Light Fluffy Cornbread

We might as well call this Light Fluffy Cornbread a Corn Cake. It’s light, fluffy and moist and wonderful with salads, cheese and meat, or a side for the holidays. It’s a favorite on my dinner table.

Cornbread. Wow, is this something new – well, not really. But as a relative newcomer to the South (8 years ago), I did a lot of research regarding cornbread. Comparing recipes on paper, making many and sampling/tasting them in restaurants and from friends.

I strongly believe that when you move, whether that’s within your own country, or to a different country, that you do your best to become part of your new community, without losing your own identity. In other words, stay true to yourself and respect your new surroundings, in the widest sense of the word. Respect your ‘new culture and values’.

For me, coming from The Netherlands and moving to Georgia was quite an adjustment, a pleasant one I must say. In so many ways: culture, weather, food, habits, dress code, restaurants to name a few. People here are just absolutely adorable; most of the time :-). I love the Southern accent, but will never be able to master that. People are nice, easy going, not much fuss, easy dress code. Food is relatively simple, comfort food, however I see already big changes in restaurants in Atlanta, compared to 10-15 years ago. Many restaurants are offering Southern traditional recipes with a new/modern/different twist.

Key Ingredients in This Recipe

One of the things, I wanted to do, was creating a cornbread, that would be ‘as good as they make in the South. So I ate a lot and baked a lot. The oven baked cornbreads have my preference over the skillet baked ones and I like the plains ones over the ‘flavored’ ones. Much to my surprise, there is a big difference in the corn meal you use.

Never thought that could make such a difference. Check out this post to explore some of the differences. In the beginning of my ‘research’ I was using a brand I could buy here at our local grocery story, but since I am using stone-ground grits, I’ve seen the light, a yellow fluffy, warm light. I can eat this cornbread (recipe below) with every meal. The stone-ground grits really make a difference; it is coarser than what you usually find in the grocery stores and yet it is still light and fluffy.

You’ll find the complete list of ingredients and exact quantities in the recipe below.

• Cornmeal – stone-ground cornmeal give your cornbread texture and flavor.
• Flour – Needed to maintain a lightness in the cornbread.
• Sugar – Added for flavor and for adding air into the batter.
• Butter – Working together with the sugar to add air.
• Egg – it binds the ingredients together, improving structure and texture.
• Milk – add moisture. I use 1% milk, as that’s the milk in my house. Any type of milk can be used.
• Baking powder – leavening agent.
• Salt – I cannot do without salt in cooking or baking.

How to make Light Fluffy Cornbread

Step 1 – Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and grease a 13×9 inch baking pan with butter of baking spray with flour.

Step 2 – Combine softened butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Take you time doing this; a very important step in the process of a fluffy cake-like cornbread.

Step 3 – Combine wet and dry ingredients separately. Mix eggs and milk in one bowl and flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Mixing dry ingredients seems silly, but not doing so may create dry pockets of salt or baking powder, resulting in in the final baked good and ensures the batter will uniformly rise.

Step 4 – Add the dry mixture and when that is mixed, add the wet mixture to the creamed butter. When a liquid comes in contact with flour it activates gluten, starting to bond. To create a light and fluffy cornbread, we need to limit the time we mix. The more we mix the more we activate the gluten. Add the wet ingredients after the dry ingredients are well incorporated and mixed into the creamed butter.

Step 5 – Ready for baking. Pour the batter into baking pan and bake approx. 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Step 6 – Allow to cool a little and cut into squares.

Adapted from Taste of Home.