Corn Bread

Baking is one of those things that just makes my soul feel so much better after any given day, specially those days that tends to suck your energy up. We've all had those days once in a while. For some people is a Friday afternoon and for others a middle of the week kinda day. Well for me baking something that reminds me of a happy moment is all it takes to lift me up.

While growing up in Boston we had many cold days. After a long day of work my dad used to come home and bake corn bread from scratch. Let me tell you that it was the best corn bread I've ever tasted. This particular recipe reminds me a lot of my dad and takes me back to fond memories of us as kids waiting around the table for the corn bread to come out of the oven and dig in. 

My dad paired his corn bread with a big mug of coffee. He took a piece of the bread and slathered some butter on it and let it melt a little before digging into it. Sounds great, ha! He had his coffee black, I can't even think about having mine without cream or milk. :) He was the baker in the house. He has an extremely sweet tooth too!

I do miss those days, while growing up very close to my parents. Now, we live in different places and in order to see each other we must take a plane.

He was a man that enjoyed baking and was pretty darn good at it too (was, because he doesn't bake anymore), but was horrible with recipes. He wrote nothing down. My sister is just like him, cooks amazing, but writes nothing down. They can so easily cook and even bake by eye. I just can't!  It has taken me many trial and errors to come to a recipe that reminded me of his corn bread.

While in the process of trials and errors I came across some good recipes that had good results. Let me share my recipe with you.

Corn Bread
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or milk)
1/2 cup unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
2 large egg

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch square or round pan.
Mix in dry ingredients and set aside. In a small bowl mix the buttermilk, melted and cooled butter and the eggs. 
Combine wet to dry ingredients and mix until well combined without over mixing. 
Bake for 25 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 5 minutes before cutting.

Note: you can add cream corn or spices if you wish (like cinnamon).