Cornbread with Corn Kernels

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 scant teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Optional: 1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup sugar, depending on how sweet you want your cornbread
1 cup corn (canned or cooked, drained)
1 1/2 cups​ ​buttermilk
1 large egg
6 tablespoons butter (melted, divided)

Directions

Heat the oven to 200C/400F, place a cast iron skillet in the oven to heat up for 10 minutes. (I put it in during the preheat!)
In a large mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar (if using). Mix in the corn kernels.
In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons of the melted butter together.
Remove the hot skillet from the oven (carefully!), add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in it to melt, slowly moving it around the pan so the bottom and about 2 inches up the sides of it get greased.
Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, mix until well-combined, and pour the batter into the skillet.
Return the skillet to the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes (check after 20min), until your cornbread is golden brown with crusty sides.

My Notes

I used my non-enamel cast iron dutch oven for this. I didn’t have buttermilk so added 2 tablespoons lemon juice to the milk and let it sit until thickened. I didn’t add any sugar, only used about 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and used 2 eggs because they were on the smaller side. This took 25 minutes in my oven but we spun it around about halfway through since the top didn’t seem to be browning evenly. When I took it out of the oven I only let us rest until it stopped sizzling, and then removed the cornbread to let it cool on a plate (I was worried it’d stick in the cast iron, because the seasoning isn’t that thick yet, which is why I was making cornbread in the first place — to improve the seasoning.)

We definitely did NOT eat half of it for lunch, sliced and buttered.