Cornbread

I made this classic American dish to go with a slow cooked beef brisket chilli Lu made for dinner with friends this afternoon.  None of us had ever tried it before, but we all agreed it looked great and just as you’d imagine it – I based it on a Martha Stewart recipe and so I think it must be as close to as ‘classic’ cornbread as you can get.  I have to confess though, that we all found eating it with savoury chilli pretty bizarre, as it’s as sweet as cake!  I think it must be a US thing – like maple syrup with bacon for breakfast – but we all agreed a far more British way of eating it would be for pudding with custard!

Ingredients

3 large eggs

4 oz unsalted butter, melted and cooled

8 fl. oz buttermilk

8 oz cornmeal

5 oz plain flour

2 oz caster sugar

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and grease and line a 7 x 10 inch square baking tin.
2. In a jag, whisk together the eggs, melted butter and buttermilk.
3. In a large bowl, sift in the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and bicarb.  Stir to combine.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk mixture, stirring until just combined.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let cool in the tin on a wire rack, before cutting into squares to serve.