Sweet Corn Bread

[sidherose]

This isn't really a recipe. It's changes you can make to the recipe on the Quaker Corn Meal box/tub to make your cornbread sweet if you like sweet corn bread and not the more bland sort.

If you want to use better - i.e. non-GMO cornmeal, adapt whatever recipe you use for that. It's pretty straight forward, except for two things:

For the sugar cut the amount in half, and use both white and brown sugars for the whole of the original amount of sugar. Example: if it's 1 cup, use 1/2 cup white and 1/2 cup brown or cane. Brown works best because it's more wet and finely granular than cane and will carmelize easier....because....

Before you pour the batter into your 9x9 loaf pan, apply a stick of softened butter to the bottom of the pan and coat the bottom and sides rather well. If you need to smear it around  use a folded up paper towel you can spread it with like you would with your fingers.

Then make yourself a mix that's mostly the brown sugar with some cornmeal in it and distribute that as evenly as you can over the buttered pan bottom and sides. You have to kind of carefully tilt and coat, not letting it spill out, then when you have it like you want, hold the pan horizontally to the countertop and gently tap the bottom on the counter to shake out only the very loose stuff and discard or re-add to your mix if you have some left or plan to make more.

Spoon your batter over the bottom gently so as not to disturb the coating much. Once you get it covered well enough you can pour the rest in on top - gently.

Now the bottom of your pan will be coated with something that will carmelize on the bottom of the loaf to leave a bit of a sweet crust. That is as long as you don't bake it too long and overcook it. Once you see it's starting to brown on the top and bottom, check it often.

Otherwise cook it all by that recipe. Great slightly cooled and liberally buttered!

You can use it with cup-cake pans or corn-bread molds as well but I'd recommend you have something other than the commonly sold coated aluminum ones (Bakers Secret sort). You run the risk of a burned sticky mess when you use those. Of course you can't use this with cupcake papers in the bottom.

Not done it with cast-iron but maybe one of you has? Fafnir? dRaCx?

I know, I'm a cornbread 'slob' but i love it like this.