We had plenty of soup beans tonight but I forgot to buy the cornbread mix that I normally get, so I went looking for a recipe I could whip up from things already at the house. Unfortunately, nearly everybody puts baking powder (which I didn’t have) in their cornbread, so I made a few changes. The only real problem with the batch I made is that it didn’t taste as sweet as we prefer. Still, turned out pretty good for hybrid recipe taken from 4 others.

• 1-3/4 c corn meal
• 3/4 c flour
• 1 tsp salt (forgot to put it in, but turned out okay anyway)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp corn starch
• 3-4 drops lemon juice
• 1-1/2 c milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp butter
• a few small pinches of sugar

Let the pan heat up; I used a little more than medium heat. Once it’s hot, I add a little canola oil. I don’t normally put much oil in the bottom of the skillet since it’s non-stick, just enough to get the edges of the “pancakes” to sizzle. Then cook until you can see the cake starting to solidify up the side just a little and carefully flip. Total cook time per “pancake” is about 3 to 4 minutes, maybe less. Once the pan gets good and hot, you’ll have to watch or they may cook too quickly.

The recipe actually turned out a little thick, so cutting in some more milk probably wouldn’t hurt. Also, they rose much more than I expected, considering the way I substituted for the missing baking powder. A little more sugar and these would have been just about right.