpose flour, or other flour of choice
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 Teaspoon baking powder
¾ Teaspoon salt
½ Teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup buttermilk
¼ Cup sour cream
2 Large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in pieces

Preheat oven to 425 degF. Place rack in middle position. Place 9 or 10-inch cast-iron or ovenproof skillet or 9×9 inch metal pan in oven and heat 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine boiling water and ½ cup of the cornmeal. Stir to blend – the mixture should become a thick mush; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the remaining 1 ¼ cups cornmeal with the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda to blend. Add the buttermilk, sour cream and eggs to the cornmeal mush and whisk to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until just blended. Do not over mix.

Remove the hot pan from the oven and add the butter pieces, tilting the pan to swirl the butter around until it’s melted and the pan is well coated. The butter may brown; that’s fine. Immediately pour the melted butter over the mixed batter and stir to combine, about 6 strokes with a wooden spoon should be plenty. Scrape into the hot pan.

Bake until the cornbread pulls away from the sides of the pan and is golden on top, 18-20 minutes. Immediately turn the bread out onto a rack. Cool for 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Honey Butter: Blend 4 tablespoons softened, unsalted butter with 2 tablespoons honey and about ½ teaspoon salt until smooth.