Go Back Email Link
–+ servings
No ratings yet

Jalapeño-Cheddar Skillet Cornbread

Author: Marie @ Her Progress
There's a moment, about thirty seconds after the batter hits the skillet, when you hear it, a sharp, sustained sizzle. Wedge in hand later, shattering bottom crust, steam curling out of an open crumb, a slick of melted cheddar, a clean prick of heat. You can trace every bit of that back to a few small decisions you made before the pan ever got hot.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time:15 minutes
Cook Time:15 minutes
Total Time:30 minutes
Servings: 8
Save

Equipment

  • Cast Iron Skillet

Ingredients

  • - 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons yellow stone-ground cornmeal about 5¼ oz / 150 g
  • - ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour about 3½ oz / 100 g
  • - 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • - 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • - ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • - 1 cup full-fat buttermilk at room temperature
  • - 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • - 5 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled, plus 2 teaspoons for the skillet (or substitute bacon drippings for the skillet, if you have them)
  • - 2 teaspoons honey
  • - 1 cup coarsely grated sharp aged cheddar about 3½ oz, divided
  • - 2 to 3 medium fresh jalapeños: 2 stemmed seeded, and finely diced (about ¼ cup); 1 stemmed and cut into thin rings

Instructions

  1. Set a rack in the lower-middle of the oven, place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet on the rack, and heat the oven to 425°F. Let the empty skillet preheat for at least 15 minutes while you mix the batter. The pan needs to be very hot, not just warm.
  2. Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a large bowl until you can no longer see streaks of soda. This matters — undissolved baking soda will leave yellowish specks in the finished bread.
  3. In a four-cup measure or a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, and honey together until the mixture looks uniform and pale gold, about 20 seconds.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold from the bottom up just until you no longer see streaks of flour — about a dozen strokes. The batter should still look lumpy. Scatter ¾ cup of the cheddar and the diced jalapeño over the top and fold in with three or four more strokes. Stop. Resist the urge to make it smooth.
  5. Pull the hot skillet from the oven (use a heavy mitt; the handle stays hot for a long time after baking, too). Drop in the remaining 2 teaspoons of butter or bacon drippings and swirl to coat the bottom and sides. The fat should shimmer and just begin to smoke. Scrape the batter into the skillet — you should hear it sizzle on contact — and quickly smooth the top.
  6. Scatter the reserved ¼ cup cheddar across the surface and arrange the jalapeño rings around the edge, one for each future wedge.
  7. Bake until the top is deeply golden, the cheese is bubbling and freckled with brown, and the edges have pulled away from the sides of the pan, 22 to 26 minutes. A wooden skewer inserted into the center should come out clean, with no wet batter clinging to it. If you have an instant-read thermometer, the center will register about 205°F.
  8. Let the cornbread rest in the skillet for 10 minutes — this gives the starches time to set, and a too-warm wedge will crumble. Run a thin knife around the edge, slide the cornbread onto a board, and cut into 8 wedges. Serve warm.

Video

Notes

  • Make ahead. This cornbread is best the day it's baked, but leftovers will keep, wrapped tightly at room temperature, for up to 2 days. Reheat individual wedges in a 350°F oven for 5 to 6 minutes to revive the crust.
  • About the heat. Removing the seeds and ribs takes most of the bite out of the jalapeños. If you like a hotter cornbread, leave the seeds in one of the peppers; if you'd rather skip the heat altogether, swap in a small, seeded green bell pepper.
  • A note on the skillet. A 10-inch cast-iron pan is what I use, and the timing here is written for one. A 9-inch will work — the bread will be slightly thicker and need 3 to 4 more minutes in the oven. An 8-inch is too small; the batter will overflow.
  • If you don't have buttermilk, stir 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or distilled white vinegar into 1 cup of whole milk and let it stand for 5 minutes. It won't be quite as tangy, but it will give the baking soda what it needs to do its work.
Adapted, with thanks, from the spoon-bread tradition of the American South and from a cheddar-jalapeño corn spoon bread in Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible.