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from
the inn's recipe archive*:
Dairy
Hollow House
Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread
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Makes
1 skillet, or 8 large wedges
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It's impossible to go wrong with this, the cornbread we served at the inn and
the
single most requested recipe.
It was used in the inn’s very first Moos Letter, and has been featured in many, many magazines and newspapers.
Crescent has prepared it frequently on television, and loves to
teach it (most recently at the
Biltmore Estate Cooking Program).
There, we used an excellent local white cornmeal, stone-ground of course, from
Morgan Mills, in Brevard, North Carolina. Yellow
cornmeal was usually used here in the Ozarks. In the Deep South, and to the East, white
cornmeal was more frequently the choice. Of course, whichever one you first
encountered is the right one.
(Picture
- Our cornbread, ready for its close-up in this 1990 inn
photograph of Thanksgiving side-dishes). If you find the amount of butter melted in
the bottom of the skillet truly unconscionable, you can cut it back to a
tablespoon, and it'll still be very good.
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While you're at it, make up a second skillet and do a half-recipe
of savory cornbread
stuffing . You won't be sorry! |
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For delectable stove-top corn cakes, don't miss the lacy,
surprising jonnycakes.
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| Ingredients:
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| 1
cup stone ground yellow cornmeal |
| 1
cup unbleached white flour
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| 1
tablespoon baking powder
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1/4
teaspoon salt
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1/4
teaspoon baking soda
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| 1
to 3 tablespoons sugar
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| 1
1/4 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup plain yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup water)
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| 1
large egg
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| 1/4
cup mild vegetable oil, such as corn, canola, or peanut
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| Pam
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2
to 4 tablespoons butter
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| Directions: |
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1.
Preheat oven to 375. Make sure your oven's accurate, too; it really needs
to be up to temperature to get perfect results.
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| 2.
In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, baking
soda, and sugar. (If baking powder or soda appear at all lumpy, sift them in).
Stir well to combine.
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| 3.
In a small bowl, whisk
together buttermilk, egg, and oil.
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| 4.
Spray a 9 to 10 ¼ -inch cast iron skillet with Pam (our skillets are 10 1/4 inch;
this size is called a Number 7). Put the skillet on over medium heat, add the
butter, and heat until the butter melts and is sizzling seriously. Tilt the pan
to coat the sides of the skillet.
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5.
As the butter's melting, quickly pour the wet ingredients into the dry,
and, using a wooden spoon, stir the wet and dry together with as few strokes as
possible --- only as many as are needed to combine the two. Don't beat it; don't
smooth it out. Scrape the batter into the hot, buttery skillet --- if you've
gotten it hot enough it will sizzle as it goes in --- and pop it in the oven
immediately.
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6.
Bake until golden brown on top, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve, hot, cut
in wedges.
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* as many of you know, CD, with her late-husband Ned,
owned and ran an award-winning country inn and restaurant from 1981 to 1998.
This inn was Dairy Hollow House, located in the Ozark Mountain resort community
of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Though the inn is no more, its memory, acclaim, and
recipes, such as this one, endure. |
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