Cornbread my Way

Hot cornbread out of the oven... smells heavenly

Making pulled pork tonight. Thought I would make cornbread to accompany the pork. Now you know I live in Georgia now, I am from NY. What do I know about cornbread. I am used to having big delicious corn muffins in the NY diners.

Upon looking up recipes, it was mentioned more than once that sugar does not belong in cornbread. If you do put sugar, you've created a Johnny Cake that is considered Yankee style.

So with respect to my new surroundings, I have come up with a moist cornbread. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 boxes of Jiffy cornbread mixes

3 eggs

5 TBS melted butter

2/3 cup sour cream

1 small green pepper, seeded and chopped in small squares

1/4 cup onion, preferably vadalia or any white onion, shredded fine

Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare a greased 10 inch heavy cast iron skillet.

Directions:

Mix eggs, melted butter, sour cream. Add Jiffy mix to wet ingredients. Blend well. Saute onion and green peppers in small amount of butter, sauteing till soft. Add to mixture. Pour into prepared greased frying pan.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place prepared pan in center rack for 20-25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Just put it in the oven....

Let's get baking!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

1 whole thin skinned orange, remove the stem and cut in quarters. Keep the skin on the oranges.

In a clean large food processor, add the orange quarters, 1 1/4 cups of sugar, three large eggs, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 tsp of orange extract, 1 tbsp of Triple Sec liqueur, optional, 2/3 cup vegetable oil.

Pulse all ingredients in the processor and then puree until mixture becomes a batter with specs of orange peel.

Add to the processor:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Process all dry ingredients until they are entirely incorporated into the batter.

Bake in a greased and floured spring pan, using a parchment paper circle on top of the greased bottom.*

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place in the center rack of the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven.

Remove from your oven and let it cool down completely. Dust with powdered sugar or make a drizzle of 1/4 cup powdered sugar and fresh squeezed orange until thick and smooth. Pour onto the cooled fresh orange cake.

Cooking with Love

with Gianna Conte (Jan)