My kids love this simple cornbread and it’s delicious served warm with Mexican food. You don’t have to include the sweetcorn kernels and unless I can actually get fresh sweetcorn cobs I normally don’t bother. Serve this in your lunchbox with a breaded chicken tender and you are good to go!

Polenta is a gluten free grain, so replace the flour with your favourite gluten free brand and add a ¼ teasp of Xanthan gum and you have a tasty alternative to your normal bread.  I use Dove’s Farm when I bake this as a GF version.

Ingredients

• 140g / ¾ cup plus 1 tablsp plain flour or Dove’s Farm GF flour
• 25g/ 2 tablsp melted butter- cooled
• 2 teasp baking powder
• ½ teasp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• I tablsp sugar
• 1 teasp salt
• 125g / ¾ cup dried polenta
• 75g/ 1 cup cheddar cheese grated (use your kid’s favourite cheese but not mozzarella!)
• 2 medium eggs beaten
• 150 ml whole milk
• 150ml buttermilk (you can use all whole milk if you prefer or natural yogurt thinned with a little milk)
• 150g fresh sweetcorn kernels (optional)

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C

Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, salt and polenta in a bowl with a whisk and this saves you having to sift! Stir in the cheese.

Make a well in the centre and add the beaten eggs, milk, buttermilk and the cooled melted butter. Mix well until smooth and if you are using sweetcorn stir them in at this point.

The batter will be very wet. Pour all the mixture into a large well greased loaf tin. Alternatively, use those cute mini loaf tins but only fill two thirds of the way. Normally, one muffin scoop should do it. If you don’t have those use a muffin tin, with or without muffin cases to create cornbread muffins!

Cook your loaf for 35-40 minutes. Cover with foil after 30 minutes if browning too quickly. The mini loaves and muffins take about 15-18 minutes. Remember ovens vary so make sure you check it is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre. It should come away cleanly if cooked.

Serve warm with your chicken fajitas or with butter in your lunch box!

Cheat

I have yet to see cornbread on the shelves here in Ireland but this may not be the case in NZ or the US. So cheat by freezing your cornbread! Remember to slice it first if you have cooked a large loaf and wrap the slices individually so they don’t all freeze as one large mass. Pop it into your lunchbox straight from the freezer the night before!