Cornbread
Buttermilk batter poured into a smoking cast-iron skillet, which fries the base into a crust before the oven gets to work.
- Prep
- 12m
- Cook
- 22m
- Waiting
- 10m
- Total
- 44m
- Serves
- 8
- Effort
- Easy
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 200 g | Whisk the dry ingredients together 2m | Fold wet into dry in about ten strokes 3m Lumps are fine. Overmixing builds gluten and turns it cakey and tough. | Pour into the buttered skillet, which should hiss 2m Preheat the empty pan in the oven for 10 minutes first. | Bake at 220°C / 425°F for 22 minutes until the edges pull from the pan 22m | Rest 10 minutes in the pan before cutting into wedges 10m It carries on setting off the heat. Cut it straight away and the middle smears. | |
| 100 g | ||||||
| 25 g | ||||||
| 2 tsp | ||||||
| 1/2 tsp | ||||||
| 1 tsp | ||||||
| 300 g | Whisk the wet ingredients together 2m | |||||
| 2 | ||||||
| 85 g | ||||||
| 1 tbsp | ||||||
-
Whisk the dry ingredients together
2m- medium cornmeal 200 g
- plain flour 100 g
- caster sugar 25 g
- baking powder 2 tsp
- bicarbonate of soda 1/2 tsp
- fine salt 1 tsp
-
Whisk the wet ingredients together
2m- buttermilk 300 g
- eggs 2
- unsalted butter 85 g
-
Fold wet into dry in about ten strokes
3m- from 1 Whisk the dry ingredients together
- from 2 Whisk the wet ingredients together
Lumps are fine. Overmixing builds gluten and turns it cakey and tough.
-
Pour into the buttered skillet, which should hiss
2m- from 3 Fold wet into dry in about ten strokes
- unsalted butter 1 tbsp
Preheat the empty pan in the oven for 10 minutes first.
-
Bake at 220°C / 425°F for 22 minutes until the edges pull from the pan
22m- from 4 Pour into the buttered skillet, which should hiss
-
Rest 10 minutes in the pan before cutting into wedges
10m- from 5 Bake at 220°C / 425°F for 22 minutes until the edges pull from the pan
It carries on setting off the heat. Cut it straight away and the middle smears.
Two raising agents, two jobs
Buttermilk is acidic, around pH 4.5. The bicarbonate reacts with it on contact, producing carbon dioxide immediately — which is why the batter goes into the pan straight away. The baking powder holds a second charge in reserve, released by oven heat, so the crumb keeps rising while the egg proteins set around it. Cornmeal has no gluten of its own, so the small amount of wheat flour is doing all the structural work.
Notes
- A screaming-hot skillet is the whole trick. The batter fries on contact and you get a crust you cannot achieve in a cold tin.
- No buttermilk means no lift from the bicarbonate. Milk soured with a tablespoon of lemon juice works.
- Drop the sugar to 10 g if you want it savoury enough for chilli.