The Secret Behind America’s Test Kitchen Cornbread

Since reading Michael Pollan’s books, I do realize that American Agri-business-produced corn is a giant conspiracy to kill off people and destroy “the family farm.” This admission aside, reading his book, I realized just how much I love cornbread, and subsequently, ended up going on a search for the kind of cornbread worthy of my childhood memories.

This desire stems from my memories of chili dinners where neighborhood moms would bring freshly made cornbread and delight everyone with little rectangular yellow cake cutouts from either a cast iron skillet or a 9”x 9” baking dish. Slathering pats of butter and thick, viscous honey (the kind that the bees we do have left seem to not be producing anymore) makes me salivate slightly from the sides of my mouth. Like a big, dopey dog hanging his head out the window of a car drool a-flowin’, I deliver to you the discovery of the month: the great American cornbread secret.

Corn—actual room temperature—corn ground up in a food processor or mashed with a ricer. It’s probably not a particularly surprising secret, but the key ingredient missing from all those cornbread boxes—those just add an egg and water boxes of Jiffy cornbread—is that they lack corn in any other form than powder/flour. 

America’s Test Kitchen did a scientific study and figured it out—add in corn, and you add in the flavor you are otherwise missing from cornbread. 

Here’s how you make it:

Ingredients

1 ½ c unbleached white flour

1 c yellow cornmeal

2 t baking powder

¼ t baking soda

¾ t salt

¼ c brown sugar , packed

¾ c corn

1 c buttermilk

2 large eggs

8 T unsalted butter—melted and cooled slightly (1 stick))—I always use less, more like 4 T of butter.

Adjust oven rack to middle position. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or rub down with butter.

Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium-sized mixing bowl until combined, or you can sift these ingredients. If you mix your flours, adding in whole wheat (which, I warn you will change the yellow color to a lighter, browner color), be aware that the sifting will really help. Set aside.

In food processor or blender, purée the brown sugar, thawed corn kernels, and buttermilk until combined, about 5 seconds.

Add eggs and process until well combined (corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer. Using rubber spatula, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into well. Begin folding dry ingredients into wet, giving mixture only a few turns to barely, but thoroughly combine.

Add melted butter and continue folding until dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth surface with rubber spatula.

Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes.

Cool on wire rack for about 10 minutes. You might want to brown the top by turning up the heat to 425 for about 5 minutes. Best served warm with your favorite chili recipe (see future posts here for the best chili recipes); leftovers can be wrapped in foil and reheated in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Read more here.

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