More international inspiration.

My sister was never into cooking or baking. While I grew up with an obsession for food, often helping in the kitchen at dinner time and always in the kitchen when my mother was baking, she had other hobbies. Since having my gorgeous nephew 5 years ago she has developed into a domestic goddess but sometimes her lack of experience shows. Now I don't want to embarrass her but most recently she bought corn flour with the intention of making corn bread. Needless to say it did not go well! But when I saw Corn Meal in the Caribbean section of my local supermarket I was inspired to have a go myself.
I've always thought that Brits were missing something by not using corn as a grain. From the moment I saw Wild Bill denied a piece of cornbread in the Green Mile I've wanted to try it and when I was recently in Blackpool I had the opportunity to try a corndog, delicious!
The cornbread that I've made was a little dry for eating on it's own so I've done a bit of reading on how it should best be eaten, I've discovered that Americans take their corn bread very seriously and there are arguments about the right corn to use, the use of sugar in the recipe, the way it's cooked etc etc. From what I can tell this cakey variety is Northern style and the use of sugar makes it a dessert or sweet treat and would therefor best be eaten with honey or maple syrup. The southern version would omit sugar and be cooked in a skillet, it would accompany savoury foods such as chilli. Either way I still think corn meal is underrated in Britain!

This recipe was taken from the Betty Crocker recipe and works really well for a moist yet grainy cake style corn bread. I've converted all the measures below. 

Ingredients

240ml Milk

56g Butter melted

1egg

185g Coarse yellow corn meal

150g Plain flour

100g caster sugar

3 teaspoons Bicarbonate powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

Preheat the oven to 200•c and grease a 20cm square pan.

Melt the butter, then beat in the egg and milk. 

Add in all of the dry ingredients. I'm told to expect a lumpy batter so don't worry about sifting.

 Pour the batter into the tray and bake for 20-25 mins until golden brown. 

So easy!