I love a good cornbread. I prefer mine on the sweet side, so don’t even bother to give me anything that’s bland, dry or crumbly. I know, I know the traditional southern cornbread is just that – especially when it’s served with a hearty chili…but really, don’t bother because it will most definitely be placed into the leftover receptacle and I hate when that happens.
In my travels, I’ve found a few places that make and sell the perfect cornbread. I’ve seen it baked into mini loaf and muffin shapes but the shape doesn’t matter – it’s the taste and the texture that keeps me coming back for more. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want it as sweet as a cake, but I do like enough sugar that will compliment the inherent sweetness of the corn. I’ve come across cornbread made with just a blend of finely ground cornmeal and flour, and others that have a little of the coarse cornmeal added in, and then I’ve had some with pieces of freshly steamed corn folded in…all are delicious, it just depends on what main dish you will be serving it with.
This time around I wanted to add in some delicious jalapeño pepper jelly, which is so delicious that I can eat it with a spoon. Thankfully, there are lots of great recipes for it out there, or you can purchase it at local farmers markets and in many grocery stores.
So off I went to find the perfect recipe and I found one on a blog called confessions of a milkman’s wife. Not only did it look like what I was searching for but it had the right amount of sugar in the recipe, so I was willing to try it. I did change a few things – I added some vanilla and instead of using 2/3 cup of vegetable oil plus 1/3 cup of melted butter, I opted to use 1 cup of vegetable oil instead just to keep things simple.
I’m so glad I tried this because it was absolutely delicious. The batter is very thin, so don’t try to bake anything into the batter or it will sink to the bottom and create a mess. I simply modified the recipe for sweetness and added the entire jar of jelly into the batter, and it worked perfectly. It was so moist and tender and I could cut it into beautiful wedges for serving. Try it with the jam or try it without…either way you will truly love this.
Sweet Cornbread
1 cup cornmeal (6 oz)
3 cups flour (15 oz)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons baking powder
4 eggs (7-7.2 oz)
4 teaspoons of vanilla
1-1/3 cups sugar (12 oz)
2 Tablespoons honey or corn syrup **important make sure to use one or the other
1 cup vegetable oil (7 oz)
2 ½ cups milk (1 lb 4 oz by weight)
Sift together the first four ingredients in a medium sized bowl. In a separate bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients and then whisk them into the dry ingredients until there are no lumps. Pour this into a 14” x 14” square pan that has been sprayed with a good pan release and lined with a parchment paper. If you are adding in some pepper jelly, you need to make a few adjustments in the recipe. For one jar of pepper jelly (I think it was 8 oz), I cut back the sugar to 1 cup and did not add the honey. I added the entire jar of pepper jelly into the batter and whisked it in, then poured the batter into the paper lined baking pan. Bake this in a preheated 350°F oven for 30-40 minutes until the cake tests clean with a toothpick. Allow this to cool completely then slice and enjoy!
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