Brown Butter Skillet Cornbread
This lightly sweet cornbread has a crunchy, buttery crust, which comes from baking it in a hot skillet. If you have a cast-iron pan, this is the time to use it. The heavy, heat-retaining material will give you the darkest color (which equals the most flavor). But any large ovenproof skillet will work. And if you don’t have a skillet big enough to hold all the batter, you can either halve the recipe or bake the cornbread in 9-by-13-inch pan. (Brown the butter first in a saucepan.) Your bread won’t have the same dark crust, but the moist crumb flavored with brown butter and maple syrup is ample recompense.
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks)/170 grams unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup/120 ml maple syrup
- 2 1/4 cups/530 ml buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups/180 grams yellow cornmeal, fine or medium-coarse grind
- 1/2 cup/65 grams whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup/60 grams all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoons/18 grams baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons/9 grams kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon/5 grams baking soda
Directions
- 1
Heat oven to 375 degrees. On the stovetop, in a 11- or 12-inch skillet (ovenproof and preferably cast-iron), melt the butter over medium heat. Cook, swirling pan to lightly coat sides and bottom, until the foam subsides and the butter turns a deep nut brown. (Watch carefully to see that it does not burn.)
- 2
Pour brown butter into a large bowl. (Do not wipe out the pan.) Whisk the maple syrup into the butter, then whisk in buttermilk. The mixture should be cool to the touch; if not, let cool before whisking in the eggs. Then whisk in the cornmeal, flours, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
- 3
If the skillet is no longer hot (cast iron retains heat longer than other metals), reheat it briefly on the stove for a few minutes. Scrape batter back into it. Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into it emerges clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool in the skillet for 10 minutes before slicing.