Cornbread

Alyssa Bartling
Hour 1
Cornbread

Ingredients
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup honey

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, mix together the whole milk, eggs, butter, and honey. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until just mixed.

Place paper muffin liners in a 12-cup muffin tin. Evenly divide the cornbread mixture into the papers. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden.

Preparation Method
The mixing method used in this recipe was the quick bread method. This method is very much like the muffin method. The muffin method calls for the all of the dry and all of the wet ingredients to be mixed separately. Then the wet and dry mixtures are combine until the batter just comes together, but is not smooth.  This technique/method will lead to muffin that's texture have many holes, but no tunnels, which are caused by over-mixing. The only part of the recipe I changed was the use of a 9x9 baking pan instead of using the 12-cup muffin tin and paper muffin liners. The change was made because we were out of the muffin liners.

Critique
Overall, the cornbread and recipe started out dreadful, but ended with an average product. The aroma of the final product was heavenly, the honey really stood out. The taste of the cornbread was a little lackluster. One member of my family described it as tasting exactly like the Famous Dave's cornbread muffins, bland and average. The appearance and texture, was what made this recipe so dreadful. When I decided to bake the mixture in a pan instead of the muffin tin, I calculated the time to about 20 minutes, give or take my mother said. After checking on the cornbread at 20 minutes and leaving it in for 3 more minutes, the cornbread looked perfectly browned and done. But once we served up the first slice of cornbread, I was completely surprised to find that the middle of the cornbread was grossly undercooked. The middle was still running and raw, so I stuck the cornbread in for another 10 minutes, until its was completely cooked. The appearance of the completely cooked cornbread was disappointing. The once golden brown top now looked in between dark brown and burnt. The texture was now very dry and the outside crust was very hard to chew. In the end, I would not make this recipe again. Whether it be human or recipe error, this was not enjoyable to make or eat. This experience taught me that even if you follow a recipe and calculate it to fit your needs, the final product can still turn out unexpectedly.