Homemade Cornbread

 

As soon as the first hint of chill is in the air, I’m ready to do a little fall cooking. There is nothing better on a crisp fall day than a pot of homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, Crawfish Stew, Navy Bean Chicken Chili or Edie’s fabulous Spicy Tomato Soup. And my absolute all-time main-most favorite item to serve with those delicious soups is homemade corn muffins.

Any good southern cook has her (or his) own favorite cornbread recipe. And chances are, that recipe has a lot of good memories attached to it. Just looking at the recipe can conjure up memories of playing in a grandmother’s kitchen as a young child or tailgating at a ballgame while surrounded by fabulous friends. Those are my favorite kinds of recipes! My recipe for cornbread came from Jonathan’s dear grandmother, “B”. B was a very kind lady whose love for her family was expressed by cooking. Oh, the legacy of tasty recipes she left us! While B died only six short months after Jonathan and I married, I have heard tale after tale that goes along with each of her recipes. There are the chicken spaghetti and chicken salad that always came along on beach trips, the spinach madeleine that was always on the Thanksgiving table, and the Sunday after-church roast. And the pies. Sweet mercy, at the pies that lady could make. We have tried to replicate her homemade pie crusts for years, and still haven’t been able to do it well enough.

 

Her cornbread recipe is one of her best, and it is the recipe I always follow when making corn muffins. You jut can’t beat it!

3 cups self-rising corn meal
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup of oil
1 1/2 cups grated cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1 small onion, diced
1/4 lb (or about 6 strips) bacon, fried and crumbled
1 can creamed corn (This is the secret! If you leave out the corn, you might as well not even make it!!)
1 small jar diced pimento
1/4 cup jalapeno peppers, chopped finely

And as always, I leave out some of the ingredients if I don’t have them on hand. I almost never add the pimentos because that’s just not a staple in my pantry, but when I do remember to buy them, they are delicious and add a lot of color. And I can take or leave the onions. Whatever you do, though, don’t leave out the bacon, cheese or corn. You just won’t have the full cornbread experience if you commit that travesty.

Mix all the ingredients together very well. Preheat your oven to about 425 degrees and bake in a preheated and pre-buttered cast iron pan for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (for muffins or sticks).

Now here’s the deal on cornbread: the pan you make it in is almost as important as the recipe you use. The absolute best pan is a cast iron pan
that has been seasoned over and over again with bacon and cornbread. Cast iron skillets improve with age and use, and the best ones are the ones that have been well-worn by years of good southern cooking. That’s the kind I use. But use whatever you have. I have cast iron muffin pans, corn stick pans, and skillets. They are all great to use for corn bread, but we prefer the muffins and sticks.

Another thing about cooking with cast iron is that you have to preheat the pan in the oven. Spray a little cooking spray over it and put a pat of butter in each space. When the butter is sizzling, the pan is preheated and ready to cook the corn bread.

You almost can’t mess up corn bread when you cook it this way. It will be heavenly!

Y’all enjoy your fall weekend and let me know how your corn bread turns out!

Loaded Cornbread

Visit our Recipe Index for more delicious ideas.

 

[yumprint-recipe id=’24’]

Loaded Cornbread from TheHillHangout.com

 

Comments

  1. I’m a cornbread lover and that looks like a delicious pawn! Thanks for sharing your recipe. Be Blessed!

  2. G-Daddy1 says

    A lot like what I make but buttermilk is an essential in true southern corn bread. Also, I use sauteed fresh red peppers in lieu of pimento and honey in lieu of sugar.

  3. Dianne Bobo says

    I make this all the time and I add browned hamburger meat. Complete meal

    • Ashley Mills Hill says

      My mom put ground beef in hers when we were growing up. You are taking me back to the good old days!!

  4. What size can of creamed corn?

  5. Whoa, it looks good especially with the addition of bacon and onion, but I never put sugar in cornbread. I thought only “Northerners” did that! The creamed corn sweetens it enough. I always use 1/3 self-rising flower in place of the cornmeal mix in my recipe and I only use buttermilk in cornbread and biscuits, and I often use chopped green chiles if I don’t have fresh Jalapenos on hand.

  6. This southern girl thinks it sounds delicious, even with sugar added. When my son was little, he only liked sweet cornbread, so that’s what I made. Can’t wait to try this.

  7. pamela dority says

    hey girl love those boots you have in your pic

  8. What kind of cheese?

  9. ELIZABETH says

    You are so right about adding the cream style corn to the cornbread !!!
    So moist. I even put it in my packaged cornbread . great stuff

  10. Can you tell me what is creamed corn? Is it the cernels in a can, or is anything added to it? I don’t live in the states, so there’s a chance we don’t have the same provisions

    • Ashley Mills Hill says

      Karin, in the US we have two kinds of canned corn, whole kernel and creamed. The creamed variety is sweeter and has had milk or cream added to it. If you can’t find it, use a drained can of whole kernel and add about 1/2 milk and 1/4 cup sugar. Thanks for stopping by.

  11. What kind of cheese, please!!!

  12. There is no way this cornbread will cook in 12 minutes?

    • Ashley Mills Hill says

      Hi, Jo. The recipe says to cook for 12 minutes for sticks or muffins and 20-25 minutes for a full cake. At 425 degrees, that should be plenty of time.

  13. Jan Colvard says

    I have made this twice and both times I had to bake it about 40 minutes and it still didn’t get done. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. Anybody else have this problem? The part that gets done is great.

    • Are you preheating the iron skillet? That is critical to making this cornbread. At the end of cooking time I brown the top a bit more under the broiler, being careful to not burn it.

  14. Do you turn it out right away to cool or cool in the skillet?

  15. Hi, idk if you are Still on Pin, but I really wanted to say ur Cornbread looks delicious and beautiful, I Can’t wait to try it,

  16. Good flavor, didn’t like the wet heavy texture.

  17. What type of cheese is used for the grated cheese. Please tell so I can make it! Thanc

  18. Gloria Deitz says

    I omitted the pimento and jalapeno. Otherwise followed the recipe exactly and it came out very “eggy” kind of like a quiche.

  19. Oh my goodness! I think I died and went to heaven. This is the be all end all of cornbread. I can just eat this for a snack with my diet Coke! Thanks for sharing this with me, I love it.

  20. cornbread with sugar is cornmeal cake, Yankee food, not southern

  21. What size skillet? I have several

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  3. […] about 30 more minutes. Serve it piping hot with a side of our classic Southern cornbread or our loaded cornbread.Y’all invite your neighbors over for dinner, and get to know them a little better. Life is […]

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