Basic Buttermilk Cornbread (for dressing/stuffing)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup canola oil
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Butter an 8x8 baking dish.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl or bowl of a standmixer.
- Whisk other the buttermilk, canola oil and egg in small bowl or right in the measuring cup. Pour into dry mixture and mix to until a thick batter forms.
- Scrape into the prepared pan and bake 20 minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the middle of the pan come out clean or with just one or two dried crumbs.
- Cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
I didn’t grow up in a cornbread dressing (or stuffing) house as anyone who has read this blog over the last 19 years knows. We make stuffing balls. But last year when we were doing the regional Thanksgiving, I saw a lot of recipes for all kinds of cornbread dressing and was intrigued but didn’t end up making it.
Fairly recently I read a memoir where the author mentions her adult children’s fondness for their grandmother’s squash stuffing and thought I finally needed to make some kind of cornbread dressing this year if I see it everywhere I look.
I realized what really held me back last year was that no one ever talks about what cornbread they use in all these stuffing and dressing recipes! Most of the cornbread dressing I’ve seen is described as a Southern dish and I know the South is a not-sweet cornbread stronghold. However, a lot of recipes called for cornbread made with store-bought mixes like Jiffy which are on the sweet side. This didn’t sound right to me and when I dug deeper, I saw people mentioning how their grandmother or aunt would make her own buttermilk cornbread that wasn’t very sweet but that they use the mixes or storebought cornbread (which I always feel like is sweet, at least around here) themselves because it’s easier or quicker.
I really don’t think using a mix is more than a minute or so quicker and I hate grocery shopping so making my own and having it possibly be more authentic is an easy choice for me.
Now, if you like virtually unsweetened cornbread you will like this with a bit of salted butter but I made this pan just for making dressing. It’s structurally sound but crumbles easily, uses oil instead of butter for ease and speed, and crumbles up nicely for mixing into other ingredients.
Hopefully, you will find this recipe useful! I know when I was googling “cornbread for making dressing” i was coming up empty so I felt it was worth making its own recipe and post. Sometimes “use your favorite cornbread recipe” is not enough! You need the whole recipe ready to go.
