Southern Skillet Cornbread

My two favorite things in the kitchen have no buttons, power cords or dials. They're really not even that attractive (especially after such use), and their design hasn't changed much since their invention. However, they are two blessings I could not live without: my iron skillet and my dutch oven.

One of the recipes I use my iron skillet for is cornbread. The skillet heated to the proper temp before pouring in the batter gives the cornbread that crispy, yummy crust and turns out that moist, melt in your mouth kind of cornbread that makes your mouth sing. Ok, well, it's good. My corn allergic son can't have cornbread, but being in the habit of cooking everything else from scratch. I cook this from scratch as well. Try it and see the difference for yourself.

{Soy and Milk Free} There is no substitute for moist, dense buttermilk cornbread, but if you use almond or rice milk and oil, it will turn out more crumbly but still very good.
 

2½ cups yellow cornmeal (NOT cornmeal mix)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder (homemade)

½ tsp baking soda

2-3 tbsp butter, shortening, strained bacon drippings (much better than you might think) or canola oil

2 cups buttermilk (rice, soy or almond, use about 1 3/4 cup)

2 eggs (you can't make very good cornbread without eggs)

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Grease iron skillet (this is where bacon drippings would add flavor to the crust). Place skillet in oven to preheat. In a large non-metal bowl, combine cornmeal and all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Cut in 2-3 Tbsp butter until there are no clumps larger than a pea. In a separate bowl beat eggs and milk together. Mix dry and wet ingredients. Pour into preheated skillet and bake for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.