Moist and Healthy Cornbread: Use Olive Oil and Honey!

My family and I love cornbread. We try to have it at least once a week and enjoy the break from regular sandwich bread. Cornbread has great flavor and depending on how course the cornmeal is, it also has a great texture. I usually use a medium course cornmeal. But my love affair with cornbread has not always gone smoothly. In the beginning, while it looked great, it would be dry. Ever swallow dry cornbread? Not easy! But with a change of 1 ingredient, you can have moist (and healthy) cornbread that will have people raving. Choose honey or olive oil!

This is what my recipe looks like BEFORE I change it:

Ingredients for Golden Yellow Cornbread (recipe)

1 cup of yellow cornmeal ( I use Bob's Redmill)
1 cup of sifted flour (I use Bob's Redmill)
¼ cup of sugar (I use Florida Crystals, organic sugar)
½ tsp. Salt (I use Sea Salt)
4 tsp. Baking powder (I use organic.)
1 egg (our own)
1 cup of milk
¼ cup of shortening (Butter flavored Crisco)

Sift the dry ingredients together and add the egg, milk and shortening. Add the egg (beaten) and mix all for at least a minute. The batter will be on the lumpy side, that's the way it is supposed to look. Pour in a greased 8x8 pan or greased muffin pan.

Bake in a hot oven-425 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

IF you want MOIST cornbread, add ¼ cup of HONEY (I use raw honey from a local hive keeper) instead of the sugar. Or, you can replace the ¼ cup of shortening with 1/4 cup olive oil (I use Colavita organic virgin Olive Oil) or any type vegetable oil.

I pick one or the other to do. If you do both of these changes at the same time it will change the consistency of the cornbread batter too much. The middle will be heavy and not "bounce".

My family loves the taste of honey and they love it in the cornbread. But if I think the family has consumed too much in the way of bad cholesterol, I make the cornbread with olive oil instead of shortening and add the honey AFTER the cornbread is done.

Using olive oil instead of shortening is a great way to use a "healthy" oil. I have substituted olive oil for shortening in cakes too. I feel good about making treats with olive oil.

Honey is such a great food and I believe a very healthy one. It's close to being perfect in my eyes. I use raw honey that has not been processed. I also use organic virgin olive oil. You can see how a minor change in ingredients can make cornbread moist AND healthier!

Grandma's recipe: my changes to it