Gemma's Best Ever Cornbread Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (2024)

FAQs

What does adding an extra egg to cornbread do? ›

The yolk will make the texture more dense and smooth, a bit brownie-like, while the fact that your original batter was too thick means that the additional liquid will help the baking powder achieve better leavening, giving you an airier texture.

I want to keep the cornbread taste, just less crumbly! I recommend extra egg yolk, adding corn, and using cast iron to bake. Also, try a little lower temperature.

It makes the batter rise a bit so your cornbread will be light and a little fluffy. If you omit some sort of leavening agent, and baking soda is just one kind, your finished cornbread after baking will be about an inch high, and shall we say, pretty dense.

One of the simplest ways is to bring in more flavor and depth is by adding ⅓ cup of sour cream to the batter, which makes the cornbread extra moist and a little tangy. Another tangy option: Add ⅔ cup of buttermilk, which also makes the cornbread super tender.

1Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Note: We recommend allowing cornbread batter to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before baking, so if you prefer, you can delay heating the oven until you make the batter. 2Melt the butter, and then set aside to cool slightly.

Add in some Flour

If you use straight cornmeal, it will tend to be dryer. Adding in flour will help to keep the cornbread moist. I like to use a 50/50 ratio of cornmeal to flour in my recipe. I feel this gives a moist and fluffier texture.

Oil changes cornbread's texture

Using oil will make your cornbread tender and moist while butter will give you heavier bread. Why do you get such different qualities from these fats? This is largely due to the fact that at room temperature, oil is a liquid while butter is a solid.

Pour batter into prepared pan. The batter will be lumpy. Overcome the urge to mix until smooth. Overmixing can cause the corn bread to peak and have tunnels, resulting in a tough texture.

As for the best cornmeal for cornbread, either fine- or medium-grind cornmeal is a great choice. Medium-grind cornmeal will bring slightly more texture and grittiness to the batter, which you may or may not want (it's up to you!). You can use fine or medium cornmeal in these extra corny muffins.

Should cornbread batter sit before baking? ›

The trick to this perfect cornbread is letting the cornmeal, corn flour, and buttermilk sit overnight; this allows the corn flour to fully hydrate, while the acid from the buttermilk tenderizes the cornmeal, helping to create a tender, almost cakey bread that still retains that slightly gritty texture you expect.

It's important not to use too much baking soda in recipes, as it can result in a metallic, soapy flavor. It is much more powerful than baking powder – you only need about 1/4 teaspoon baking soda per cup of flour to leaven baked goods.

Eggs are responsible for giving baked goods structure, which means the amount you use directly affects the resulting texture. Using too few eggs will make your desserts dense, but using too many will make them rubbery. The explanation for this lies in the fact that eggs are made up of protein.

However, if you add too many eggs to your cake batter, then your end result could be spongy, rubbery, or dense. Like flour, eggs build structure in a cake, so they make a cake batter more bonded and dense.

The site says that adding too many eggs will also give your cake a noticeably eggy flavor, which will make it taste more like a custard or a bread pudding and less like a cake. Fine Cooking goes on to clarify that eggs and flour work as protein ingredients when baking.

If you use too few eggs, your cake won't hold together well, but using too many will result in a cake that is more dense, spongy, and rubbery than it should be. Adding just one extra egg is enough to add moisture and richness.