The North thinks it know how to make corn bread, but this is a gross superstition. Perhaps no bread in the world is quite as good as Southern corn bread, and perhaps no bread in the world is quite as bad as the Northern imitation of it. ~Mark Twain

Now here's a divisive topic.  I don't have a passionate view on the topic - I'm open to trying various versions.  I've made a more traditional Southern version before, so this time I wanted to go Northern.

Crescent Dragonwagon has written a really interesting book solely on the subject of cornbread - The Cornbread Gospels where she explores all the differences and nuances of the varieties of cornbread recipes out there.

This time I made Vermont Maple-Sweetened Cornbread.  I always like a chance to use my cool Griswold cornstick pan (love eBay!).

In a previous experience with this pan, the recipe called for putting the pan into the oven during the pre-heat so that it gets nice and HOT and therefore would develop a nicer crust texture.  So I did that.  Then I put a little bit of butter in each slot - you do NOT want batter stuck in all of these nooks and crannies!

Then I used a portion scoop to put batter in each slot.

I put that into the oven - the recipe as written is for an 8 inch pan and calls for 20 minutes, but I was sure these would be done much sooner.  They were done at about 8 minutes.

Oops!  One broke....oh, well, the cook must eat it.  ;-)

This recipe was for an 8 inch pan, but done with the cornstick pan, I got about 19 cornsticks.  I took these to a family dinner and everyone liked them.  They were delicious with butter and honey on them...mmmmm.....



~ks