Cornbread fresh from the oven
I came up with this recipe based on my existing recipe for cornbread. I swapped out the egg and milk with powdered ingredients so that I can make mixes to leave at my off-grid cabin where I do not run a refrigerator when we are not there. I plan to either use a vacum sealer or mylar bags and hope to get about a year out of them.
This recipe would also be useful for anyone who has long term food stores as all the ingredients are shelf stable for up to 30 years.
This is a real easy recipe (as you’ll find all of mine will be) and is a great way to get your feet wet if you are new to baking.
A couple of notes about the Wonder Mill. I have a manual mill which I have used to make flour. I picked it up used and it works well. It takes a 10-15 minutes per cup of flour and requires a great deal of effort to produce. I found that while I liked the results I was not using it much. I plan to motorize it in the future and leave the manual part for power outages and emergencies.
The Wonder Mill on the other hand is simple. In less then a minute I have cups of flour that required no arm breaking effort. I think my usage of whole grains is going to greatly increase along with my baking.
Also a couple of notes about the ingredients. I am using store bought popcorn. You will want to use the plain bag type or other sources for corn. Microwave popcorn should not be used as the butter will jam in your mill. For the wheat berries I am using a hard white wheat but I think just about any wheat berries could be substituted.
Now lets get to it
- 9 ounces of popcorn
- 4.2 ounces Hard white wheat berries
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅔ Cups of sugar
- 2½ tablespoons egg powder
- ½ cup powdered milk
- 2 tablespoons shortening, bacon fat, or vegetable oil
- 14.2 ounces (little more then 1¾ cups) of water
- Grind Popcorn with the Wonder Mill on the bread setting. 9 ounces should yield about 2 cups of cornmeal.
Cornmeal ready
- Grind the Hard white wheat berries with the wonder mill on the bread setting. I used a digital scale to measure out 4.2 ounces which from my research would yield about 1 cup of flour.
- Place 10-inch cast iron skillet in oven on middle rack and heat to 450°F.
- Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl until evenly incorporated. I used our Kitchenaid mixer to do this but it can also be done by hand.
- When all the ingredients are mixed add 14.2 ounces of water. I used a digital scale again to get an accurate measurement but if you do not have one just use a little more then 1 & ¾ cups of water. I based this off the powdered milk and eggs instructions so depending on your brand it may differ slightly.
Batter being mixed
- As oven nears 450°F, remove skillet and add fat. Swirl fat to evenly coat the bottom. I used bacon fat but any shortening can be used. At our cabin I plan to use vegetable oil the we keep there (bacon fat requires refrigeration.
- Pour batter into hot skillet and return to oven
Batter in cast iron pan
- Bake until top is just golden and edges have browned and pulled away from the side of the pan, 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and serve warm.
