COUNTRY CORN BREAD

This is a recipe for cornbread that we used at The Caledon Inn when I worked there many years ago. We used this bread as the base for Eggs Benedict rather than the traditional English muffin. "Eggs Caledon" was the house Eggs Benny and it consisted of a grilled cornbread base, grilled peameal bacon, grilled asparagus, a poached egg and Sauce Hollandaise. It was a perfect dish because the saltiness of the bacon was countered by the sweetness of the bread and the zest of the hollandaise.

At that time in my cooking career (I was just starting out) I was in charge of baking the cornbread every Sunday morning for brunch. I had a strung baking ability and the chef put me in charge of that task. I don't think he really enjoyed baking anyway. Anyway...I have always loved this cornbread and I make it often at home. It is great as is or garnished with diced red pepper and Jalapeno.

Here are the ingredients. Notice the buttermilk in the background. Buttermilk is used to add flavor and, more importantly, moisture to baked goods. Cornbread can tend to be a bit on the dry side (who are we kidding...it can choke a horse) and the buttermilk adds plenty of moisture to this recipe.

The cornmeal is allowed to soak in the buttermilk for about 15 minutes. This allows the cornmeal to soften.

The dry ingredients are combined...

...and mixed thoroughly.

The eggs are added and mixed in thoroughly.

The melted butter is added and stirred in thoroughly.

The batter is poured into greased and floured loaf pans and the loafs are baked at 325 for an hour.

And presto! The loafs are ready!

There's a nice, golden loaf hot out of the oven and all it needs is to be sliced and slathered with sweet butter! Ooooh yeah!

Cornmeal Bread (yields 3 loafs)

Ingredients:

4 cups cornmeal
4 cups buttermilk

6 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
9 eggs
2 1/4 cups butter

Method:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 3 loaf mans and set aside until needed.
• Combine cornmeal and buttermilk in a large bowl and let set for 15 minutes.
  
• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Mix well.
• Melt butter in microwave or on stove top and set aside until needed.
• Pour cornmeal/buttermilk mixture into the large bowl with the combined dry ingredients. Stir well until thoroughly combined.
• Add eggs and mix thoroughly
• Add melted butter and mix thoroughly.
• Divide batter in equal amounts into loaf pans
• Place loaf pans on middle rack of oven and bake for approximately one hour. After one hour, test doneness with a wooden skewer by inserting it into the center of one loaf. If skewer comes out wet, bake longer and test again until the skewer comes out dry.
• Allow to partially cool before eating.