bake 52: week 25-- Southern Style Cornbread!

Hello everyone!  I am so excited to be hosting bake52 again this week.  

As I was looking over the recipes in our book, one stuck out to me: Southern-Style Cornbread!  I was born in south Georgia and all of my family, with the exception of my parents, still live down there.  Ryan and I have lived in Utah and Arkansas during our married life and are settled down back in Utah.  I do love the south, though-- especially the FOOD!  :)  My parents will be retiring in a few years and moving back to Georgia, and at that point we will be the only ones in my family who don't live in there.   I am sure I will find lots of reasons to make cornbread and pretend like we are in the south!  

I love cornbread, and am so surprised every time I order it here in Utah-- it is served sweet and with a heavy dose of flour in it, making it resemble more of a cake than what I was used to being called cornbread!  It's fun to me to see how different regions seem to interpret a recipe.  I prefer a savory cornbread to a sweet one.  

I saw this recipe didn't have flour or sugar in it, and got excited.  I was hoping this would be more like real, savory, southern cornbread, and I was excited to find out!  

Here are the ingredients assembled:  

  You get your skillet warming in the oven and toast the yellow cornmeal on a baking sheet:

 Then you soak the toasted cornmeal in buttermilk:

 And add oil to your frying pan until it starts to smoke:

 At that point, you add your butter to the hot oil until it is melted.

I have to tell you-- while this was going on, my ten year old had some of the neighborhood boys over, and they were eating pie at the kitchen bar while I was doing this step.  One of the boys remarked, "I don't think I've ever seen my mom fry butter before!"  Which really cracked me up.  So excited to go down in neighborhood history as the crazy lady who fries butter!!  Ben went on to explain that I was in a baking group for really good bakers that his aunt put together and we test recipes for new cookbooks.  {Ha- did you know that was what you were up to, ladies??}  He then said the group was called Bake51.  I told him it was actually Bake52, and the boys all laughed like that was the funniest thing ever.  I guess it sounded really random to them and so they made up other names we could use for our group- my favorite was Moms96a.  Apparently, the ten year old male crowd is baffled by what we are working on this year!!  :)

Anyway, you fry up your butter:  ;)

 Whisk it into the cornmeal mixture with the rest of your dry ingredients and two eggs:

 And transfer it back into your frying pan:

 Bake it in the oven:

 AND ta-da!  You have cornbread.

 Cool in the skillet, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

In the end, it wasn't quite the recipe I've been looking for.  The Georgia cornbread I love is a bit moister and slightly more salty.  I love how darn cute it is in the frying pan, though, so I think I will tinker with this recipe and see if I can find just what I'm looking for.  It shouldn't be hard to make it saltier-- what are your recommendations for making it a bit moister?  

Here is the recipe!  Thanks for participating and I hope you enjoyed this week!!

SOUTHERN-STYLE SKILLET CORNBREAD

Both stone and fine ground cornmeal will work fine in this recipe.  We prefer to use a cast-iron skillet here because it makes the best crust; however, any heavy 10-inch ovenproof skillet will work fine.


2 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 chunks
 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

1. Adjust the oven racks to the lower-middle and middle positions and heat the over to 450 degrees. Place a 10 inch cast iron skillet on the middle rack and heat for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, spread the cornmeal over a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven on the lower-middle rack until fragrant and lightly golden, about 5 minutes.

2. Carefully transfer the toasted cornmeal to a large bowl and whisk in the buttermilk; set aside.  When the skillet is hot, add the oil and return it to the oven until just smoking, about 5 minutes.

3. Remove the hot skillet from the oven, carefully add the butter, and gently swirl to incorporate.  Pour all but 1 tablespoon of the hot oil butter into the cornmeal mixture, and whisk to incorporate.  Whisk in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt, followed by the eggs.

4. Quickly scrape the batter into the hot skillet.  Bake the cornbread until the top begins to crack and the sides are golden brown, 12 to 16 minutes, rotating the bread halfway through baking.  Let the bread cool in the skillet for 5 minutes, then gently flip out onto a wire rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature.