A good batch of cornbread is rich, moist, tangy, gritty and deliciously corn-y. It is great beside a bowl of chili, toasted with butter, topped with cheese or served up for breakfast. Here is a traditional buttermilk cornbread recipe with plenty of options for fixings.
Cornbread muffins
I’m always on the hunt for a lunchtime snack that is filling and sugar-free. Cornbread is a great solution, except for one problem, day-old cornbread can be rather dry. This is why I always add some cornbread fixings into every batch. The added moistness and flavour will keep your cornbread from getting stale.
Presoaking cornmeal improves the flavour and texture of the cornbread. Because I am a fan of all things fermented… I always pre-ferment cornmeal for a least 8 hours, and sometimes up to 24 hours to improve the digestibility of the corn.
Here’s a picture of my fermented cornmeal. You can see that all the buttermilk has been absorbed by the cornmeal and that there are air pockets from the fermentation.
Cornbread with Fixings
Cornbread is rich, moist, tangy, gritty and deliciously corn-y. It is great beside a bowl of chili, topped with cheese or served up for breakfast. See the bottom of the post for some cornbread fixings.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Fermented
- Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup cornmeal
- 2 cups buttermilk (see notes for options)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp salt
- Oil (to grease your pan)
- Fixings (see bottom of the post for ideas)
Instructions
- Mix the cornmeal and buttermilk in a glass container and allow to soak for at least a half an hour or up to 24 hours.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients.
- Pour into a well oiled pan and bake at 450 F for 20-25 min. It should be cooked through and starting to brown on the edges.
Notes
- Though buttermilk is traditional in cornbread, you could substitute with milk kefir or yogurt.
- I bake my cornbread in a traditional cast-iron skillet
, but you could also use a square glass baking dish
or a muffin tin
. Just reduce the baking time to 15 minutes if you’re making muffins.
, but you could also use a 
or a muffin tin
. Just reduce the baking time to 15 minutes if you’re making muffins.Keywords: gluten free, cheese, sun-dried tomato, bacon, onions, cracklings, chipotle
Fixings
Here are a few of my favourite cornbread fixings. All of them are delicious on their own, but try mixing a few of them together for a really amazing cornbread.
- Mix in up to 1/2 cup of grated cheese.
- Finely dice 2 tbsp of sun dried tomato.
- Add a 1/4 cup of diced spring onion.
- Add 1/4 cup of bacon bits or cracklings. Fry the bacon or crackling in the pan before adding in the cornbread. The extra fat is delicious.
- Finely dice 1 tbsp of chipotle peppers or pickled jalapeno peppers. Or if you like it hot, add up to 1/4 cup for a really fiery cornbread.
Great recipe, love it, will definitely try this at home. Thanks for posting.
★★★★★
This recipe looks so good and simple! I wonder what this tastes like. I can’t wait to try this tomorrow. Thanks a lot for sharing this recipe!
★★★★★