Pa's Old-Fashioned Johnny Cake / Cornbread

Debber's Note:

The plain version was a staple during my dad's Depression-years childhood; but we rarely had it when I was growing up. My children expect this at least once a month as a regular feature on our Saturday morning breakfast menu OR when we have breakfast-for-supper. Prepare the optional sausage and hard-boiled eggs ahead of time, and it goes together quicker-n-anything!

• Total Time: 32 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 27 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 8-10

Yield: 1.0 large c ...

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups cornmeal, yellow
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup oil

Directions:

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

Reviews

[Chef #1118156]

I've made this several times and the family loves it. Yesterday I wanted corn muffins, so I doubled the sugar and voila! Yummy corn muffins. I just greased 24 muffin cups filled them 3/4 full of batter and baked them at 425 for--I'm guessing here--about 15-18 minutes. Thanks so much for a great recipe.

[PSU Lioness]

This was a pretty good recipe. I wound up adding a bit more sugar and milk to get it to the taste I was looking for, and then I fried them like pancakes and served with lentil chili. Thanks for posting!

[Debbb]

Perfect Johnny Cake! I used this recipe to enter the "cornbread special" at the county fair & won first place!! I loved the moist, flavourful cake with the crispy crust. One batch made a nice thick 8" cake & a couple of dozen mini muffins.