Cornbread

I've been making cornbread often this winter to go with all of our beans recipes (we've been eating a lot of beans, yum!) -- and other recipes, too. Plus I like it just as a snack to munch on. I'm good at munching.

Here's my cornbread recipe and how I make it:

1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup whole wheat flour
Baking powder (I use 4 tsp) and salt (about ½ tsp)
2 eggs
Water/milk (liquid) – about 1 cup – add a little extra if batter is too thick
A little applesauce (2 tbsp?)
2 tbsp – ¼ cup oil (I don't measure I just pour)
Optional: a little honey

Whenever possible, I put my cornmeal on to soak the night before. I put my cup of cornmeal in my mixing bowl with enough lime water to moisten the meal. Then the Nourishing Traditions book says to add the flour the next morning with additional water or buttermilk (or I've used yogurt sometimes) and let it sit and soak during the day before making the cornbread that night. I’ve tried that a few times but I’m not as comfortable with that step yet. Lately I’ve just been soaking the corn. I still have to work on the part about soaking the wheat flour.

Lime water is just pickling lime (I got mine at my grocery store) added to water; I mixed it up in a pitcher that now stays really handy for me to have ready whenever I make my cornbread. Once I’ve learned about this I started noticing several products made with corn that say “treated with lime” – like tortilla chips, etc. I did see at my grocery store this past week a Mexican-type corn meal that said it was already treated with lime. The cornmeal I have right now came from Wild Oats Market in Little Rock, but when I run out of it I’ll probably buy that Mexican corn meal.

I make my cornbread in my cast iron skillet. When I get ready to make the bread, I turn the oven on to 400 degrees and then put a pat of butter (1/2 tbsp?) in my skillet, and put the skillet in the oven to melt the butter. By the time I get ready to pour the bread into the pan, and sometimes a little before, the butter is melted in the pan. I rotate the pan around to coat the bottom with butter.

Mix up your batter and pour it into your hot skillet. You can let it rest for a few minutes before putting it in the oven; I’m not sure how much of a difference it makes with the rising if you do let it rest or don’t. Bake the cornbread for about 25 minutes. That’s all there is to it! Enjoy!