Cornbread

I have posted this recipe in tandem with the recipe for Chilli con Carne as I think that this bread is the ideal thing to serve with it. This is an incredibly quick bread to make and is surprisingly light to eat. Some cornbreads are extremely crumbly and can disintegrate; leaving crumbs everywhere when you bite into them, but this one holds its shape well. The cornbread is also a wonderful accompaniment to tomato based or minestrone soups.

The cornbread is best eaten on the day that it is made, but it still tastes delicious the following day. Even though there is rarely any left over when I bake it, the cornbread makes great breadcrumbs which can be frozen and used at a later date to make stuffing or combined with suet, herbs, a little self-raising flour and some water to make dumplings to pop into a stew or casserole.

Ingredients:

190g plain flour

225g yellow cornmeal

Large pinch of salt

4tsp of baking powder

75g caster sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
330ml milk
35g butter, melted

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Line a 6cm deep 20cm square cake tin with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.
2. Place the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and baking powder in a large mixing bowl and stir together with a wooden spoon to mix the ingredients together.

3. Add the eggs, milk and melted butter and stir together quickly but lightly to make a relatively smooth batter. Do not over mix… it doesn’t matter if there are a few lumps.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes approximately until the cornbread is well risen, golden brown in colour and an inserted skewer comes out clean.

5. Cut into square chunks to serve.

Cuts in 16 squares.