Skillet Cornbread

9:41 PM

The Christmas eve is tomorrow and am sure you all are preparing for it in the last minutes. There are such classic bakes to choose from, apart from the traditional plum cake, mince pies there are whole array of cookies that could be baked to keep up with the festive spirit. While nothing announces the arrival of Christmas like a glass of mulled wine and spiced gingerbread mans but many of us vouch by the simple butter cookies decorated with sugar paste.

This winter seems to be the most hectic one of my whole life. With two weddings in the family and the small baking ventures of mine I was neck deep in baking and decorating cakes and cookies. After all 'tis the season and I enjoyed every minute of it. Was glad to be featured as one of Kolkata's homebaker on Polka Cafe.

While I baked a couple of fruit cakes for the family but totally forgot to keep some cookies for the family. So when a couple of days back the 6 years old complained about not having cookies in the house to offer to Santa I readily baked a big lot of spiced ginger bread cookies for him. and to my wonder even the 2 years old relished every bite of her share.

Today am sharing another classic recipe of Skillet corn bread that I baked last month for Baking partners group challenge. This is a wonderful sides to your Christmas menu with some spicy chilli con carne or Chilli sin carne (cooked kidney beans with meats or mushrooms). We had ours with some mushroom chilli and also for breakfast lightly toasted with butter and slathered with cheese and tomato jam.

I followed the recipe shared by Swathi. I opted for the savory version as just baked a sweet cornmeal mini bundts the previous week. I jam packed mine with carrots, jalapenos, olives, cheese, sun dried tomatoes etc. The quantity mentioned in the recipe was enough for an 8" skillet bread and 12 mini cupcakes.

If you dont have a skillet Swathi suggests going for a 8" round cake pan. Preheat the pan with some butter and then pour the batter in to get a thick crust

Savoury Corn bread

Adapted from Weight watchers light and easy cookbook

Ingredients:

Yellow Cornmeal/Makki ka atta - 1 1/2 cup

All purpose flour- 1 cup

Baking powder- 2 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Brown sugar- 2-3 tbs (I used 1 tbsp)

Eggs-2

Vegetable oil-1/4 cup

Carrot shredded- 1/3 cup (optional)

Green chili or Jalapenos- 3 ounce/ use 1-2

(or according to spice tolerance)

Corn - 1/2 cup

( or cream style corn 1/2 can)

Butter milk- 1 cup (used yogurt mixed with skimmed milk in 1:1 ratio)

Milk- 1/2 cup

Shredded mild Cheddar cheese- 1 cup (I used 1/2 cup)

I also added some olives and my homemade sundried tomatoes.

Method:

Preheat oven at 400F or 180 C.

Keep the baking pan or skillet ready and greased.

Mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and set aside.

Lightly beat eggs until blended.Add oil and butter milk and mix well. Mix in the dry ingredients and corn, chilly, carrots, roughly chopped olives and sun dried tomatoes if using and cheese and mix well.

To get a crispy edge heat the skillet or pan with some butter and swirl to cover the sides. It should be hot when you pour in the batter. I dont like crispy edge so skipped this and just greased the pan and poured my batter.

Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes or till toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. It will be lightly brown in the edges.

If you have mini muffins like I did, then bake them for 10-12 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.