How To Make Cornbread

How To Make Cornbread

[Music] hi everyone I’m Chef Suzy with this caffier online Welcome to our live session this morning today we’re going to be making some cornbread this is a simple quick bread it’s quick it’s easy you’re going to have a lot of fun with it we we’re going to be making a very basic recipe and what’s nice about these basic recipes is you can add so many additions to them so many different types of flavors and textures let’s go ahead and take a look at the bread itself and then we’ll talk about some additions okay so for the cornbread quick bread means it’s leavened with a chemical leavener we’re not going to be doing a yeast bread where we’re going to be kneading and the yeast has to grow and there’s a process with the fermentation and the proofing this is quick chemical leavers in my Bowl here with my dry ingredients I have my allpurpose flour I’ve got my cornmeal I have baking powder I have baking soda and I have a little bit of salt and the these are the only dry ingredients that you’re going to need so the chemical leavers being the baking powder and the baking soda the baking soda is going to be activated by buttermilk that we’re going to be adding into the formula and the buttermilk is acidic and baking soda needs something acidic to activate it whereas the baking powder it just needs some Li liquid so these are um some really easy ways that you can test to see if your baking soda and your baking powder are still active I usually keep mine for about a year there’s usually a date on the label but they do become inactive so to test your baking powder you can just add a little bit of warm water to it and see if it bubbles up and the baking soda add something acidity like uh maybe a little bit of vinegar so um the acidity is going to um make the baking soda bubble so that’s going to activate it so that’s the role that the buttermilk is going to play in the formula we’ve also got a little bit of egg and I’m using honey for the sweetener you can use granulated sugar but I chose to use a little bit of honey okay so this is our basic recipe so we’re going to go ahead and make this and then we’ll talk about some more additions okay so we’re just going to be mixing our dry ingredients and please let me know if you have any questions and like I said this is basic this is simple and you’re going to enjoy your quick bread so I just want to make sure that those are mixed up really well so I’ve got my buttermilk here with an egg in here and this um this recipe is going to make 1 8 in pan and we’re just kind of breaking up our egg we don’t really want to add much air to this and like I said please let me know if you have any questions okay so next we just add our wet ingredients [Music] in moving a little while and you can easily mix this by hand you don’t have to put it on your mixer you want to be careful I’m adding the honey now you want to be careful that you’re not um over mixing this so just mix it until the ingredients are Incorporated and then lastly we’re going to be running in a little bit of butter I’m using a whisk you can use your um rubber spatula just be careful not to mix too much some cornbread recipes are going to be very loose like this one and you’re going to see some that are thick as well and um you’re going to be finding uh good recipes and okay recipes and really good recipes so remember that you’re always going to be hanging on to those really good recipes and I like my cornbread recipes to be a little bit thinner I don’t like them so thick because it’s just um it’s a lot of moisture when it’s thinner and that means it’s going to be a little bit moist U more moist and a little bit more tasty bread so we’re just going to add our melted butter and what I’m going to do is I’m just going to be finishing this off with my r rub spatula because I’ve done quite a bit of mixing so far and I want to make sure that I’m not over mixing this and please let me know if you have any questions so just mix this until your ingredients are while Incorporated okay so this is our basic cornbread quick bread see how quick it was to make okay so this mixture is going to make one8 in pan so I sprayed it with some uh pan spray and I always put paper in the bottom to ensure that this releases so we’re just going to put this in our pan and we are going to be baking this at 350° for about 30 to 40 minutes it’s going to turn a little bit golden brown on top and it’ll be ready to go and you can test the top to see if it’s done you can also put a topick in the center okay so now that we have our basic cornbread let’s talk about some variations to this cornbread now that we know how to make it so for additions for this size um recipe for an 8 in pan your additions can be about 3/4 of a cup but you have to be careful with what you’re adding so some additions could be some whole kernel corn you can also add some cream corn that’s going to be a little wet it’s going to have a little bit of hydration if you’re adding cream corn I recommend cutting back a little a little bit on the buttermilk so your um your cornbread doesn’t get too wet and it’s still going to rise properly you can also add um cooked bacon cook it crisp and crumble it up or chop it up that’s a nice addition to the cornbread you can add your favorite cheese be careful when adding cheeses don’t add too much they have a lot of fat in them they have a lot of oil in them and it could make your cornbread just kind of a greasy mess be careful when putting cheese on the top too because it can become overly Brown if you put cheese on the top you see it getting too dark and it’s not done yet just put a piece of oil or a piece of parchment on top to sew down the Browning you can also add onions you can add um any type of pepper you can add the jalapeno pepper for a little bit of hotness I recommend cutting those pieces very small and you can also add green and red peppers for some nice color onions you can add red add onions white onions and um even the green onion is going to add some nice color to this you can also add um you know things like cranberries and orange that’s really nice addition to the cornbread