Super Easy Sweet And Moist Cornbread

This Super Easy Sweet And Moist Cornbread is the perfect accompaniment for all of your fall soups and stews. I love mine with a hot steaming bowl of sweet-potato-chili on a cold and rainy Mississippi winter day. Of course this bread is also always present at my Thanksgiving table. With one of my favorite holidays approaching this recipe has been on my mind lately!

The History

Corn Pones, Ash Cakes, Hoe Cakes, Johnny Cakes and Cracklin' Bread are just a few of the names for this simple type of bread that you may have heard. Though very popular today, early settlers were apparently not big fans of this holiday staple.

Some of this probably had to do with the fact that earlier versions of the bread were more dense and likely made with stronger tasting yellow cornmeal. Sugar was a luxury item and leavening agents didn't make it into cooking and baking till many years later.

As such, the corn bread varieties of the past were often as basic as a mixture of water and cornmeal cooked over an open fire in a skillet, hoe or Jonny board. A treat in those times would probably have been the simple addition of some bacon grease and crackling.

To make the taste of the cornbread more palatable, the settlers of the Northeast experimented with the new and unusual flour that was in plentiful supply. The result was an almost cake like version of cornbread as per chefscornerstore.com.

Living in the South I've tried many savory varieties and have yet to come across one I didn't like. But the sweet, cake like version presented in this recipe is my personal favorite.

The Recipe

However you choose to make your bread, cornmeal is rich in fibre, iron, potassium, assorted vitamins and amino acids and as such makes a healthy and nutritious bread.

The best part about this recipe is that it's truly Super Easy as it promises to be. Soft, moist and full of delicious kernels of corn it's difficult to stop eating this!

I often like a warm slice with some butter for breakfast or a snack....who wants to wait for dinner!?

Now for the recipe! Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl!

Stir in all the wet ingredients!

Mix in the Corn Kernels.

Put the mixture in a greased tin.

Bake in a preheated oven and voila!

That Easy! Here are a few tips and some ways to help you adapt the recipe should you want to!

TIPS:

• make sure the cornmeal you use is fresh or else your cornbread can have a musty smell. I store mine in the fridge as it stays fresher longer this way.
• Always mix your cornbread batter by hand. It's supposed to be slightly lumpy so don't over mix it in an attempt to fix the consistency.
• You can opt for wheat or white flour, the difference in taste will be minimal.
• If you want a crustier bread use a skillet, slightly less crusty then use a dark pan and if you don't like yours crusty at all then a regular pan will do.
• The ideal ratio for the ingredients is 1 Cup Flour to 1 Cup Cornmeal. To make your cornbread denser you can add more cornmeal and for a more cake like texture use more flour.
• Honey adds more moisture and is a healthier alternative to sugar. However, it can turn the bread dark brown so I chose to use a blend of sugar and honey. You can do without the honey all together but it adds a floral, woodsy almost caramel like taste to the bread so I would highly suggest keeping the recipe as is.
• If you do choose to change the proportion of honey and sugar then here are a few suggestion:
  • For each cup of sugar replace it with ½-3/4 cup of honey
  • reduce the liquids (in this case milk) in your recipe by ¼ cup
  • reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees to prevent over browning and
  • add ¼ teaspoon more baking soda.
  • If doing the reverse and adding sugar instead of the honey, add more liquid, raise oven temperature a bit and reduce the baking soda a tad.

Whew! That was a lot of math! I hope you enjoy the recipe. Please don't forget to rate, comment and tag me on Instagram!