This Hairy Bikers cornbread recipe is the Texas version, a cornmeal and creamed corn batter baked around minced beef, onion, cheese and jalapeños. And one heavy dish from Mums Know Best feeds 6 to 8 in about 1¼ hours, at roughly 440 calories a slice by my estimate.
Julia Vinson’s family recipe from Suffolk earns their verdict of “a meal in itself”, because the beef and cheese bake inside it. But the plain Southern cornbread that follows it is little more than cornmeal, buttermilk, eggs and butter, while this one adds creamed corn and filling.
The hot dish matters most, because the drippings or butter should be sizzling before any batter touches them. So I’d expect that heat to set a crust underneath, which is why I layer fast and return it to the oven still hot.
Hairy Bikers Cornbread Recipe
Description
A whole can of creamed corn and 240ml of buttermilk make the cornmeal batter rich, then mince and cheese turn it into dinner. So it all goes in one heavy dish and cuts into 6 to 8 thick wedges, with as much chilli heat as you like.
Ingredients
For the batter
For the filling
Instructions
- Heat the oven: Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4, or about 160°C fan by my conversion.
- Make the batter: Mix the cornmeal with the bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl. Then add the buttermilk, creamed corn and eggs, beat until smooth and set aside.
- Heat the fat: While the batter stands, put the drippings or butter in a heavy pan or baking dish and heat it in the oven.
- Brown the filling: Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and lightly brown the minced beef and onions.
- Layer it up: Pour half the batter into the hot dish, then sprinkle over the beef and onion, the cheese and the jalapeños. Add more jalapeños if you like it really hot, then top with the rest of the batter.
- Bake: Then bake for 45 to 50 minutes.
FAQs
What about plain Southern cornbread?
It’s printed straight after this one, and they rate it as the side dish of the two. So heat 1½ tablespoons of melted butter in a heavy dish at 180°C/Gas 4. Meanwhile, sift 225g of white cornmeal with a teaspoon each of salt and bicarb.
Then mix 2 well-beaten eggs into 480ml of buttermilk and stir that into the dry mix until smooth. After that, swirl the hot butter round to coat the sides, then pour in the batter and bake for 30 minutes.
How is it different from their other cornbreads?
Their Family Favourites cornbread has no filling, so it’s a plain batter with baking powder, a little sugar and 3 eggs. And it bakes hotter in a 20cm skillet or round dish, at 200°C for 25 to 30 minutes.
Then melted butter and maple syrup are drizzled over so they sizzle down the sides. Plus their wild garlic cornbread on BBC Food is a different recipe again, while Brilliant Bakes turns cornbread into muffins with bacon jam.
Where do you buy cornmeal and creamed corn?
Julia buys hers from the American store on the local air base, but they point out you can get cornmeal in the UK. So I find it in the world food or baking aisles, while creamed corn usually sits in tins near the sweetcorn.
And fine polenta is the same ground maize, so I’d use it if you can’t find cornmeal, though that’s my swap rather than theirs.
How do you know it is cooked?
The recipe only gives 45 to 50 minutes, with no test printed. So I’d look for a firm, golden top and push a skewer into the batter, which should come out free of wet mixture.
Then let it settle for 10 minutes before cutting, since I find a filled cornbread cuts neater once slightly cooled.
What do you serve with it?
With the meat already inside, it only needs something crisp, so I’d go for their celeriac and apple coleslaw. But the plain Southern one suits a bowl of their three-bean vegetarian chilli, which is my pairing rather than theirs.
And in Family Favourites they suggest cornbread with a brisket from that book, so I’d serve it with their slow pot-roast beef brisket.
