FReeper Weekly Recipe Thread (March 17, 2012)

Liz — Thanks. I don’t use cake mixes because of the hydrogenated oils/trans fats which is why I was looking for a recipe from scratch. Appreciate the recipe though as I might try the jalapeno glaze. :)

scotteng — I tried the golden corn bread recipe scotteng posted with some modifications and it was very good. Some of the reviews mentioned using half white and half brown sugar. I did that. They also mentioned using a bit of vanilla. Meant to try that, but forgot. :( Has anyone ever tried that?

kalee — I also found the Miracle Maize cornbread, but haven’t tried it yet. Maybe over the weekend.

Hope you like it.

I decided I might try that cornbread recipe, but making the cake mix from scratch.

Someone posted an in the pan cake. I have the recipe, but I was wondering about the texture of this cake. I don’t recall who posted it and I tried using libertaian27’s home page but no luck. It hasn’t been updated since the first week of Dec and it was posted after that??

Anyone know who posted it? I thought perhaps that cake recipe might be around 9 ounces.

Thanks.

kalee, once I try the miracle Maize I’ll post and let you know how it compares to the golden sweet cornbread, then you’ll know in case you don’t have a box on hand and don’t want to have to make a special trip to the store.

Here’s the Golden Sweet Cornbread followed by a couple of reviews:

Golden Sweet Cornbread

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

This is excellent cornbread! I use 1/3 c. white and 1/3 c. brown sugar, and I let the cornmeal soak in the milk for 10-15 minutes before mixing with the other ingredients. I’ve also replaced the vegetable oil with melted butter, which works very well.

This works as cornbread muffins, too! I am not a huge fan of making cornbread as a round or square cake shape… they just are too messy that way. Instead I like to pour the batter into muffin tins lined with cupcake/muffin papers. This recipe works great as muffins. I pour the batter almost to the very top of the paper liners then I bake this at 375 degrees, but I have a convection oven so the heat is usually 25 degrees less than the normal temperature… so you can cook it at the suggested heat of 400 degrees with a normal oven. It takes 20-23 minutes for a toothpick to come out clean. The tops are always nicely browned and the muffins are perfectly cooked. The only other minor change I make is I use a medium grind cornmeal that is a little more course. It makes the cornbread more like a true “comfort food”. If you don’t like that extra crunch then use a finer grind. EVERYONE loves this- it is always on request from my guests and family, “Can you make your special cornbread?” It only takes about 5 minutes if you use a stand mixer. Very easy and very yummy! People will love that you made this from scratch. Oh yeah, and for you calorie nuts: I have calculated that if you make 12 muffins out of this batter, it runs about 180 calories per muffin or 2160 for the whole batch.

Well, needles to say, you’d sure be hard pressed to come up with a better cornbread recipe. It’s excellent! Suberb! I’ve read all 84 + reviews and have learned the following additional options: I can bake it in a muffin pan (bake only 15 minutes); I can cut back on my sugar to maybe a round 1/2-cup (or less). I can add just a smidgen more salt. I can add a 1/2 t. vanilla. Add I can also add just a little bit more oil (so it’s not quite so crumbly). The next time I bake this for our gang, I’m going to add all of the above — I’ll be bold and daring!

After reading some of the previous reviews, I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup and the baking powder to 2 tsp. The muffins baked well and tasted good... not extraordinary... but good.

What I did was: (I tried some of the above suggestions)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 T baking powder
1 egg (eggbeaters)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly buttered a 9 inch square corning ware dish.
Soaked the cornmeal in milk for 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, melted butter and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

It was very nice, the color a little darker because of the brown sugar. Next time I’ll try all white. Can’t decide on vanilla or not. might also try the half buttermilk, half milk.

I have to ask. Why would the cake mix make a difference? I understand the cake texture being softer than cornmeal, but since the recipe has flour in it anyway, wouldn’t that soften the texture or is it the additional flour and or the buttermilk that will soften the texture, to make it more cake like.

Recap of this week’s recipes

Beef _ Post#` 28 _ Corned Beef Brisket

Bread _ Post#` 64 _ Golden Sweet Cornbread
Bread _ Post#` 59 _ Famous Dave’s Corn Bread w/ Honey Jalapeno Glaze

Meats _ Post#` 45 _ Venison (various recipes)

Sauces _ Post#` 29 _ Roquefort Dressing with Anchovies
Sauces _ Post#` 59 _ Famous Dave’s BBQ Sauce

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2863353/posts

March 24th thread