Corn Light Bread

Serves: 12

Hands On Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Ingredients

1/4 cup shortening or butter
2 cups plain cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the shortening or butter in a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Heat the pan in the oven until the shortening is melted.

Sift into a large mixing bowl the cornmeal, flour, sugar and salt. Combine the buttermilk and baking soda in a measuring cup, then stir into the dry ingredients until combined. Add the melted shortening from the loaf pan; stir to combine.

Pour the batter into the hot loaf pan and bake until golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool before slicing.

Nutrition

Per serving: 190 calories (percent of calories from fat, 24), 4 grams protein, 32 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 5 grams fat (1 gram saturated), 1 milligram cholesterol, 185 milligrams sodium.

About the recipe

There are certain foods, says Kelley Lugo, that will always make her feel "like a 10-year-old girl running free and chasing fireflies in the hot summer evenings in Franklin, Tenn.", especially the corn light bread her grandmother Marion Herd used to make.

The contributor: Kelley Herd Lugo, who was born in Biloxi, Miss., and raised in Duluth. She and her husband live in Decatur with their two children.

The story: "Every summer my younger sister Erin, cousin Jeff and I would spend a week at our grandparents house on a 60-acre cattle farm in Franklin, Tenn. ...

Dinner was always delicious. A typical meal would include pot roast with carrots and potatoes, green beans and a corn bread that Ive never had anywhere else. I later learned that she called it corn light bread. It is moister, sweeter and lighter in texture than traditional corn bread. It goes great with ... any traditional Southern main dish."

-- Susan Puckett, for the Journal-Constitution as part of the Southern Recipe Restoration Project