This light and delicate Buttermilk Cornbread is the perfect accompaniment to your meal.
Cornbread reminds me of my childhood. I am a Southerner so, while it was not served at every meal, it was served often enough that I considered it a “regular.” But–and no hate from any fellow Southerners–I never loved it. So often it seemed like a gritty brick-like delivery system for butter.
Now butter I’m on board with. Like, totally.
But yeah. That old-fashioned cornbread texture is just not something I love.
This Buttermilk Cornbread recipe, however, is right up my alley. It’s more tender and a little soft. It’s like sandwich bread and cornbread got married and had a baby. The best of both worlds! And it’s just a little sweet, but not too sweet. (Not everyone agrees on the addition of sugar in cornbread.)
I love Buttermilk Cornbread slathered with butter all by its lonesome, of course. My second favorite way to enjoy it is with a bowl of hearty soup or chili. Sometimes I’ll even put the cornbread in the bowl and pour a nice, thick chili over the top. Just give me a spoon and I’m good to go!
How do you like to enjoy cornbread?
Print
Buttermilk Cornbread
- Yield: 1 loaf 1x
Description
Cornbread just reminds me of my childhood, of old-fashioned eating, and of my own grandmother. To me, a chili meal is not complete with out it.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease or spray an 8 1/2 × 4 1/2-inch loaf pan; set aside.
- In a large bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda and stir to combine. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs or small peas. Don’t overwork it.
- In a small bowl whisk the eggs and buttermilk together. Add the buttermilk-egg mixture to dry ingredients and stir to form a stiff, lumpy batter. Spread evenly in the greased loaf pan.
- Bake until a toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out nearly clean, with just a few crumbs on it, 50 to 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove the cornbread from the loaf pan and cool for another 10 minutes before slicing.
Notes
- If you don’t have buttermilk, just put 4 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar into the bottom of your measuring cup; then add enough milk to measure 1 1/3 cups (I use a Pyrex 2-cup glass measure for this).
- If you are old school you can use some bacon grease for some of the shortening. I happened to have some so I used about half bacon grease, half shortening. It really adds to the flavor!
