hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with cast-iron cornbread that's
right there's not many things easier to make than cornbread which is why it's
such a perfect choice when you need to bring something to do a barbecue or a
cookout oh and by the way if you stop watching the video because you don't
have a cast-iron pan you should start watching again because
you do not need a cast-iron pan to make this but anyway like I was saying this
is the perfect thing to bring to a barbecue because it's simple to make
everybody loves it and it's way way cheaper than bringing meat although that
last reason for bringing it we should probably keep to ourselves but anyway
let's go ahead and get started by melting a dangerously large amount of
butter in this cast-iron skillet that we have set over medium heat and the game
plan here is once it's melts we're going to use half in the batter and then leave
half in the pan to bake the cornbread in so all we need to do is wait for this to
melt and then simply turn off the heat and reserve it till needed and then what
we'll do once our butters melted is move on to this extremely simple batter which
we will start with some stone ground cornmeal or at least that's how it was
sold to me I would love to tour one of these cornmeal factories to see if
they're really using stones I have a feeling that's just an expression but
anyway to our possiblys don't ground cornmeal we will add some salt as well
as a little shake of cayenne just a little shake and then we're also gonna
want to add some kind of sweetener here which is usually white sugar or
sometimes brown sugar but I really do prefer honey I just think it gives it a
little more interesting flavor plus keeps the local bees busy and then after
our honey we will plop in a couple large eggs
I've always felt plop is an underrated food verb and then after the eggs we're
going to need some kind of dairy product which could be many things and my case
is going to be buttermilk and then once that's in we'll go ahead and give this a
quick mix before adding the rest of the ingredients and by the way how much milk
or buttermilk you add at this point is going to determine the final texture of
your cornbread all right since I don't really like dry corn breads I'm gonna
use a good amount here but if you do prefer something a little drier and
crumbly you can definitely cut that back and I will be touching on that in the
blog post and then once that's combined we'll go ahead and add some self-rising
flour which as you all know is just regular flour with some baking powder
milled into it the reason I like to add this after
everything else is mixed is because the more you mix this white flour the more
gluten you develop and if you over mix it your Brack and get a little tough and
chewy so by mixing everything first and then this at the end I think it might
help us avoid that issue so a pretty smart strategy if I do say so myself
unless of course you forget to mix in half the butter which I did but that's
okay these things happen so I went ahead and added exactly half that melted
butter from the pan and don't measure just I it and I thought by spooning it
over like this I would minimize the amount of mix he needed and I went ahead
and stirred that in own in case you're wondering which you really should be we
could have added half our melted butter right when we added our buttermilk that
probably would have been the best time and not to spoil the ending but this
really didn't have any negative effect and then what we'll do once all this is
combined is grab a spatula and transfer that into our cast iron pan which
theoretically contains half the butter we melted oh and I should mention you
can actually make everything up to this point and then just wrap this tighten
foil and then bring it to the barbecue uncooked and finish it near or on the
fire so just a little something to keep in mind but anyway we'll go ahead and
transfer our batter in at which point we will very carefully transfer this into
the center of a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes or so or until it looks
like this and if you want you could test this with a toothpick and it should come
out clean but you know what I didn't even bother cuz I knew this was done and
if you're thinking hey it looks like you have some burn spots those are actually
milk solids from the butter that have formed some caramelized crumbs on the
top and if those bother you and/or you're going to take some pictures you
go ahead and brush those off although they really don't provide any off taste
so this really is 100% unnecessary and then whether you're Crum brushing or not
you should probably let this cool down a little bit before you slice it
alright warms good in room temp skid but I'm not a big fan of cutting baked goods
while they're piping hot but anyway you decide you are for all the Jason Bourne
a blend eat your bread made from corn but personally I do let it cool down
which this has so I'm gonna go ahead and cut a piece and as usual the first piece
is the hardest to cut without screwing it up but as you can see it actually
came out pretty well although it did kind of crack in half into two pieces
which I took as a sign D one of them that my friends was a great couple bites
of cornbread all right it was tender and delicate without being too crumbly and
sort of dense and moist without being too heavy and as promised the tank from
the buttermilk balances the sweetness of the honey perfectly so I really do love
this version and I deemed it worthy to sit next to some smoked brisket and
baked beans and greens and even though it already had almost too much butter I
decided to spread a little more on the top as tradition dictates and yes if I
was smart I would warm that back up so I could get the always provocative melting
butter money shot but still even cold with maybe too much butter it still was
magnificent and I should add is easy to adapt all right if I'm serving this with
some barbecue maybe I do a more savory version that's a little bit on the
moister side whereas if I'm gonna serve it with a spicy chili I might do a drier
version that has a little more sweetness to balance the spice but regardless
whether you make it as is or tweak it to your tastes I really do hope you give
this a try soon so head over to food wishes comm for all the ingredient
amounts of more info as usual and as always enjoy
you