Healthy Cornbread Recipe (Southern Style)

The Battle of the Cornbreads

I feel like a traitor. I’m as southern as can be a South Carolina girl now turned Texan. My favorite cornbread in the world is my Nana’s Jiffy Cornbread. She used a box of Jiffy, milk & egg. She never added any sugar so of course I thought that was southern cornbread. Boy, was her cornbread sweet & soft & moist. Well, go figure, I found out Jiffy already has flour, sugar & shortening included in the mix. I didn’t realize sweet, cake like cornbread was more of a northern thing.

Southern cornbread was historically made with coarse ground corn meal & buttermilk. I also never have buttermilk on hand so I always use milk, another notch against this southern girl.

One thing is for sure. Cornbread is a staple in the south, as are grits, because of the predominance of corn as a southern crop. Also, cornbread must always be cooked in a piping hot cast iron skillet with butter. There is nothing like that crispy, golden crust. It’s also delicious topped with butter & if you do like a little sweetness, drizzle some honey as well!

Finally, a healthy, southern cornbread recipe

Basically the unsweet cornbread I’d always tasted was so crumbly, coarse and dry you had to dip it in soup or milk to get it down. I wanted to like unsweet cornbread, because just like the unsweet tea I had to get used to, it’s healthier for you! I’ve tried recipes using all cornmeal and it’s still too gritty for me, but I didn’t want to use all-purpose flour because I wanted the health benefits of whole wheat flour.

What is whole wheat pastry flour?

I use whole wheat pastry flour, which is a whole grain milled from lower protein, soft white wheat, whereas whole wheat flour is milled from hard, winter wheat. Whole wheat pastry flour is ideal for whole grain baked goods like pie crust, cake, cookies, biscuits and pancakes. Home kitchens find this flour the perfect choice because it is so nutrient dense from the wheat germ and bread, yet it yields baked treats with a tender texture.

An old-fashioned trick.

After many failed attempts I’ve come up with the perfect, savory cornbread recipe! It’s healthy, soft and has that perfect texture I love in the Jiffy cornbread recipe. Just check out the nutrition below to see how much healthier this is than many cornbread recipes. One slice is only 101 calories. The trick, whip the egg white and gently fold into the batter right before baking! I think it’s actually pretty fun to whip an egg white. It gets so fluffy!

(Click here to see the immersion blender & sifter I recommend on my Amazon Associates page)

Steps to Delicious Southern Cornbread

What to serve with cornbread?

Healthy Cornbread Recipe (Southern Style)

Recipe by Paige MurrayCourse: BreadsCuisine: American, SouthernDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

101

kcal

Protein

3

Carbs

16

Fats

3

Fiber

1

Soft, moist cornbread with a golden, crispy crust.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup fine ground corn meal

• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

• 1.5 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup of 2% milk

• 1 egg, separated into yolk and white.

• 1 tablespoon of butter

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Put butter in the 8 or 10 inch skillet and place the skillet in the oven.
• Sift together cornmeal, flour, salt & baking powder.
• Stir in the egg yolk and milk, don’t over stir.
• Whip the egg white (I used the whisk on my immersion blender) until stiff. This took me about 1.5 minutes.
• Remove the skillet from the oven and pour the butter into the batter and stir. Don’t over stir.
• Gently fold in the whipped egg whites until just mixed.
• Pour batter into hot skillet and bake for about 20 minutes until done.