Cornbread (thing)

Cornbread is so easy to make that even a Slovenly-College-Student Semimoron can make it. If you have an oven, you have no excuse. Cornbread is not only simple, but dirt cheap, good for you, impresses friends, goes well with meals, can be eaten by itself with honey for breakfast or dessert, etc. Lots of possibilities. Mandatory side dish with Chicken-Fried Steak.

This recipe is slightly different from those above, mainly in that it makes more, and a few ingredient substitutions. In my experience, white sugar should be avoided in some kinds of baking, as the end product is softer and less sweet when honey is used instead. Cornbread that is too sweet can suffer from the "cake" syndrome.

Ingredients

• 2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1.5 cups white flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt (don't forget)
• 2/3 cup canola oil (other vegetable oils will work, but taste different)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2.5 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• Shortening, butter, lard, or (ick) aerosol oil for greasing the pan

Equipment

• Large mixing bowl
• Medium mixing bowl
• Very small bowl or large mug for beating eggs
• Wire whisk
• Cake pan (9 x 13 or slightly larger works well)

Procedure

This is very simple.

1. Start the oven heating to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Beat the eggs, and warm the honey in a microwave oven or by floating a cupful of it in warm water. Warm honey pours better and mixes better.
4. Combine wet ingredients in the medium bowl. Add the honey last.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Combine with the whisk until it's all mixed, then stop. Do not overmix.
6. Pour this mixture into the greased pan.
7. Put the pan in the oven. Set the timer for 20 minutes.
8. After 20 minutes of baking, open the oven and test the cornbread by poking something skinny into it (a toothpick or skewer is best, but knives work). If it comes out clean, and the edges of the bread are a little brown, it's done. Cornbread is very sensitive to being overbaked, so watch carefully. I've never had a batch take longer than 25 minutes to reach perfection.
9. Remove from the oven, serve warm. Put whatever doesn't get eaten immediately in the fridge, or it will go rancid 2 days later.

Average preparation time is about 40 minutes, although if you have a great set of kitchen tools and are very organized, it could probably go faster.

Enjoy. Notify me of any improvements you can think of, as I'm always open to kitchen experimentation. Always room for improvement.