Day 55: Buttery Corn Bread

I got a call from a good friend yesterday. She has been following my blog and had a $64,000 question for me. She asked, "Are you really cooking something in your dutch oven EVERYDAY?" I just laughed, because that is an easy one to answer. I told her "Of course!" I can honestly say that I have cooked something in my DO every day so far. Have I blogged everything I've made? Not yet. Am I a little ahead? Yes. Do I still cook in my DO everyday anyway? Yes. Like I said the other day, it has become habit. It is just the way I cook now. It will be really weird to go back to cooking indoors next year. But don't worry, I won't abandon my DO in 2011. It has been too fun.

Today's recipe is corn bread. I really wish I had known how easy it is to make in the DO, because I would have tried it before biscuits. Seriously, all my fellow newbies out there, start with corn bread, not biscuits. This was a breeze. I did preheat my lid for about 5-8 minutes to get in nice and hot. After that, it was really easy to cook. We don't have corn bread very often because my hubby doesn't like it. But he is working nights for the next few months, so we get to eat whatever we want. I have yet to find the perfect cornbread recipe, but this is probably the best one I have tried yet.

Buttery Corn Bread

12" dutch oven

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened (use butter, trust me)

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 2/3 cup milk

2 1/3 cups flour

2 1/3 cups corn meal

4 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Combine the eggs and milk. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with egg mixture. Pour in to your oiled DO. Bake at 400* for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. I used 19 coals on top and 10 on the bottom. I took it off the bottom coals about 20 minutes into cooking and just used the top heat to finish cooking. 12-15 servings.

The Finished Product

The bottom was perfect!

Top View!

What I Learned

Corn bread is a piece of cake. So much easier than biscuits. I really don't know why, though. Maybe I am just getting better at all this, or maybe it is because I didn't stress over it. Who knows! But this worked well.

The Review

I really liked this cornbread. It was nice and moist and didn't crumble apart like some corn breads do. It was also nice and buttery. I think it is my favorite corn bread recipe...for now. The leftovers seemed to stay pretty moist too. This makes a lot, so if you aren't feeding an army like I am, you will want to cut it in half. Grade: B+, only because I know there is an even better recipe out there somewhere!