I grew up eating cornbread. It was the main course at breakfast, slathered in butter and homemade syrup. My mom called it “Johnny Cake,” and we adored it!!
Cornbread was on the menu the other day, to be served as a side dish with chili.
I always like to work a day ahead (in case of disasters, like the one I’m about to describe!). It was actually Thanksgiving Day when I was doing the prep work. I had already spent about 3 hours dicing onions and peppers, browning hamburger, and so on, and finally the chili was happily simmering away. (Why, oh why, did it take me so long to make chili for 85 people??)
I was already pretty tired, but I decided I’d quickly get the 3 hotel pans of cornbread baked as well.
I had a recipe scribbled down by a previous cook. Under the title, it said, “1 shallow hotel pan (x 2).” I took that to mean I needed to multiply the recipe by 2 for each shallow hotel pan.
So, for 3 pans, I was using 24 cups of cornmeal, 24 cups of flour, and so on.
After tossing a mountain of ingredients into the ginormous mixer, I finally got everything mixed and wrestled into the pans. I shut the oven door, set the timer for 20 minutes, and breathed a big sigh of relief.
My workday was almost over.
The cornbread smelled yummy as it baked, so, naively, I thought all was well…
The timer dinged happily at the right time, but I was in for a surprise when I opened the door.
The top was a beautiful golden brown, but the bottom was still a mass of unbaked gooeyness.
Oh, dear.
I spent the next hour checking on that cornbread. Turning the oven down. Turning the oven up. Testing it with a toothpick. Testing it with a fork. Oh, mercy.
In the end, it was salvageable…but not in the way it was intended.
What went wrong, you ask??
Well, I shouldn’t have multiplied the batter by 2 for each pan. The note must have meant to make 2 pans!! I had actually put enough batter for 6 pans into 3 pans!! Let me tell you, those were some giant pieces of cornbread!!:)
Here is the recipe I should have used for 1 shallow hotel pan:
4 cups cornmeal
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp. baking powder
4 tsp. salt
4 eggs
4 cups milk
1 cup melted butter
Bake at 425 degrees for 20–25 minutes.
Now it’s your turn. Have you ever had any kitchen disasters?? (Or am I the only one??)
Day 28
