One foodie friendship we can’t get enough of is the one between Jennifer Garner and Ina Garten. #PretendCookingShow host and barefoot contessa, with its amazing recipes and crazy chemical reactions, always inspires us to try something new. And since the pair just linked up again for a new episode of Ina, be my guest Food Network has yet another Garner and Garten-approved recipe for you to try.
The two collaborated on a fluffy, buttery brown butter skillet cornbread inspired by Garner’s grandmother’s recipe. In fact, Jennifer made the recipe over a video call with her mom in 2020 and shared the original recipe on Instagram. In this episode, be my guestGarten said Jennifer requested a little cornbread Q&A session to find out how to improve on her grandmother’s recipe.
Ina’s version is very different from Grandma Pat’s, from the process to the ingredients. To add the nuttiness of brown butter to this quick bread, Ina browns two sticks of butter in a cast iron pan, which nicely caramelizes the milk solids in the butter. , it won’t burn. (Our test kitchen has put together a helpful guide to browning butter for beginners, which is a must-read.) Once the butter is a nice tan color, add whole milk and 2 extra-large eggs. Add the butter to the bowl and whisk everything together. Mix together until mixture is well combined.
Once that’s done, Ina adds the dry ingredients, including all-purpose flour, sugar, fine yellow cornmeal, baking powder, and kosher salt. Then comes Ina’s first trick. It’s about letting the batter rest. We already knew that some baked goods, like cookie dough and fresh bread, need to sit out before baking, but Ina says cornbread has its benefits, too. She lets the dough rest for 15 minutes so that the cornmeal absorbs some of the liquid and blends better into the bread dough.
“It’s just an incredible difference,” Aina says of the break.
Once the batter is ready, Ina gives it a final stir and returns it to the pan she used to brown the butter. There’s no need to spray the pan with oil or sprinkle it with flour, as the remaining butter in the pan will help grease it. Just before putting it in the oven, Ina sprinkles the bread with flaky sea salt for added flavor, but you can omit it if you prefer. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes, and the cornbread will rise and become fluffy and ready to serve. When Ina offers Jennifer her first slice from the skillet, she receives a rave.
“This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life,” exclaimed Garner.
Ina also offers some tips for drawing on Garner’s grandmother’s recipes. Jennifer loves her family’s recipe, but she also thinks it’s a little rich and not very fluffy. After a little recipe analysis, Ina realized that Garner’s cornbread might have the wrong ratio of flour to cornmeal. Ina uses 1 cup of cornmeal to 3 cups of flour, while Grandma Pat recommends 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour to 3/4 cup of cornmeal. But cornmeal is much heavier than wheat flour, so you’ll need more flour than cornmeal to make fluffy cornbread, Ina observes. Adding more leavening agents, such as baking powder, should also help, Ina tells Garner.
We ourselves are fans of fluffy cornbread made in warm pans, especially recipes like Creole Skillet Cornbread. Pair a quick bread with a hearty steaming cup of chili or a plate of grilled chicken taco salad and you’ve got a delicious meal *and* a delicious snack. Remove the butter and start browning.
