Cornbread

I'm not very innovative with recipes.  Usually I just replicate something I find somewhere.  Usually that works fairly well; I can't think of very many disasters I've had in the kitchen.

One recipe that I have altered a little bit with surprising results is what I use for cornbread.  I found this one online:

2 cups cornmeal
2/3 cups flour (not specified, but I assume all-purpose or maybe bread)
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3-4 Tbsp of bacon drippings or oil

Bake at  400 for 25 min.


I modified it to use whole wheat flour and added 2 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten to help the rise (not necessary, but it seemed to be beneficial versus not using it). I also used 3 Tbsp. of sunflower oil, since I don't usually (or ever) have bacon drippings.  The whole wheat flour plus vital wheat gluten required more buttermilk, so I used 2 cups and baked it for 30 min at 400 degrees. I also used an 8" greased Pyrex dish instead of cast iron.  That all worked okay, then one day I made a mistake and dumped 1/2 Tbsp. of baking soda in the bowl.  I decided to essentially switch the soda and powder, and put 3/4 tsp. baking powder in the mix, added a tsp of white vinegar, and kept everything else the same.

It worked.  It was good enough that I made the switch permanently, though I no longer add the vinegar--it does not seem to be necessary.  The flavor is slightly different, but it's fine (as far as I'm concerned).  Plus it rises more when baking and seems to stay moist longer.  It takes me a while to go through the whole dish of cornbread, and the original recipe got rather dry.  The new one is not so affected.  Adding more salt, 1 tsp total, will make it seem moister still.  When I have baked it for others, they liked it saltier. I don't use 1 tsp when baking just for myself, however.

The pictures show the process with Blue Clarage cornmeal (above is two cups of cornmeal; below is the finished product).