I grew up on Jiffy cornbread. In fact, I learned to bake with these packaged mixes. I know they have their time and place but once you learn more and more about processed foods it is hard to buy  pre-made mixes. In fact, there are many reasons to stay away from baking mixes. For one, the fewer ingredients a recipe contains, the more wholesome it is. Eating WHOLE foods is the key to a healthy existence.

This recipe for healthy cornbread is made with coconut oil and a low amount of sugar (instead I like to use honey) instead of up to ½ cup of sugar and lots of butter. For those kids who used to the super dense moist cornbreads of school lunches it may be hard to transition to but just serve it warm with a little bit of honey and the kids will enjoy as much as the husband and friends.

Healthy Cornbread Recipe

Yield: 10-12 inch pie dish or cake pan. 1 loaf pan about 1 ½” thick.

Equipment: oven, baking pans, oven mits!

wet ingredients:

• 1 and ⅓ cup milk (I have used whole, organic, raw milk from the mountains of Pa‘auilo), you could also do ⅔ buttermilk (2 teaspoons lemon juice and milk and let sit for 10 minutes) and then ⅔ cup regular milk.
• 2 eggs (organic)
• 1-2 tablespoons honey (Big Island honey all the way)
•  2 tablespoons melted coconut oil (or substitute 2 tablespoons butter )

dry ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons baking powder (aluminum free 🙂
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt (fine ground sea salt of celtic sea salt)
• 1 cup corn flour – or ground corn meal  (you can buy coarse cornmeal and grind it in your blender to have a fresher taste and texture)
• 1 cup white flour (white, unbleached, bread flour)

Steps:

1) butter/oil baking pan

2) mix dry ingredients

3) preheat oven to 400 degrees, place oiled pan in oven to warm it

4) whisk wet ingredients

5) mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients until moist (do not over mix), batter should be runny

6) take hot oiled pan out of oven and put batter in hot pan, should sizzle a little

7) bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges creep away from the sides of the pan and the top is golden brown

8) turn onto wire rack

9) for best results serve warm with honey or jam : )