Zinfandel Skillet Cornbread

Active: 10 min | Start to finish: 30 min | Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

Cornbread

• 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal (preferably stone-ground)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups well-shaken buttermilk
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Buckwheat Honey Butter

• 1 stick softened unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons buckwheat honey

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Put a dry, well-seasoned 9- to 9 1/2-inch cast iron skillet in middle of oven to heat.

Cornbread

1. Stir together cornmeal, baking soda and salt, crushing any small bits of baking soda. Whisk eggs in another bowl until blended and whisk in buttermilk.
2. Remove hot skillet from oven carefully and add butter, swirling gently to coat bottom and sides of skillet. (If butter begins to sizzle and brown around edges, so much the better.)
3. Whisk hot butter into buttermilk mixture and return skillet to oven. Stir cornmeal into buttermilk mixture just until moistened. (The batter doesn't have to be smooth a few small lumps are good.)
4. Scrape batter into hot skillet and bake until golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Invert skillet over a platter and cool bread at least 3 minutes.
5. Serve with Buckwheat Honey Butter.

Buckwheat Honey Butter

1. Combine butter with buckwheat honey (another honey or pure maple syrup can be substituted).

Notes

Chef Susan Goss says that the secret here is in her cast iron skillet. Nonstick pans produce anemic, soft corn bread.

This recipe also works well with corn stick or muffin molds, as long as they're well-seasoned cast iron. If your pan is hot enough, the batter will immediately rise and start to cook around the edges. (The restaurant's skillets rarely leave the oven.)

Attribution

Gourmet magazine, September 1999 - Susan Goss You Asked For It - Zinfandel, Chicago, Illinois