Fine Cooking's Classic Buttermilk Cornmeal

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Classic Buttermilk Cornbread
I love cooking in my cast iron pan. It feels rustic and it's perfect for upside down cakes. Making cornbread brings images of cowboys cooking on the open range.

I added some corn to the cornmeal to make it corny. Hee hee. This isn't "cake" with some cornmeal (like the Marie Callender's type), this is cornbread. It would be great as a base for stuffing.

I made this a few months ago and am finally posting it. I kinda lost my blogging and baking mojo during the summer. I had plans this weekend to bake...and then something happened on Friday morning. I was washing dishes and I'm crazy about grease (no grease down the drain!). As I was wiping a metal base with a paper towel, I sliced my thumb. OUCH. A trip to urgent care gave me stitches, antibiotics, and a few restaurant recommendations (my urgent care doc was a totally foodie and she passed along some of her favorites...along with stitches!) I added some medicinal sorbet to the mix when I picked up the antibiotics at Target pharmacy.

 Ouch! Stitches in the thumb!
Classic Buttermilk Cornmeal 
From Fine Cooking 107, pp. 37, November 19, 2010

9 oz. (1-3/4 cups) medium-grind stone-ground yellow cornmeal, divided.
2-1/4 oz. (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. table salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1-1/2 oz. (3 Tbs.) unsalted butter, cut into a few pieces

Heat a cast-iron skillet (9 or 10-inch) in the middle of a 425 oven. More info about other types on the original recipe.

In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 cup water to a boil over high heat. In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the cornmeal and the boiling water. Stir to blend—the mixture should become a thick mush.

In a medium bowl, whisk the remaining 1-1/4 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.

When the oven and pan are fully heated (after about 20 minutes), add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until just blended. Do not overmix.

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—a half-dozen 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 to 20 minutes. Immediately turn the bread out onto a rack. Cool for 5 minutes. Serve hot.