Black Skillet Brown Butter Cornbread

(This recipe is under construction and needs more testing)

A cornbread recipe I’ve cobbled together over the years from a few different sources (Anson Mills, SeriousEats, etc…). The sour cream should keep things moist, and the brown butter adds a nice nutty richness without adding any effort – just put the butter in the skillet while it heats up!

Fold a few roasted and diced green hatch chile peppers into the batter if you want to kick it up another notch.

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces (2½ cups) coarse yellow cornmeal (Anson Mills is great if you can get it)

  • 1/2 - 1? cup whole milk

  • 3/4 cup sour cream

  • 3 1/2 ounces (7 tablespoons) unsalted butter (plus more for the table)

  • 1 large egg

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Equipment

  • 8 to 10 inch cast iron skillet. Scale recipe (and bake times) up by 1.5 to 2x if using a 12-inch skillet.

Directions

  • Adjust the oven racks to the lower-middle and upper-middle positions and heat the oven to 425 degrees.

  • Once the oven has pre-heated, add the butter to your (8 to 10 inch) skillet, and place in the oven on the lower rack for 10 to 20 minutes until butter has browned and the skillet is hot.

  • While the skillet heats, add the cornmeal, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

  • Whisk the sour cream, milk, and eggs together in another bowl until homogenous.

  • When the butter has browned, pour it into a heat-proof cup vessel you can pour from easily (a pyrex measuring cup for example). Reserve about a tablespoon of the butter in the skillet and return it to the lower rack in the oven.

  • Whisking constantly, slowly stream the brown butter into the milk/egg/sour cream mixture.

  • Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk lightly until smooth. The batter should be fairly thin.

  • Pull the skillet back out of the oven, and swirl the brown butter around to coat the sides of the pan.

  • Scrape the batter into the skillet with a rubber spatula. It should sizzle. Immediately place the skillet on the lower oven rack and bake for 15 minutes.

  • Transfer the skillet to the upper rack and continue baking until the cornbread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 5 to 10 minutes longer.

  • Flip the cornbread out onto a cutting board so that the crispy bottom is facing up or leave the bread in the skillet for serving.

  • Cut into wedges and serve with butter and honey.