This recipe is Lane’s favorite. Whenever I make this, he eats almost half the pan by himself that night and any leftovers he eats the next day.
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 white or yellow corn meal
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
If you want to make an excellent quick bread of any kind, the key is to mix the dry and wet ingredients separately. Then mix them together quickly and briefly. If you are one of those people who is beating out every lump in the corn bread or pancake or muffin batter you will have tough muffins or pancakes if you do this. You want to make sure all the dry ingredients are incorporated but don’t get rid of all the lumps. Scrape the bowl to get all the dry stuff off the bottom, but don’t beat it in. Fold it gently!
I ALWAYS double this recipe and bake it in two 9×9″ glass pans. If you don’t feed a “Lane” in your family that will eat half of your cornbread, you are probably safe not doubling it. A word of caution: I try doubling it and putting it into a 9X13 pan, and it doesn’t do very well. So either stick to the square pans, or comment and tell me how to fix it, because baking it for the same 35 minutes does not work. I bake it for 45, but then the edges are too dry.
Scrape the batter into the greased dish of your choice, and bake for 35 minutes at 350 F. Serve piping hot smothered in butter, pear honey or your choice of home made jam. If I am making jambalaya or some other southern dish, corn bread on the side is a must. *Disclaimer – Eric, Deborah’s husband, is pretty much appalled at the notion of a “sweet” cornbread. It’s totally un-authentic as far as real Southerners go. We don’t care in this house. We loves it anyway!