Best Cornbread Recipe from www.blessthismessplease.com

Author: Melissa Griffiths - Bless this Mess 

Prep Time: 5 min 
Cook Time: 20 min 
Total Time: 25 minutes 
Yield: Serves 8-10

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Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup neutral oil or melted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup milk

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Instructions

1. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan or cast iron skillet well and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Whisk to combine well.
3. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add your oil or butter, milk, and egg. Stir just until the mixture comes together and there are only a few lumps remaining.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Serve hot.

Notes

• You can make it it in a 9-inch round cake pan, square baking dish, or 9-inch cast iron skillet. Bonus! You can also make these into muffins or double the recipe and toss it in a 9×13-inch baking pan. You’ll just need to adjust the baking time if you are making muffins or doubling the batch. Muffins take around 15 minutes to bake and a doubled recipe takes 35-40 minutes to bake.
• Use yellow cornmeal in this recipe. White works fine, but it just doesn’t look the same. Golden yellow cornbread is a must. Also, don’t try to sub any of the cornmeals used for making tamales – they are a different grind and the texture doesn’t come out the same.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 Slice

Serves 10

Amount Per Serving
Calories		173
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 1.1g		2%
Cholesterol 19.1mg		6%
Sodium 516.8mg		22%
Total Carbohydrate 37g		12%
	Sugars 15.1g
Protein 4g		8%

Ann's Banana Cream Pie

This pie has a custard base that makes it extra good-no comparison to the jello pudding variety. Ann says to make sure you give it several hours to chill and set. Thanks for sharing.

Ingredients 

Baked Pie Shell
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
3 cups whole milk
5 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp butter - cut up
2 tsp vanilla
4 ripe medium bananas
3/4 cup whipping cream

     In 3-quart saucepan, stir cornstarch, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar.  With wire whisk, beat in milk.  Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and boils - stirring constantly.  Boil 1 minute. Remove saucepan from heat.
     In small bowl, with wire whisk, lightly beat eff yolks. In thin steady stream, whisk about 1/2 cup hot milk mixture into yolks.  Gradually whisk yolk mixture back into milk mixture - stirring rapidly to prevent curdling.  Cook over low heat until mixture is very thick and coats the back of a spoon well or temperature reaches 160*, stirring constantly. Remove saucepan from heat.
     Stir in butter and vanilla until butter melts. Transfer custard to medium bowl. Press plastic wrap onto surface. Refrigerate until cool - about 30 minutes.
     Slice 3 bananas and arrange half of bananas in bottom of baked crust. Spread with half of custard. Repeat with remaining bananas and custard.  Press plastic wrap onto surface; refrigerate until filling is set - at least 4 hours or overnight.
 
     To serve - in a small bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat whipping cream with remaining 2 Tbsp of sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread over filling. Slice remaining banana and arrange on top of pie. 

Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes

Shortcut Sweet Potato Bake

I got this recipe from Karen Hurley at a cooking class. She makes it quickly with the canned yams. It was good but I still prefer to boil my cut up sweet potatoes until cooked but still firm; layer them in a baking dish with some pats of butter and salt (Bryan likes it with brown sugar added here but I find it a little too sweet) and then just use her topping recipe. I will post her original.

12 Servings

Yams
2 -28 oz. cans Yams in syrup, drained
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping
3 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup shopped pecans (or nuts of your choice-I like chopped almonds)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup self-rising flour
         (I often don't have the self-rising. You can make it yourself with 1/4 cup regular flour minus 1/2 teaspoon. Add a shy half teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch salt and you make the full 1/4 cup)


     Mash sweet potatoes in mixing bow: add sugar, salt, milk, butter,eggs and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Pour into a 9X13 baking dish. Cover and refrigerate until 1 hour before serving.
     Mix the topping ingredients just until crumbly; set aside until ready to bake. (Can be made up to one week ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.) Sprinkle evenly over the sweet potato mixture before baking
     Bake at 350* for 20-30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.