Cranberry Cornbread

Are you sick of me talking about cranberries yet? Because I still have a long way to go! Don’t worry though, I think I’m going to freeze the rest of the bag (which by the way, is still half full. I swear I can’t make a dent in the thing).

This time around, I went the carb route. I mean, it has been like, a week since I’ve baked something so I figured it was time. Lindsay gave me the great idea of combining cranberries with corn bread. I don’t know why but it sounded so right.

Cornbread is sort of funny. I really like it and I always want to make it, but it usually comes out dry. When cornbread isn’t dry though, it’s awesome. I have yet to find that perfect recipe so until I do, I’ll keep workin’ on it. I have heard people add greek yogurt to cornbread which helps keep it moist, anyone tried that before?

Anyway, this recipe was really simple and I’m sure you could use dried cranberries (or cherries) too if you don’t have a 6lb. bag of fresh cranberries laying around.

Cranberry Corn Bread

(adapted from AllRecipes.com)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup splenda
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups “buttermilk”- I make my own using 1 cup nonfat milk and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before using. You could also use lemon juice.
• 1 cup fresh cranberries, halved. I’m sure dried would be good. Dried cherries would probably work too- good tart flavor!

Basically, you just mix everything together adding the cranberries at the end.

The original recipe called for 1 cup of sugar but I wanted to cut down on that just a little if I could. I’ve never used Splenda before when baking so I was a little unsure. I decided half Splenda/half sugar would probably work out okay. It tasted great so I think next time I might try all Splenda…risky, I know.

Once all the cranberries were folded in, I poured the mixture in a 9×13 inch greased pan and cooked it for about 40 minutes at 375.

This smelled amazing and luckily, tasted just as good!

This cornbread is definitely sweeter than the cornbread I’m used to. Most cornbreads I’d pair with dinner but this I think I’ll have for breakfast or maybe dessert. It wasn’t too sweet, just sweeter than the more savory kinds.

I thought this turned out really good. I don’t notice the Splenda which is definitely a good thing.

If you have extra cranberries leftover from Thanksgiving, definitely give this a try! This would also be a great addition to Christmas goodies! By the way, I have a list of like, 50 different dishes I want to make over Christmas. I think I’m just excited to be cooking/baking for more than my husband and I (so I won’t be the only one eating!).

Before we leave for Phoenix (my parents live there), I was thinking I might make the preschoolers next door a holiday treat. The spider cupcakes were so cute, then I sort of flaked out on Thanksgiving, so I gotta pull through for Christmas! This is what I was thinking:

Melting snowman cookies!! How cute is that? I’m pretty sure preschoolers would love that. I’m pretty I’d love that and I’m 28.

 

Do you bake/make anything special over the holidays?