Bread & rolls
Skillet cornbread with buttermilk
Golden cornbread with a thin crust underneath.
- Total time
- 55 min
- Servings / pieces
- 8
- Topic
- Bread & rolls
This cornbread is a quickly mixed side bread rather than a kneaded yeast loaf. Fine cornmeal supplies colour and flavour, while some wheat flour holds the wedges together. Avoid coarse polenta granules, which can remain gritty with the same timing. Preheating the skillet creates a firmer base. Its handle remains hot during filling and serving even when it looks harmless outside the oven. Serve wedges with beans, stews or roasted vegetables rather than trying to use this crumbly bread for thin sandwiches.
Method
Step by step
- 01
Prepare the skillet
Heat the oven to 200°C conventional. Warm the skillet with 15 g butter inside until melted.
- 02
Mix dry ingredients
Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
- 03
Mix wet ingredients
Melt remaining 45 g butter. Whisk eggs, buttermilk and lukewarm melted butter.
- 04
Combine
Briefly stir wet into dry ingredients. Carefully remove the hot skillet and spread its butter around the base. Immediately add batter.
- 05
Bake
Bake for 22–28 minutes until set in the middle and a skewer emerges without raw batter. Rest ten minutes, then cut eight wedges.
Times are a guide. Your hob, oven and ingredients affect the result; use the cooking cues as well as the clock.
Choosing cornmeal
Fine cornmeal and cornflour or cornstarch are different products. Starch alone does not give the same flavour or crumb. Wheat flour is deliberately included, so this bread is not gluten-free; it is a corn-and-wheat quick bread.
Warmth and storage
The crumb is still soft when lukewarm but cuts more neatly than straight from the oven. Cover leftovers and warm individual wedges briefly. A little butter or a savoury spread makes a useful accompaniment without requiring extra sweetness. Place the skillet around the middle shelf. Too close to the upper heating element, the surface can look finished while the base remains wet. Take the skewer check from the centre rather than testing only a quickly baked edge piece.
Kitchen questions
One more question?
Can I use a cake tin?
Yes, a greased metal tin of similar size; the base crust will differ.
Why does it crumble?
Cornbread is more fragile than yeast bread. Cool a little and avoid very thin slices.
Can I soak the cornmeal first?
Do not rest the completed batter because its baking powder is already working. Mix and bake promptly with this fine-cornmeal version. A lengthy soaking method needs differently organised liquid and leavening.
