Corn bread

Growing up, my mom made corn bread from scratch. She used real corn in her recipe and there would be little chunks of kernels. The bread was amazing -- so moist, tender, and golden. It didn't need butter but of course I would put on a pat. The bread would fall apart before it made it into my mouth. It was delicious and it was not like anything I tasted before.

Since then I've been on the quest for a corn bread recipe and about a year and half ago, I found one on cakerecipe.com. I've made this recipe a dozen times if not more all with various degrees of success. It's always been good but some times it's 'pretty' good and at others, 'really' good. Last night, it hit the all time high of 'amazing.'

This bread is good for breakfast and dessert, and as an afternoon snack. It's a bit on the crumbly side but I'm not sure how to reduce this. I was reading that adding another egg may help? This recipe is so good and so effortless. It's not as good as the way my mom makes it but for an effortless recipe it's great.

Serves 12
Total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients
-1 c all purpose flour
-1 c corn meal
-2/3 sugar
-1 tsp salt
-3.5 tsp baking powder
-1 egg
-1 c milk
-1/3 c vegetable oil

My suggestions and modifications
I use 1 cup of brown rice flour. As I mentioned earlier, this came out amazing last night. It was beautifully golden and rose so nicely that it filled out the entire pan. I thought about what I did last night differently and the only thing that came to my mind was that I was sure to add the salt. I generally leave it out but it actually really enhances the flavor. I also was using a fresh container of baking powder which is why I think it rose as nicely as it did. In the past, I have generally only put in the 3 tsp baking powder but added the extra 1/2 tsp the recipe suggests.

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 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 oil until well combined. Pour batter into pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.