Mama's Southern Cornbread

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Nutritional Info

Servings Per Recipe: 8
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 185.9

Total Fat: 5.6 g
Cholesterol: 28.9 mg
Sodium: 545.5 mg
Total Carbs: 28.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.0 g
Protein: 4.8 g

View full nutritional breakdown of Mama's Southern Cornbread calories by ingredient

Introduction

My mother cooks her cornbread using minimal oil and only one egg, which minimizes calories of cornbread restaurants. Tastes great! You need to know that my mother does not measure when cooking, so measurements given are close estimates she has given me. I still can't cook cornbread like she does. Guess it takes practice to get it the way you like it. If cooked like hers, it will be a little crunchy on the edges and a little less so on bottom. The top is golden and the inside will be moist, but light textured. (Mine usually comes out kind of gummy. She thinks my problem is I add too much milk or flour or both. This information may help.)

My mother says many people put oil in the batter, but she puts it in the pan only. She says the oil at bottom of pan will cook up into cornbread a little anyway and your using less oil, therefore fewer calories. She also said many cornbread recipes call for 2 eggs, but she says only one egg is needed and is another way to cut calories a little more.

There are no doubt many ways to alter the type of ingredients to make this recipe healthier. For example, you could use the buttermilk corn meal. You probably could also use wheat flour, but I don't know how that change would alter recipe. Probably worth the try. You could eliminate the oil or use another kind, I suppose, or use non-stick spray. I stated this later in recipe, however, that my mother doesn't like to use non-stick spray. She's says it doesn't keep the cornbread from sticking on her pan. So use your own judgement on those changes.

As a side note:

This cornbread tastes great alone or crumbled in chunks into a cup or glass of your choice. I use a cup to give me the satisfaction of eating it, but keeping calories down as much as possible. I pour skim milk over it, let it soak in for a while and eat it with a spoon. (It probably is richer with 1% or 2% milk. But that's up to you.)

Another way I like to eat cornbread is to crumble chunks of it into a small bowl and add white or pinto beans over the cornbread. Tastes good. I know many people use canned beans, and that will work. But, I cooked dried beans and eat those either alone or over cornbread. It's good too to just eat the beans and then eat cornbread as a side (not mixed with beans).

Also, as I mentioned earlier, this cornbread can be used to make cornbread dressing (stuffing) for holidays. My mother cooks her cornbread using minimal oil and only one egg, which minimizes calories of cornbread restaurants. Tastes great! You need to know that my mother does not measure when cooking, so measurements given are close estimates she has given me. I still can't cook cornbread like she does. Guess it takes practice to get it the way you like it. If cooked like hers, it will be a little crunchy on the edges and a little less so on bottom. The top is golden and the inside will be moist, but light textured. (Mine usually comes out kind of gummy. She thinks my problem is I add too much milk or flour or both. This information may help.)

My mother says many people put oil in the batter, but she puts it in the pan only. She says the oil at bottom of pan will cook up into cornbread a little anyway and your using less oil, therefore fewer calories. She also said many cornbread recipes call for 2 eggs, but she says only one egg is needed and is another way to cut calories a little more.

There are no doubt many ways to alter the type of ingredients to make this recipe healthier. For example, you could use the buttermilk corn meal. You probably could also use wheat flour, but I don't know how that change would alter recipe. Probably worth the try. You could eliminate the oil or use another kind, I suppose, or use non-stick spray. I stated this later in recipe, however, that my mother doesn't like to use non-stick spray. She's says it doesn't keep the cornbread from sticking on her pan. So use your own judgement on those changes.

As a side note:

This cornbread tastes great alone or crumbled in chunks into a cup or glass of your choice. I use a cup to give me the satisfaction of eating it, but keeping calories down as much as possible. I pour skim milk over it, let it soak in for a while and eat it with a spoon. (It probably is richer with 1% or 2% milk. But that's up to you.)

Another way I like to eat cornbread is to crumble chunks of it into a small bowl and add white or pinto beans over the cornbread. Tastes good. I know many people use canned beans, and that will work. But, I cooked dried beans and eat those either alone or over cornbread. It's good too to just eat the beans and then eat cornbread as a side (not mixed with beans).

Also, as I mentioned earlier, this cornbread can be used to make cornbread dressing (stuffing) for holidays.

Minutes to Prepare: 5

Minutes to Cook: 30

Number of Servings: 8

Ingredients

Ingredients needed:

2 cups self-rising cornmeal

1/2 cup self-rising flour - (will use small amount of this amount of flour to sprinkle bottom of pan)

2 tbsp canola oil

1 large egg

1 1/2 cup 1% milk (her best estimate)

medium size mixing bowl

1 - 11"x7"x1.5" non-stick pan

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare pan:

Pour canola oil into baking pan. Move the pan around so that canola oil covers bottom of pan. (Probably could use a utensil or some sort instead if you wanted). Pick up small amount of flour from the measured 1/2 cup of flour and sprinkle over oiled pan. (This is to keep cornbread from sticking to bottom. My mother says it's needed even if you are using a non-stick pan. Guess you could try modifying this using non-stick spray onto non-stick pan and let me know if it worked for you.)

Cornbread mixture:

Add cornmeal, flour, and egg into bowl. Hand stir with large spoon (or spatula would work too probably). Do this until mixed together a little. Add and stir in milk. Texture will appear thin when at rest, but still be somewhat thick to stir. (My mother says, "The batter won't be real thin, but not think and clumpy.") I remember her saying once to me that it should be somewhat like pancake batter. Hope this helps.

Pour mixture into pan and place in the pre-heated 425 degree oven. Cook for 30 minutes or until golden on top. Cooking time is best estimate so watch your cornbread when 30 minutes approaches to be sure you don't over-cook. Can remove from the pan immediately. (My mother just puts a regular size plate over pan, turns pan upside-down and empties cornbread onto plate. Sometimes it may stick in the middle of pan still so she uses a spatula to help it out of pan. Other times, it slips right out. I suppose if you wanted it to look pretty, you could turn it back over somehow. To me it looks good either way.

Serving Size:

Makes 8 2.5"x3" pieces.

Can cut in any size you like, but my mother slices down the middle long ways and then cuts in the other direction 4 times when cutting hers.

Number of Servings: 8

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user CAVALIERLAPDOG.