Pantry supper - Granny Bates Cornbread

Pantry supper - Granny Bates Cornbread

     Cornbread has been a staple of my diet for as long as I can remember.  My parents are from southeastern Kentucky.  In the early 1960s, the moved to eastern Indiana and put down roots.  But, "home" was, and for them always will be, the mountains.  Any school break, funeral, or sickness we were on the road down home.  I am glad for those miles.  Many treasured memories that modern kids miss if parents let a DVD player, DS game system, iPad, iPod, or cell phone 'keep the kid busy'.  I highly recommend road trips with disconnect agendas to allow your kids to get to know you better. You will be amazed and even shocked at all the beans a kid will spill about friends and family and hopes and dreams from the back seat of vehicle while they think you are only sort of paying attention.

Pantry supper - Granny Bates Cornbread

     This ain't a "hoosier-cake" as I call midwestern yellow and sweet cornbread.  This is poor mans bread that some call hot water cornbread.  It's cheap and will make you lick your lips all night dreaming of another slice with butter melting on it.  My parents love it as a dessert... crumbled up cornbread into a cup of buttermilk or even milk if you don't have a taste for buttermilk.

Pantry supper - Granny Bates Cornbread

Granny Bates Cornbread

     Here's the tricky part that can mess folks up on the final result... it a 1:2 ratio of one part self-rising white flour to 2 parts self-rising white corn meal mix... one part flour to two parts meal.

Ingredients to make a medium size pone of cornbread in a cast iron skillet:
2 cups self rising white corn meal mix
1 cup self rising white flour
4 pinches of salt (that's how I measured it when I paid attention this time, lol)
2 pinches of pepper (again, that's how I measured it when I paid attention this time, lol)

Pantry supper - Granny Bates Cornbread

     Preheat oven to 350 F.  Medium to large cast iron skillet, gently wipe interior with a thin layer of oil as when seasoning it (the cleanup will be so much easier if you do this), and wipe one more time with a clean paper towel to assure excess oil removed.  Put the skillet in the oven to preheat while you assemble the cornbread ingredients. Combine all dry ingredients.  Now, here's your challenge... getting the right amount of water into the batter.  So, start with 1/2 a cup and add 1/4 cup at a time until it seems the consistency of thick pancake batter.  Some folks swear hot water helps, I haven't noticed a big difference.  Stir well a couple of times until all ingredients are mixed, and then let set about 5 minutes at least.
     Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven.  Stir the mix one time well, then pour into the hot skillet quickly.  Put the pan in the oven.  Turn up the heat to 400 F and let it bake about 35 minutes, then continue baking until the crust is the desired dark crusty crust you prefer (one hour at most).  Hey, if it burns somewhere and no one in the house likes that... just cut that part off and add to the compost pile.  I actually prefer a crust a darker and crunchier than noted in the pictures.  I am a crust loving girl.  Some folks like the inside stuffings.  You decide for yourself.

Pantry supper - Granny Bates Cornbread

     If you flip the pone of bread out of the skillet while hot from the oven onto a large plate... your skillet should be clean enough to fill with a batch of brownie mix to bake since the oven is already hot.  I might have done that and loved it. The Boys like that use of efficiency.  Same on the brownie, flip out onto a plate and clean up should be just a wiping out of the skillet.

Brownies baked after I turned out a pone of cornbread from my cast iron skillet. 

If you try it... leave me a review.