Cornbread (not brown on top, but delicious)

Nick_N

Member
Just curious, the other night we were oven roasting some veggies (onion, red potatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc) in a #8 skillet (just wife & I). My wife decided to make up some cornbread (basic recipe), so we put it in my recently resurrected BSR #8 skillet. I preheated the pan and slipped it in on the raised, top oven rack, above the veggies. We cooked it about 15 minutes, tested with the toothpick (clean), and removed it. The cake didn't stick at all, in fact when I removed the skillet, it actually moved around. What was strange is that it was almost white, and I thought it wasn't done (?), but I suppose the toothpick doesn't lie. I flipped it out onto a platter, and the other side was nice & brown, so all was well, and the cornbread turned out to be really delicious. Just wondering why it didn't brown on the top side, after 15 min @ 450F.
 
It was most likely due to the fact that there was too much water vapor in the oven from the roasting vegetables that was preventing the cornbread from browning on top.
 
I don't know why it didn't. I can only surmise that if you'd left it another 3 or 4 minutes, it would have. FWIW, we do our cornbread at 400F for 25-30 minutes on the rack next to the top. Always turns out nicely browned and we never use a toothpick to check doneness.
 
Thanks, thanks, & thanks..... I never thought of water vapor ! Oh, and the only reason we cooked it for about 15 minutes, at 450F - you guessed it. That's what our directions said. Again, the cornbread was great, just not brown on the top side. TWhen I flipped it out, the side next to the skillet was beautiful.

Thanks guys !
 
If it seems to repeat it itself next time my thought is stick it in the broiler for a minute or two?

Todd's thought also made sense to me and could have been the issue?

Steve,
 
If it seems to repeat it itself next time my thought is stick it in the broiler for a minute or two?

Todd's thought also made sense to me and could have been the issue?

Steve,

Yep, I'm leaning towards the water vapor idea. I just slid it up there on the top rack, because that's where I "ride" a skillet, once in a while, while cooking something else in the oven...

I'll try again with nothing else in the oven......:icon_thumbsup:
 
Okay - cornbread again tonight. Had one skillet seasoning (up top), another with roasting veggies (on the bottom), and this time, I put the cornbread down on the bottom, instead of up top. This time, the cornbread did great (?). Browned very nicely (?). Wonder if the bottom rack vs the top rack, had anything to do with that ? Maybe that water vapor (mentioned earlier) from the veggies, went up top with the bread last time, and this time, the bread was on the bottom, and NOT ? :confused:

Oh well, you live and you learn....:shootself:
 
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