Golden Sweet Cornbread

I'm going to start out by saying something that you may not expect from a fellow recipe-hound.  But, if you are from the South, and you value some good ol' traditional cornbread, please look away now. 

Cornbread is traditionally made in a cast iron skillet, and often with lard or butter as the fat ingredient.  In my recipe, I don't use either.  And I don't even own a cast iron skillet.  I know!  Shocking.

If you can recover from your shock though, and look past my traditional-cornbread-failings to give this recipe a shot, I feel safe is saying that you won't be disappointed!

Golden Sweet Cornbread
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com
Prep time: 10 minutes   Cook time: 35-45 minutes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup canola oil 

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray or lightly grease a 8x8 inch glass baking dish.

Basic dry ingredients, meet...

...basic wet ingredients.

2.  In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.

This is so easy the batter is in the pan before the oven's hot yet.

3.  Bake in preheated oven for about 35-45minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Golden and glorious

I'm actually not a big cornbread person, but Rob is so I try to indulge him on occasion.  But since I don't have a cast iron skillet, I needed to find an alternate method of baking it.  And as for the fat ingredient, I can't handle lard and I've been using enough butter lately; it's nice to try something else!  

This bread bakes up fluffy and tender with a perfectly sweet flavor.  We LOOOVE eating this warm with butter and honey drizzeled all over.  It makes for the perfect complement to a spicy chili on a cool night. ;)