Marie Calender's Sweet Cornbread Recipe

Love moist, sweet cornbread? My mother gave me this quick recipe years ago for making homemade cornbread that tastes just like my favorite restaurant brand, Marie Calendar's. It tastes fantastic with Chili, or my favorite Navy Bean and Ham Soup.

Although cornbread is quick to mix together and easy to bake, it is also one of the types of bread that can easily get too dry. Here are some tricks to make your cornbread taste great:

1. Bake Cornbread in a loaf pan or deeper baking pan. The deeper the pan, the more moist the cornbread will be. I like a silicone loaf pan because it seems to hold the moisture in better and it makes the cornbread easy to take out later.

2. Don't Overbake Cornbread. Usually, when you test a cake to see if it is done, you want it to spring back when you touch it with your finger. Cornbread is a heavier type of bread and it will spring back but you might see a slight indention afterward. Generally, if the top is lightly browned, it is done. If you are still worried, you can poke the middle of the cornbread with a toothpick to see if the middle is still batter or whether it is fully baked.

3. Cover the Cornbread with Foil after taking from Oven: If you find you have baked it a little too long, you can preserve the moisture by covering the cornbread with foil while it is still hot.

4. Serve with flavored Butter: I've always loved honey butter and when started adding flavors to it, I discovered a whole new way to make my cornbread (and other bread) taste great. I also love to serve the butter at room temperature by using a Butter Crock so it spreads easily and doesn't tear the bread.

5. Serve with Molded Butter. I've recently discovered that you can use silicone molds for shaping regular butter, honey butter, or margarine. This turns your cornbread into a fancier meal for guests or a party. Just press the butter into the mold. Harden for a short time in the refrigerator or freezer and then pop it out. You can serve these molded butter on a plate or put inside paper cupcake or candy holders for easy serving.

6. Let the Kids Make the Butter. Having a party that includes kids? Keep them busy and let them help you prepare by making the butter for the cornbread. All you need is heavy cream, small plastic or glass containers with good lids, and marbles.

Did you know that cornbread is one of the main foods used by the early settlers? You probably remember that corn (maize) is an American crop developed by the Native Americans and shared with the Pilgrims. Cornmeal is a nutritious and easily stored grain which was often the cheapest and most widely eaten food of many of the pioneer settlers. They would take large bins of cornmeal with them as they traveled, or they would bring dried corn with them and then grind it for making a variety of dishes including:

• Corn Pone: thicker corn dough which was baked in a skillet.
• Johnny Cakes: thinner cornmeal batter made with milk and eggs and cooked like a pancake.
• Hush Puppies: round dough which is deep fat fried.
• Grits: dried corn which is soaked in calcium hydroxide (a kind of salt which increases the nutritional value of the food) and then cooked.
• Hominy: Softened corn grains are also ground and mashed to make dough for corn tortillas and tamales.

Cornbread and the Civil War: Both sides of the Civil War relied on cornmeal as a staple to feed their soldiers. Cornbread can be baked, fried, steamed into pudding, or cooked in a skillet, so it could be cooked no matter what the circumstances the soldiers found themselves in.

Cornbread and Native Americans: Thousands of years before the English came to America, the Native Americans had developed corn through a breeding program from a plant with small grains into one with much larger grains. Used in many parts of the United States, the development of corn allowed the Native Americans to live in permanent settlements rather than remaining as hunter-gatherers.