With the chilly weather of autumn upon us, I start looking for great recipes for hearty soups and other tummy-warming foods. I recently made some chili-spaghetti (a combination of chili and spaghetti) and decided to make some warm cornbread to go with it. I had several recipes for cornbread that I had tried in the past which did not appeal to me, so I went into my Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, which had been a gift from my mother for my 21st birthday back in 1991 and was really my first cookbook. Of course, I found a simple and delicious recipe in there that was just what I wanted!
Corn Bread
1 c. all purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal (Bob's Red Mill coarse ground cornmeal is my favorite!)
2 to 4 tbls. sugar (I used 3, which was just enough to sweeten slightly, but not too much!)
1 tbls double-acting baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
2/3 c milk
1/3 c butter, melted
Preheat oven to 425. Grease an 8x8 baking pan. In a medium bowl, with a fork, mix flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, beat together egg, milk and butter with a fork or whisk. Pour egg mixture all at once into flour mixture. Stir just until flour is moistened and quickly pour batter into prepared pan. Spread batter evenly, and bake for 25 minutes or until golden. Cut into squares to serve.
To make Blueberry Corn Muffins:
Grease sixteen muffin-pan cups. Prepare as above, but add to flour mixture 1 cup of fresh or forzen un-sweetened blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin-pan cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes.
