Cornbread

By gtbalm

*TIP
Cornbread is delicious eaten when it's still warm, but it doesn't keep well. It is easy to prepare, so try and make it on the day you want to eat it. Any leftovers work really well used as part of a stuffing for a roast chicken.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing
• 2 corn cobs, approx. 7 oz (200g) weight of kernels
• 1 cup fine yellow cornmeal or polenta
• 3/4 cup white bread flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Grease a 9 in flameproof cast-iron pan, or similar sized loose-bottomed cake pan, and place it in the oven. Cut away the kernels from the cobs.

Sift the cornmeal or polenta, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Add the corn and stir until evenly blended. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, butter and milk.

Pour three-quarters of the milk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until well combined. Add the remaining milk mixture and stir just until blended, with no patches of flour remaining.

Carefully take the hot pan out of the oven and pour in the batter, using a spatula to help you get it all into the pan, and working quickly so as not to lose too much heat; the fat in the pan should sizzle.

Quickly brush the top with butter. Be as even as possible so that the surface of the cornbread is protected from the fierce heat of the oven.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.

When it is ready, the bread should shrink from the sides of the pan and a skewer inserted into the center should emerge clean. Let the cornbread cool slightly. Serve, in wedges, with soup.