The Best Cornbread.

One of the first few posts on this blog involved cornbread. And now a few months later, I've created an even better version. The one previous was less moist, not as sweet, and dairy free. This cornbread is very moist, sweet (enough for cornbread) and has real butter and raw milk. It's almost decadent. The addition of fresh corn "off the cob" into the batter gives the bread a whole other dimension of both taste and flavor.

Actually, I really surprised myself with this recipe. I made this recipe from scratch with no basic guidelines except noticing that one recipe on the cornmeal bag used a lot of leavening agent. I wouldn't have originally thought to use that much, and I figured since it was on the back of the cornmeal bag, I should listen. Despite that one thing, this recipe is entirely my own.

While the bread was still hot, the whole pan disappeared. I brought some out to the camp office for the staff to grab on their way by in their usually hectic camp afternoon. As soon as I left and came back, they needed more! And so less than 20 minutes after I had pulled it from the oven, I was staring at an empty pan. Then, grabbing my other 9 x 13, I made another batch. Then I took my first bite and knew that this recipe had "arrived." No tweaking needed!

The Best Cornbread
    makes one 9x13 pan

    1 cup  uncooked polenta - Bob's Red Mill

    1 cup  Masa Corn Flour

    2 cups stone ground cornmeal - Bob's Red Mill

    2 cups  whole or 2% milk - preferably raw whole milk

    1 cup  organic cane sugar

    4 tsp  baking powder

    1 tsp  baking soda

    1 tsp  sea salt

    4  real eggs

    2  sticks butter, softened

    2  heaping cups fresh cut off corn off the cob

To make your cornbread:

  1.  Mix polenta, masa, cornmeal, baking powder + soda, and salt in large bowl.

  2.  In a small bowl, cream sugar and butter until fluffy. Add egg one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat on high speed until fluffy.

  3.  Add 2 cups of milk to the bowl with the polenta mixture. Stir until well combined with a spatula.

  4.  Gently fold in the fluffy butter/sugar/egg mixture into the milk and cornmeal mixture. FOLD in - do not stir - until combined.

  5.  Fold in the cut corn.

  6.  Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

  7.  The cornbread is done when it springs back like a cake in the middle, a poker will come out clean, and the top is a lovely golden brown.

This is not your typical dry cornbread. This bread is moist, decadent and lovely, so much so it doesn't need to be slathered in butter.  It's great on it's own! Be sure to share some with your favorite people. It just might disappear as fast as mine!