Johnny Reb Cornbread Recipes

PA'S OLD-FASHIONED JOHNNY CAKE / CORNBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425; grease a 13x9 pan.
• Add dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl, stir through, make a well in the center.
• In another bowl, add eggs, milk, and oil all at once; blend well.
• Add wet to dry ingredients, stir until moistened (don't over-mix or you'll be sorry!).
• Fold in optional ingredients. Sausage should be in crumbles or bite-size pieces.
• Pour into prepared pan; rap pan on counter-top several times to bounce out the air-bubbles.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes--top will be golden-brown.
• Serve with butter and maple syrup.
• OPTION #1: Add 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese.
• OPTION #2: Add 1/2 - 1 cup of sweet corn (plain kernels); adds a neat "chewy" texture to the 'cake.'
• OPTION #3: Add 6 hard-boiled, chopped eggs.
• OPTION #4: Add 1 pound fried & drained pork sausage (crumbled) or links (bite-size).
• TIME-SAVING HINT: Gather a handful of 1-quart zipper bags, fill with DRY ingredients, and store in your cupboard. At meal-time, add wet ingredients as described.

GREAT-GRANDMOTHER STEINBECK'S JOHNNYCAKE (CORNBREAD)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch glass baking dish.
• Sift the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, corn oil and egg. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix just until blended. Pour into the prepared pan, and shake gently to level it out.
• Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown. Serve hot. Just with butter will do, it is plenty sweet enough!

JOHNNYCAKE (SPIDER CORN BREAD)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 10-inch iron spider (skillet).
• Mix together the dry ingredients.
• Beat the eggs, mix with the buttermilk and then with the melted butter. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.
• Pour into the greased spider and bake in the hot oven for 25 minutes, until the top is brown and crusty. Serve immediately, cut into pie-shaped wedges.

JOHNNY REB CORNBREAD

Steps:

• 1. Stir together dry ingredients. Then add egg, oil, and enough buttermilk to make a batter a bit thinner than brownie batter but thicker than cake batter. Pour this into greased pan. It is best baked in a 10 inch cast iron skillet. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven about 20-30 minutes till done and lightly browned on top.
• 2. Notes: Now one of the best things about Johnny Reb cornbread is that nice crispy crust. There is a trick to getting that crust. Put your liberally greased pan in the oven and get it almost smoking hot before pouring in the batter. When you pour in that batter you should hear a sizzle and the edges will look like they are trying to curl a bit.
• 3. You can also make corn dodgers with this batter. Make it as above but leave it just a touch thicker, liberally grease a skillet, about ¼ inch in the bottom, get it hot, then drop your cornbread batter in by quarter cups, fry on one side over medium heat till golden brown then flip over and fry other side till done.
• 4. Now with the addition of some water or regular milk and omit the baking powder and baking soda, you can make hoecakes, the batter should be thinned to about pancake batter thickness and cook the same as the dodgers. Now you can add sugar to this if you like I would say ¼-½ cup depending on how sweet ya like it.