I’ve already fallen in love with custard cornbread, but with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I figured I needed a really great traditional, buttermilk cornbread recipe up my sleeve. I tried Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread from All Recipe which boasts over 3000 five star reviews, All-Purpose Cornbread from Cook’s Illustrated 20th Anniversary Best Recipes Cookbook, and Perfect Cornbread from Little B Cooks. I fed them all to my family and friends alongside a piping hot bowl of tomato soup, and there was a clear winner.
In past Recipe Showdowns, I have been a bit frustrated by the fact that often there isn’t a clear winner. In the past, both of the recipes are so good, it’s really unfair to put one above the other.
One of the ideas behind Recipe Showdown is that I can “test-drive” the most popular recipes, so that you don’t have to. For example, let’s say your friends ask you to bring cornbread to a holiday get-together. You won’t have to waste ingredients trying all the recipes, or risk serving something less than delicious to your friends, since I’ve done all the dirty work for you!
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| Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread |
In this showdown, Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread was a clear winner over All-Purpose Cornbread. It has a nice, crunchy, golden brown top and a sweet, flavorful texture. All-Purpose came up short with an overly crumbly texture and a chunky, pale exterior. However, Perfect Cornbread boasted some pretty great health stats (1/3 cup coconut oil over a whole stick of butter!). Perfect Cornbread also had a nice texture which would satisfy all (not as cakey as Grandmother’s, and not as crumbly as All-Purpose). I also loved the slight hint of rich coconut flavor in Little B Cooks’ recipe. Healthy, perfect texture, and delicious? Looks like we have a winner!
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| All-Purpose Cornbread. Not too pretty… |
As always, feel free to challenge the winner with your own delicious cornbread recipe!
With love,
Erica
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Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread
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Cook’s Illustrated All-Purpose Cornbread
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Little B Cooks Perfect Cornbread
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Description
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“Grandma’s recipe for a sweet moist cornbread is likely to become your favorite!”
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“Brushing regional differences aside, we wanted both a tender, fluffy crumb and a thick crunchy crust. But what we wanted most of all was sweet corn flavor.”
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Perfect cornbread – I substituted 1/3 cup coconut oil for the olive oil for a sweet and healthy twist!
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Taster’s notes
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Looks like cornbread
More flavor
Crunchy top
Sugar
Amazing crust
Yummy golden edges
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Crumbly
I would be embarrassed to bring this to a potluck
Pale color
Not crunchy
No crust, edges just crumble
Chunky
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Delicious
Healthy
Sweeter than other breads
Texture closer to desired cornbread (between the two other breads)
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½ cup sugar
2 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 egg Preheat oven to 375, and spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients. Add the egg, milk and vegetable oil and stir until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
How awesome that my recipe won – I knew it was perfect 😉 Thank you so much for using it in your showdown. I feel very honored! I love your blog – keep up the good work!
Of course! Thank you so much for the awesome recipe!
Love this showdown! I def. think you made the right choice 😀
Thanks!
Oh and BTW, I've never cooked with coconut oil so I'm excited to try it instead of the oil I normally use. Great idea!
Once you taste coconut oil, you will be obsessed! I spread it on toast, put it in pancakes, sneak it into baked goods. I buy mine in bulk on amazon. It may be almost better (gasp!) than butter!
So seasonal! Love it <3
Thanks TJenks!
Love cornbread, so I'll definitely have to try this recipe! Can't wait. Thanks for doing the showdown. So glad I found your blog…as another teenage blogger (started it when I was in HS, but in college now!), I love finding other young bloggers. You definitely have a new follower!
Thank you so much! I love meeting other teenage bloggers as well, I am looking forward to checking out your blog!
I’ve been trying to get my hands on great-textured cornbread for ages and was just about ready to give up when I stumbled upon Marie’s Callender’s cornbread mixes in Fairway Market. I had never used that brand of products before but I thought, “Hey, one more try can’t hurt.” I tried it and I must say, the taste was exceptional and the texture was perfect! I could feel the cornbread muffins melting on my tongue. It was absolutely worth the wait. You guys should definitely check their website http://www.mccornbread.com and try their mixes.
Thanks for sharing! I will have to try that out!
Just made this cornbread and it was sooo good! I threw in some jalapenos for good measure and it was a big hit. Thanks for sharing this recipe.