Old Fashioned Simple Corn Bread

Shouldn’t there be more dinners that sanction cake as an accompaniment?

Cornbread is a big-time comfort food around our house.  I often serve it with chili and that is a beloved classic at our house, even with me boldly adding veggies in plain sight for all to see.  The kids love it, my husband loves it, and yes me too.  Plus, it makes great leftovers for school and work.  But chili’s greatest strength may be its sidekick, the cornbread.  Let’s not lie to ourselves.  Yes, cornbread is cake.  People even top it with honey and butter (aka honey buttercream frosting?).  And as my sister says, who doesn’t love a dinner that includes a cake with do-it-yourself frosting.  Truer words, my sister, were never spoken.

If you don’t already have a favorite cornbread recipe, you may want to give this one a whirl.  I love it because you get exactly one saucepan and one baking pan dirty.  You melt the butter first, so there is no mixer involved, and you stir everything in the pot you heated the butter.   It is simplicity at its best.  Feel free to add other ingredients and dial down the sugar if that is your particular favorite.

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Old Fashioned Simple Corn Bread

This is a simple, old-fashioned sweet cornbread that I love plain.  The original recipe called for more sugar, but I dialed it down quite a bit.  I think you could go a little further without hurting the texture of the cake too much. 

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 teaspoon table salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square baking pan, or a large round deep dish pie plate.
  2. Melt butter in tall saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended.
  3. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture in pan.
  4. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

  5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  I always start testing for doneness about 28 minutes because cornbread can tend toward dry and overcooking it is not a favor to anyone.

Recipe Notes

Most often I make this plain cornbread for our family, but if I am feeling up for it, I would make the adjustments below:

Add in:

7 oz diced green chilies (small can)

1 cup grated cheddar

1 1/2 cups creamed corn