Category: Fall Favorites

Buttermilk Cornbread – How to mill corn and make a delicious buttermilk cornbread from scratch. Easy, simple, non-sweet recipe. Bake in a cast iron skillet and enjoy with dinner. A huge thank you to WonderMill for sponsoring this recipe!

Every so often we’ll make cornbread to go with our dinner, especially if we’re having chili or some sort of soup like 15 bean soup with ham. Our oldest especially loves to make this buttermilk cornbread recipe, which is actually his own recipe.

Before a few weeks ago, I’d never actually milled corn to make our own homemade cornmeal. All of that changed, however, the minute we started using our WonderMill.

Now we actually mill corn to make our own cornmeal, and it makes the most delicious cornbread. Plus we know exactly what’s in our cornmeal.

And corn is it! No flour, no additives, no preservatives, just corn!

Milling corn literally takes seconds. In just a few seconds we have enough cornmeal for a few batches of homemade cornbread.

I JUST WANT THE RECIPE! TAKE ME TO THE RECIPE FOR BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD!

If you’d rather skip all of my cooking tips, important cooking info for this recipe, and similar recipe ideas – and get straight to the delicious buttermilk cornbread recipe – just scroll down to the bottom, where you’ll find a printable recipe card.

WHERE CAN I FIND CORN TO MAKE CORNBREAD?

While you can order dried field corn online (just search “corn for milling” on Amazon, Google, etc.), it can be quite expensive.

We bought a 50-pound bag of corn, used for farm animal feed, at our local farm store. Of course, before you do so, you want to check and make sure it doesn’t have anything in it that wouldn’t be safe for human consumption.

WonderMill actually recommends using triple cleaned grains from a trusted source.

WHERE DO I FIND A CORN MILL?

The WonderMill Grain Mill is the world’s #1 rated electric grain mill, and it’s what we use to make our own cornmeal, as well as different types of flours for baking.

WonderMill says, “We have tested our mill to make sure it is the Quietest, Cleanest, Easiest To Use, Fastest, Coolest, Most Powerful, and the Longest Lasting Mill in the World.”

Not that our family would need to mill this much, but just to give you an idea of how fast it can work, the WonderMill can grind over 100 pounds of flour in just an hour. It’s heavy duty, durable, and will get the job done.

It makes a great addition to your prepper pantry, so you can grind your own flour as needed.

You can make fresh flour from most dry grains and dry, non-oily legumes and lentils, including:

• Wheat
• Oats
• Rice
• Split Peas
• Buckwheat
• Spelt
• Rye
• Soybeans
• Dried Field Corn
• Chick Peas, etc.

Gluten-free? No problem! The Wondermill is great for making all sorts of gluten-free flours, as well.

HOW DO I GET STARTED USING MY WONDERMILL?

If you’re using your WonderMill for the first time to mill corn for cornmeal, you’ll want to do a test run with at least 2 cups of wheat or another hard grain. Then discard or get rid of the flour.

It is important to only add grain with the mill actually running. Never turn it on with grain already in the hopper.

Also, you don’t want to switch off your mill while it’s milling. Wait until it’s finished milling the grain you added to the hopper. Otherwise, it has potential to clog.

About 8 cups of grain in the hopper will give you 12 cups of flour in the canister; and that is how much flour the canister can hold.

HOW TO MAKE CORNMEAL WITH YOUR WONDERMILL

The mill and flour canister will need to be side by side, so the tube can be pushed into place in the flour outlet on the mill. That way all the flour goes into your canister.

Now WonderMill does recommend placing a plastic bag into the canister, for self cleaning purposes. We just let our flour go right into the canister, store it, then wash it when it’s all gone.

Using the Optimum Setting, turn on the mill and fill the hopper with dried field corn. Once it’s finished grinding, you’ll hear a change in how the mill sounds. Let the mill run for about 5 more seconds, helping it self clean the grinding chamber.

Once you’re done milling, unplug the mill; then separate the canister from the mill. Use your cornmeal to make cornbread right away, or place the storage lid on the canister until you’re ready to use it.

You can either mix up your cornbread by hand or with the help of a mixer.

DOES CORNMEAL GO BAD? HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?

How long cornmeal will last depends on how you store it. Be sure to store your cornmeal in a dry, airtight container when storing it in the pantry.

We usually freeze our cornmeal, again in a dry, airtight container.

When you freeze cornmeal, you want to be sure that when cooking, you only remove the amount that you need and leave the rest in the freezer. In other words, place it somewhere in your freezer that it’s easy to get in and out of without having to take it out of the freezer.

Cornmeal can last at least a year, sometimes longer. According to Does It Go Bad, it can last 2 to 3 years when stored properly.

If you’ve had it awhile, just make sure it doesn’t smell rancid, and watch for things like mold, weevils, or clumps.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BUTTERMILK SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO BUY IT

I don’t know about you, but we almost never buy buttermilk. We just never use it because I know I can make my own when I’m baking.

My mom taught me this little trick when I was younger.

Just add about a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar to a cup or two of milk; I usually use a tablespoon for every 1 to 2 cups of milk. Stir and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes.

And voila, you have sour milk or buttermilk. Works like a charm!

TIPS FOR HOW TO MAKE BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD

You can use just about any type of pan that will work for cornbread or even corn muffins. We prefer to make cornbread in cast iron because it’s just so simple and easy.

You can mix up your cornbread by hand or with the help of a mixer, like the WonderMix kitchen mixer, which we also used for our recent pumpkin bread recipe.

If you’re making cast iron cornbread, you’ll want to pre-heat the skillet for as long as it takes you to mix up your cornbread.

• Go ahead and set the oven to 450° and put the skillet in the oven to pre-heat.
• Mix the dry ingredients together, including the cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

• Add the buttermilk to the eggs and beat.
• Then add the melted butter to the egg mixture and beat.

• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing well.

• Bring the pre-heated skillet out of the oven, and grease it well with bacon grease, cooking spray, or shortening, though I highly recommend bacon grease. Can you tell I’m a cook with southern/midwestern tendencies?

• Then just bake the cornbread for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Now tell me I’m not alone in this… But I love slathering a piece of cornbread with butter and pouring on just a little bit of maple syrup. It’s so delicious!

It’s also really good with a spoonful of apple jelly. And one of my favorite wintertime meals is cornbread and chili. Yum!

How about you? How do you like your cornbread?

While I’ll have more cornmeal recipes for you in the near future, here are a few recipes you can pair up with your cornbread while you wait.

MEALS THAT GO WITH CORNBREAD:

• Creamy Potato Corn Chowder
• Maple Pork Chops with Apples and Onions
• Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
• Easy Instant Pot Chili
• CrockPot V8 vegetable soup

KITCHEN TOOLS YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD:

WonderMill Grain Mill

Large Mixing Bowl and Spatula

Cast Iron Skillet

BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD RECIPE

If you love this buttermilk cornbread recipe as much as I do, please write a 5 star review, and help me share the recipe on Facebook and Pinterest!

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