Great-Grandmother Steinbeck's Johnnycake (Cornbread)

52 Reviews

Prep: 10 min
Cook: 35 min
Ready In: 45 min

“This recipe is out of my great-grandmother Bertha Iva Steinbeck's recipe box. She really was John Steinbeck's aunt. She lived in Hollister, California, and died in the '30s. I've been making this since I was about 5 years old when my grandmother, Agnes Steinbeck Bowman decided I was old enough to learn to cook. It was actually the second thing I learned to cook...she wanted to see how I handled scrambled eggs before she introduced me to something that demanded some technique! I've never tasted better cornbread in my 47 years.” - by Charles D. Kemp

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch glass baking dish.
Sift the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, corn oil and egg. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix just until blended. Pour into the prepared pan, and shake gently to level it out.
Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown. Serve hot. Just with butter will do, it is plenty sweet enough!

Reviews (52)

Rate This Recipe

1gdcowgrl gone

Sep. 10, 2009

"If you're looking for a light textured, slightly sweet cornbread......This is for you. My husband doesn't even like sugar in his cornbread and we finished off the whole batch of them last night with ..." See moreour Gumbo!! As he is stuffing his face he's reminding me "I don't like sugar in my cornbread!" Guess that isn't true anymore. It only took 20 minutes to bake. 30 would have been too long. Also, didn't have buttermilk---substituted 1 TBsp. vinegar in 1 c. milk (let it sit for 5 minutes first). I'll be making this again for sure!! EDIT: Just made this again so I could submit a photo of it.I used yellow cornmeal. I had maybe 2 tsp. of baking powder left (much less than called for) and my cornbread came out great again! Second EDIT: I realized that I left out the fact that when making cornbread I always place my greased pan IN the preheated oven til it gets hot...that way, when you pour your cornbread batter in, it forms a really nice 'crust' on the bottom of the cornbread."

JAS21ACE

Nov. 23, 2005

"I THOUGHT THIS RECIPE WAS GREAT...I USED IT IN MY THANKSGIVING STUFFING AND MY WHOLE FAMILY LOVED IT...WATCH THE COOKING TIME BECAUSE MINE ONLY TOOK 25 MINUTES..." See more"

laurabora

Dec. 13, 2006

"I made this to go with dinner at bible study and it was a hit! Will certainly be making this again! The only change I made was to use yellow corn meal, as that was what I had on hand, and to use sou..." See morered milk (1c. milk with 1-2Tbsp. vinegar)and veggie oil, not corn. Awesome recipe!"

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