and apples are nice too you can add berries if you’re adding berries you can add a little bit of Basil that’s a nice touch too and you can also add Rosemary another nice thing to add to the cornbread is uh sausage that’s a nice addition too whether it’s a breakfast SAU or an Italian sausage so really the additions are Limitless and um just you know your favorite ingredients you can add to your cornbread and um you’re going to add them in after you um do your final mixing maybe after you have a few little pieces uh a little bit of flour that’s not quite mixed in all the way then add your addition this way you’re not going to be over mixing your cornbread because that will cause dryness because you still have the allpurpose flour which which has gluten in it which is the plant protein and that could cause some dryness if you’re over mixing but definitely have lots of fun with your horn bread be careful with some of those additions like the cheeses and the berries too if you’re using fresh berries um I would use rasberries or blueberries you could do a blueberry lemon that would be nice too but be careful with any wetter type of fruits because that’s going to cause some hydration it could also cause some uh little bit of pocketing too so I would stay away from strawberries and uh wet fruits like that but um definitely have a lot of fun with your cornbread I want to tell you about um something that I make with my cornbread I make a blueberry cornbread I make a dessert out of it and I top it with some whipped cream and some caramel corn to reinforce the corn flavor so that’s an idea too so really Limitless and please let me know um if you have any questions on the cornbread and also what you’re doing and what kind of cornbread you’re making so knowing all that let’s set this aside and we’re going to take a look at some cornbread that I made earlier okay so it’s got a nice golden brown color to the top you can see a little bit of golden brown on the sides and with the cornbread um typically the crust is going to be a little bit crispy if you baked it fresh and your crust is very crispy and you’re having a hard time cutting it and it’s breaking on you cut it upside down and you’ll have much better luck with it so that’s just a little tip from the kitchen so let’s go ahead and take this out of the pan okay so I always put a little bit of parchment on the bottom of my cornbread on the bottom of um my cakes and this way it ensures that there isn’t going to be any sticking if you’re serving it in the pan you’re going to want to stay away from um the paper in the bottom okay so here we go we have nice cornbread let’s go ahead and cut this you can trim the edges with the cornbread if I’m doing it kind of rustic I’m going to do a little plate up with some chili I’m going to keep these ends on here because I think they look nice so um the cornbread it um it cuts easy once it’s cooled you’re going to want to make sure sure that you cool this all the way it’s a little hard to cut when it’s warm and like I said if you’re having a little trouble and your top is being a little bit stubborn and cracking on you then go ahead and cut it upside down and you’ll see a really big difference so I’ve got some nice siiz pieces here and what we’re going to do is we’re going to do a little bit of a plate up with some chili cuz um corn bread and chili they kind of go together like uh bread and butter right so let’s go ahead and and do a little plate up with our cornbread and chili so there’s lots of additions for the chili that you’re you know you can put in your cornbread as well Peppers cheese onions all that good stuff okay so I’ve got a little cup of chili and we’re just going to put a little cornbread on our plate this is a nice way to serve the cornbread with chili goes well with soup um you can even serve it on your its own making a little bit um of a sweeter cornbread with cranberry orange that I mentioned or even any of the additions let’s go ahead and finish this off maybe we’ll finish off our chili with some crackers a little bit of cheese and here you have a nice dish your cornbread was quick easy to make you saw how long it took me to make the mixture not very long at all goes in the OV oven for in between 30 and 40 minutes leave it cool off a little bit and then it’s ready to be served let’s go ahead and put a little cilantro finish off our chili and then maybe we’ll decorate our plate a little bit here too okay so I have some um I have some cherry peppers that are marinated and these are really pretty this is a nice red color this is a nice addition to this plate so like I said Peppers go nice with the cornbread and um you know a lot of fruits go too as well as some of our spices so let’s go ahead and put a little bit of jalapeno on here too since we all know that we like that with our cornbread and we’ll put a little bit on our chili and to mantro is a great addition too for a spice for an herb and there we go we have a nice chili and cornbread so thanks for joining us today and I’ll see you next time have fun exploring different flavors and textures with your cornbread and please let me know how you’re doing and some of the flavors that you’re making goodbye and we’ll see you next [Music] week [Music]

FULL RECIPE BELOW

The cornerstone of American cuisine, corn bread has been around for almost as long as the United States itself! Learn how to make to make it in this video tutorial!

CORN BREAD RECIPE: http://www.escoffieronline.com/how-to-make-corn-bread/

Ingredients
¾ cup flour
¾ cup corn meal
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg
1 ¾ cup buttermilk
4 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp honey

Directions
1. Mix the dry ingredients and set aside. Mix the buttermilk and egg and add to the dry mixture. Add the honey and, once the mixture is almost incorporated, add the melted butter and mix.
2. Pour into a greased 8” square pan which has been lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown in color.

Corn , onions, peppers, cooked bacon, berries and cheese can be added to the bread about 1 cup total.

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