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I don’t bake or eat quick breads that often, so it has taken a while for me to get around posting one of my favorites, cornbread. When I discovered blue corn flour (finely ground cornmeal) back in the 1990s, I went nuts making cornbread…then stopped for some reason. I think the following recipe has a good balance of corn nuttiness, tenderness, and moisture. This is a great companion for chili, yet also good topped with butter, or butter and honey.

I used lowfat milk and lowfat yogurt because that’s usually what I have on hand. Many similar recipes use buttermilk, so feel free to substitute that for the yogurt. If you don’t have or use the convection setting on your oven, preheat to 425ºF degrees instead of 400ºF.

I haven’t tried making this with cheese or added veggies like sweetcorn or chiles. Something for future experiments!

Update 2 October 2015: I’ve made a “lower carb” version of this by using 7 1/2 to 8 ounces almond flour/meal, 3 to 3 1/2 ounces fine cornmeal, 2 ounces gluten-free all-purpose flour, and using 1 ounce golden syrup instead of brown sugar. Unlike the recipe below, the batter was a bit thinner, and the resulting bread a bit moister; you should add another 10 to 20 minutes to the baking time, too.

Ingredients

• 6 1/2 ounces finely ground cornmeal
• 6 1/2 ounces pastry flour (either white or whole wheat, or a mix)
• (if using gluten-free flours) 1 teaspoon psyllium powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ounce golden (light) brown sugar
• 2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup milk; I used lowfat
• 1/2 cup yogurt; again, used lowfat
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• canola oil, for the pan

Method

1. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan (or a casserole dish of similar size, for a thicker crust) with canola oil—I tried using ghee, but it burned! Line the pan with parchment paper as a sling to ease removal after baking. Place the pan in the oven, and preheat to 400ºF degrees; I used the convection baking setting.
2. Sift cornmeal, pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar into a large bowl.
3. Mix the butter, milk, yogurt, and heavy cream in a jug. If the butter solidifies, warm it briefly in a microwave oven until melted again—but just until warm, not hot. Whisk in the eggs.
4. Create a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the liquids. Fold them together until just incorporated. The batter will be thick.
5. Take the hot pan out of the oven, and pour (more like scrape) in the batter. Place the pan back in the oven, and bake until the top is golden brown and the sides have pulled away—about 18 to 22 minutes. Poking the center with a skewer (comes out with no wet batter on it) is also a good test.
6. Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before removing the bread onto a rack. Cool further for about 10 to 15 minutes before slicing and serving, otherwise the bread will crumble too easily.