Hi everyone! I’m back just in time to post for Thanksgiving. This year will be a quiet one for us. My brother and his fiancée usually spend Thanksgiving in North Carolina with her family and join us for Christmas instead. My sister, on the other hand, will be in Colorado celebrating with her “friend’s” family. Which brings me to the reason for this post: she’s in charge of the cornbread. She doesn’t cook, so we had to find a recipe that’s delicious but still simple enough for her to make.
I found a recipe on YouTube that calls for 2 boxes of Jiffy, 1 can of creamed corn, 1 can of whole corn kernels, 1 cup of sour cream, 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, and diced jalapeños to taste. It looked pretty simple, but after reading through the comments, several people suggested adding 2 eggs and a stick of melted butter to make it more moist. And so began our adventure to see which version—with or without the eggs and butter—would taste better.
We started with the version that included the eggs and butter. My sister also added way more jalapeños than the recipe called for—but it’s her cornbread, so go crazy, girl. The instructions said to bake it at 350°F for 45 minutes. The lady on YouTube used a bundt pan, but I can’t get anything out of a bundt pan to save my life—no matter how much I butter it—so we went with a 9×13 instead.
Now, as some of you may know, I am not the type of Asian who excels at math and science. So I assumed that since we were using a baking pan, we could bake the cornbread for less time. WRONG. With the added eggs and butter, it actually needs the full bake time (or even a bit more) to cook through. We ended up putting it back in the oven, so overall this version baked for about 45 minutes anyway. The cover image is from when we first pulled it out at the 30-minute mark. Notice how it’s not very browned yet. And for the record, I did not take that photo, lol.
The verdict on this version was that it turned out very moist and cake-like, but spicy! I thought the flavors were great, but my sister prefers a more “bready” cornbread, if that makes sense. The taste was solid, but for her, the texture needed to feel more like traditional cornbread.
So we made a second batch of cornbread, this time leaving out the eggs and butter. We baked it for the full 45 minutes in the same 9×13 pan. This version came out golden brown and absolutely perfect. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures because I didn’t think I’d end up posting about this—regret, regret, regret.
My sister loved the second batch. She used fewer jalapeños and added more cheese, and it definitely had a more “bready” texture. Personally, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one, but she was thrilled with it.
We needed to figure out conclusively which version was the winner so she’d know what to make for Thanksgiving. So she took both batches with her to the hospital and had the staff try them while she was making rounds. The verdict? Overwhelmingly, people preferred the version with the eggs and butter. A few voted for the second batch, but the clear winner was the moist, cake-y one.
So, ladies and gentlemen, the recipe with the eggs and butter is the one she’ll be making at her friend’s Thanksgiving this year. Don’t judge this recipe, by the lone photo that was taken of this bake-off. The undercooked image is all I had after everything was said and done. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving!
Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
Equipment
- 1 Mixing bowl
- 1 Wooden spoon
- 1 9×13 pan
Ingredients
- 2 boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix
- 1 can of creamed corn
- 1 can of no salt added whole kernel corns (drain)
- 2 eggs
- 1 stick of melted butter
- 1 cup of sour cream
- 1 cup of shredded cheddar (we used sharp cheddar)
- 1/4 cup of diced jalapeños (add as much or as little as you want)
Instructions
- Set your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
- Mix all of the ingredients together in your mixing bowl
- Add to a buttered or parchment lined pan once everything is incorporated
- Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown/done
- Cool and serve
