Whenever I am in NYC I always search for the restaurants that focus on Southern cuisine. One item in particular that I always look forward to eating at these establishments is cornbread. Imagine hot cornbread with melted butter and honey. Delicious!

Here is my first attempt at making cornbread.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

You can substitute the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour, oil for butter, powdered buttermilk instead of liquid (add the necessary water to the powder), instead of buttermilk use regular milk with a splash of vinegar.

Healthier version:
Use Splenda instead of sugar, whole-wheat flour instead of all-purpose, Smart Balance Light instead of butter, and sour skim milk instead of buttermilk.

You can also throw in some frozen corn or corn from a can if you want that added corn taste. You can also add more sugar if you want cake-like sweet cornbread. I did not want my cornbread to be too sweet so I kept the sugar to 1/2 a cup. I am not a health nut so buttermilk, regular sugar and butter was fine for me. Tweak the recipe to make it suit you.

I love this recipe. The cornbread turned out moist, not too sweet, and you can certainly taste the corn. For my next attempt I want my cornbread to be even more moist; almost cake-like, so I will be adding 1/4 cup of cream to my recipe. Hope it turns out good. Fingers crossed.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease pan.

I used a pot to mix all my ingredients.

1) Melt butter in pot. 2) Remove from heat and stir in sugar. 3) Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. 4) Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture in pot.

Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain.

Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Let it cook for 20 to 25 minutes. Insert toothpick in the middle of the bread and if it comes out clean, then it is ready.

Cut out a piece for serving. It freezes great. Remove from the pan after cooling, wrap it up and pop it in the freezer.

I used a larger pan so the bread was not very thick. Note that this bread does not rise.

Golden, crispy exterior.

Golden brown crust.

Try it for breakfast with butter and maple syrup or honey!

Enjoy! 🙂