My great grandma so loved cornbread.  She gave me a recipe for corncake or pone bread that you would fry on the stove like pancakes.  She always told me how she didn’t like crumbly cornbread as you’d get choked on it.  And she loved to dip it in a cool tall glass of buttermilk or eat it with a heart vegetable stew. So she gave me some tips on how to make it more cake like texture without making it too sweet. 

Out of all our conversations, I enjoyed this one most of all. It was my great grandmother now in her nineties transforming into a young mother before my eyes. Cornbread is that magical.

Years later, I was making the standard box mix and remembered this conversation with my grandma.  Only, I couldn’t remember the exact details.  I had lost her hand written recipe. Just remembered a general idea on how to go about it.  So I started experimenting.  Before long, a recipe developed. I am calling it How to Make Great-Grandma’s Cornbread in her memory.

I basically took her old soda bread recipe, added a bit of sugar, replaced 1/2 the flour with cornmeal and added eggs. This will be sweeter than pone bread, but not as sweet as northern style cornbread which is nearly a cake.  This is Mid-Atlantic Appalachian style cornbread, if you will.  The sugar helps reduce the crumbly texture.  If you don’t mind crumbs, feel free to reduce or eliminate the sugar.

This recipe should be mixed by hand.   The dough will be quite lumpy as shown below.  If using a mixer, make sure to stop at this stage as it’s easy to over mix soda breads and make them tough.  I recommend forgetting the electric mixer as it usually throws milk all over the counter.

You should make great-grandma’s cornbread in an iron skillet whenever possible. But the truth is, not everyone has a cast iron skillet or perhaps can’t lift one any longer. Some don’t even know what skillet means! I know, this is a shock to us Appalachians. For whatever reason, you can also bake this in an ordinary loaf pan or a casserole dish.

Great-Grandma’s Cornbread

This is an old-fashioned skillet cornbread that is simple to make and just slightly sweet.

Print Recipe

Prep Time10 minutes minutes

Cook Time50 minutes minutes

Servings12

Calories 173.9

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups (187.5g) cornmeal
• 1 ¼ cups (187.5g) all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ cups (300mL) buttermilk
• ¼ cup (60mL) oil
• ¼ cup (50g) sugar*
• 1 large (50g) egg
• 1 tbs (15mL) oil, lard or melted butter
• 1 tsp (6g) baking soda
• 1 tsp (4g) baking powder
• ¼ tsp (1.25g) salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400F (200C.)
• Generously grease a 10" cast iron skillet with 1 tbs of oil, lard or melted butter. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix together cornmeal, flour, sugar baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In a small bowl, beat one egg, oil and buttermilk together. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Batter will be lumpy.
• Pour batter into prepared skillet. Let sit 5 minutes before putting into the oven.
• Bake 25 – 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and the top is a nice golden brown. Center of cornbread should reach 210F (99C.)
• Cool 15 minutes before serving.

Notes

*Sugar is optional.  It makes the crumb more tender and gives sweetness to the bread.

If you do not have buttermilk, you can add make a substitution. For one cup: Pour 1 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice into a measuring cup and fill the rest with milk until you reach the 1 cup mark. Wait 10 minutes or until the milk starts to separate.

This can be baked in a 9×5″ (23x13cm) loaf pan.  Bake 45 – 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and the top is a nice golden brown. Center of bread should reach between 200F (93C) – 212F (100C.)

Nutrition Facts

Great-Grandma's Cornbread

Serving Size

 

1 slice

Amount per Serving

Calories

173.9

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

6.1

g

9

%

Saturated Fat

 

1

g

6

%

Polyunsaturated Fat

 

1.3

g

Monounsaturated Fat

 

3.2

g

Sodium

 

145.7

mg

6

%

Carbohydrates

 

26.9

g

9

%

Fiber

 

0.5

g

2

%

Protein

 

3.3

g

7

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

* Calories provided as a courtesy and not guaranteed.