Ingredients

• • 3 slices bacon
• • 1¼ cups plus 2 teaspoons cake flour or all-purpose flour
• • ¾ cup fi ne-grind yellow cornmeal
• • ¼ cup sugar
• • 2 teaspoons baking powder
• • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• • 1 cup whole or low-fat buttermilk
• • ⅓ cup whipping cream
• • 1 large egg, beaten

There’s a reason that skillet cornbread already has such a widespread reputation. Try my grandmother Mama’s recipe and you’ll taste why yourself. Mama also had a cast-iron cornstick pan that baked the batter into sticks of cornbread shaped like ears of corn. She’d make the cornsticks every time she made her vegetable soup. The cast iron gave the sticks such a crust they tasted almost fried. I would dip them into the vegetable soup and savor each bite as it melted in my mouth. 

Unfortunately I did not inherit Mama’s cornstick pan, but if you have one, you can use this recipe to make the cornsticks. The next best thing to those cornsticks, though, is the skillet corncakes variation . . . soooo good with vegetable soup. They don’t taste fried—they are fried. Find this recipe and more in my cookbook. 

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Cook the bacon in a cast-iron skillet. Drain the bacon on a paper bag, keeping the bacon drippins in the skillet. Crumble the bacon to add to the batter, or use for another purpose.
3. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, cream, and egg and add to the dry ingredients. Mix well.
4. Return the skillet with the drippins to high heat until very hot but not smoking. Pour in the batter and sprinkle with the bacon, green onions, and/or cheese, if you wish.
5. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

If you are looking for new ways to use cornbread, order my newest cookbook, Hot Little Suppers, which includes my family's traditional Thanksgiving Cornbread Dressing recipe.