Skillet Cornbread

While browsing the grocery aisles on day a few weeks ago, looking for things I've never cooked with before...

What?

Don't you all browse the grocery aisles looking for interesting things to use in your daily cooking life that you've never used before?

Oh.

Now you think I'm a dork?

Yeah...that's probably true.

Anyway, I found corn meal. Yes, I realize that many of you might already have this as a staple in your homes. And, yes, I realize that some of you may have been making homemade corn bread for years. I hadn't, until now.

I found this recipe in Pioneer Woman's Cookbook. I love this woman. Her recipes make me happy. I decided to give this recipe a whirl and thought I'd share it with you.

Ingredients:

1 C. yellow cornmeal; 1/2 C. all-purpose flour; 1 tsp. salt; 1 Tbsp. baking powder; 1 C. buttermilk; 1/2 C. milk; 1 egg; 1/2 tsp. baking soda; 1/4 C. plus 2 Tbsp. shortening. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Start by mixing all the dry ingredients together. Cornmeal...
flour...salt...
and baking powder.

Now, I am going to show you how to make buttermilk. It's super easy. First you need vinegar.

Take one tablespoon of the vinegar and add it to a cup of milk. Stir. There. Now you have buttermilk. Add the regular 1/2 C. of milk to the buttermilk.
I totally forgot to add the egg to my original ingredients picture. I'm so sorry egg. You know I would never forget you on purpose!
Now, add the egg to the milk. Stir together with a fork.
Melt 1/4 C. of shortening. I almost forgot to melt it. I didn't want you to forget. So, go ahead and melt it now.
Ok, back to the milk mixture. Add the baking soda to the milk. Stir.
Pour the milk into the dry ingredients. Stir together until just combined. Add the melted shortening and stir into the mixture.
Good job!
Now, take an oven proof skillet, put it on high heat and melt the 2 Tbsp. of shortening.
Pour the batter onto the hot skillet.
Cook on the stove top for 1 minute. Then take the skillet and put it into your preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Viola!!! It's done. Don't worry, the edges should totally be browner than the middle.
I need to warn you--this makes a ton of cornbread!!!! Way to much for our family. Even with all 4 of us eating 2 pieces each, we had so much left over.
We ate ours with beef stew. To be honest, the corn bread was better than the beef stew. (I'm on the hunt for a good beef stew recipe.)
This cornbread is not sweet. Evan doesn't prefer sweet cornbread, so this was right up his alley. However, the taste of this cornbread was phenomenal! It was perfect for our meal and I will definitely be making this again. Probably for chili. And probably when we are having company.

As I've told you a bajillion times, if you haven't already bought Pioneer Woman's cook book, then you need to add it to your Christmas list!!!