Skillet Cornbread

I haven’t made cornbread in almost 20 years.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe I just had too many dry, boring corn breads back then – who can remember?

Last night I was making soup and I wanted something to go with it, so I found this recipe in the same cookbook as the soup, Share by Adriennede Francesco, and whipped up a batch in my cast-iron frying pan.  To tell the truth, it was really the idea of baking something in my frying pan, handed down to me from my Oma, that got me onto this.  Fry the onion, bake, and then serve it in the same dish, and it stays hot for a long time.  Triple win! Plus it’s got corn kernels in it, so it’s got a nice bite to it.

Serve it up with a little butter – magical!

What you need:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 & 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 & 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon liquid honey
• 1 cup canned corn (or frozen, but I prefer canned – the kernels pop in your mouth when you eat them!)
• 1/4 cup fresh chives or green onions

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F.
2. Heat a 10-inch cast-iron over medium-high heat and add the oil, then the onions.  Cook for about 5 minutes or until the onions are soft.
3. While the onions are cooking stir the cornmeal, flour, baking power and salt together in a bowl.
4. Stir the buttermilk, eggs, butter and honey together in another bowl.  Pour this onto the dry ingredients and sti until it is just mixed.. Stir in the corn and chives.
5. Pour the batter into the hot frying pan on top of the onions, which you have previously dispersed evenly over the surface of the pan.
6. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes or until the top its golden brown.  My convection oven cooked it very quickly, and I had to rotate the pan half way through baking
7. Cut into wedges and serve with butter.