Mom's Healthy Cornbread

Author: Stephanie Scarborough

Ever since I was around eight years old my mom has made an absolutely amazing cornbread. As a child, I'd usually eat three or four slices with dinner and have leftovers, toasted with jam, for breakfast.

Unfortunately, my mom's cornbread was as unhealthy as it was delicious, and I wasn't blessed with the fast metabolism everyone else in my house seemed to have. Over the years and through many trials and errors, I've worked on eliminating various unhealthy foods from my diet; such as meat, fried foods, butter, eggs, oil, and cheese. I've altered favorite recipes to contain more healthy ingredients and less fat, including mom’s cornbread.

Mom's cornbread was trickier than most recipes I've converted because I still wanted a moist, sweet loaf. But, I needed to get rid of some of the fat and sugar. I also wanted to use healthier flour, and have a whole grain loaf. First, I tried substituting whole wheat flour for the all white flour, but the loaf came out a bit denser and less sweet than I wanted. So I decided to go half whole wheat and half all white flour, but it yielded a much lighter, tastier loaf.

The original recipe called for 1/3 cup of butter or margarine, but I replaced it with applesauce. I sprayed the top of the loaf with cooking spray—so that it would still be crusty on top. And to lower both the cholesterol and the fat, I got rid of the eggs and used 2 tablespoons of soy flour mixed with 1/4 cup water, instead. I also reduced the sugar from 2/3 cup to 1/2 cup.

I'm so glad I can have my mother's cornbread again—without having to worry about excess fat, sugar, and cholesterol. It's great with chili, beans, soup, or toasted with jam for breakfast.

Mom's Cornbread Recipe

Ingredients

2/3 C whole wheat flour
2/3 C unbleached white flour
1/2 C sugar
(turbinado, muscovado, Splenda, or regular granulated sugar)
5 Tsp baking powder
1 Tsp salt
1 2/3 C cornmeal
2 Tsp soy flour beaten with 1/4 cup water
1 2/3 C soy, rice, or nut milk (or non-fat dairy)
1/3 C applesauce

Instructions

Preheat over to 450° F.
Sift together all the dry ingredients except the soy flour.
Add the remaining ingredients and stir until just mixed.
(If you over mix you may have tough cornbread.)
Pour mixture into a lightly oiled loaf pan or 8 x 8-inch pan, lightly spray the top with cooking spray.
Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick, stabbed in the center, comes out clean.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

** If you're not vegan, you can use two egg whites for each egg or a commercial egg substitute.

Discover more recipes

author bio