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For years, my husband Jack has been making this skillet cornbread – and we’ve always thought that it was the absolute best around! But now…there’s a new cornbread in town…this Bacon Topped Cornbread!
Today’s recipe comes from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
, which is (in our opinion) one of the best bread cookbooks ever published! Every recipe we’ve tried from the book has been truly wonderful and only recently, Jack decided to try the cornbread recipe from the cookbook!
And…Jack willingly admits that this cornbread is better than his own recipe! In fact – Jack says it’s “the best cornbread on the planet!”
This bacon topped cornbread bakes up super moist and delicious, and it can be made with or without the bacon added on top, and with or without fresh corn added to the batter. (In all variations – it’s fanastic!)
One thing to note – making this delicious bacon topped cornbread is an overnight process – but it’s a very easy process! It just requires you to make a simple bread starter of coarse corn meal and buttermilk the night before you plan to bake the bread – and let it sit out overnight at room temperature. The next day, fry up some bacon and mix up the rest of the ingredients – and you are ready to bake your cornbread!
This bacon topped cornbread (made with or without the bacon) is a great recipe to have in your collection! In addition to being delicious eaten on its own, this is delicious served alongside your favorite chili recipe, or added to your favorite Thanksgiving stuffing recipe! (We’ll be sharing a few recipes for stuffing in the coming weeks!)
Adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
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Bacon Topped Cornbread
Ingredients
- 1 cup course corn meal
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 8 ounces raw bacon (cherry wood or apple wood smoked is preferable)
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons honey
- Corn removed from three ears of corn, or 2 1/2 cups frozen corn
- 2 tablespoons bacon fat reserved from cooking the bacon
Instructions
- The night before preparing the cornbread, mix the corn meal and buttermilk in a bowl, cover and let sit overnight on your counter at room temperature.
- The day of, cook the bacon until crisp and reserve the fat. You can either cook the bacon on parchment lined sheet trays in the oven or in a fry pan on your stove top. Drain on paper towels, then crumble or chop to small pieces and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and using a 9×9-inch baking pan or a 9-inch round cake pan, place two tablespoons of the reserved bacon fat in the pan and place the pan in the oven while you prepare the batter.
- In a medium to large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Stir in the granulated and brown sugar to combine.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs slightly.
- In a microwave safe small bowl, melt butter. Stir in the honey and then add this butter/honey mixture to the beaten eggs and stir.
- Now add the egg mixture to the cornmeal mixture that sat out overnight.
- Then take this wet mixture and add to the dry ingredients and stir until smooth.
- Stir in the corn and set the batter aside.
- With pot holders, remove the now hot pan from the oven, swirl around the fat to coat the bottom and sides and pour in the cornbread batter. Sprinkle on the bacon pieces pushing slightly into the batter.
- Place back in oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool on a rack in the pan then cut into either 9 or 12 pieces.
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Martha this is brilliant! Pinning now!!!
Thank you Kathleen!
As if this cornbread didn’t look tasty enough, you have warm butter melting off the side and I’m absolutely drooling. The bacon? Bacon was buy 2 get 2 at my grocery store this past week so I bought 10 all in all. That’s a lot of bacon but then I should have plenty for this cornbread, I just love down-home type recipes like this, and so does my family! Can’t wait to try, why didn’t I think of this, checking out that chili recipe next =)
Thank you Laura!! I’d stock up on bacon at that price too! Such a score!