grainlady, I appreciate the info, but I don't see grinding my own corn as part of the equation. I'm sure you're right and it affects the flavor greatly. I doubt the commercial bakers grind their own corn, so I suspect it's in the mix of ingredients.

Jawiva, as I said, we've tried that, but find that unsatisfactory as well.

As I recall, I made a GF corn muffin recipe and it seemed to be better. Could it be the flour or lack thereof?

yes -- I was going to suggest that it's the use of all corn flours/meals (omitting wheat flours) that gives the taste you like.

Aaah, sorry -- wasn't sure which box you were referring to (I was envisioning rectangular) -- good luck with your search!

When i read a recipe, and a few more to compare, i can almost tell if we will like it or not...DH follows Ruth Reichel to a 't' when he makes cornbread muffins in cast iron. He did buy a courser grind than i like, (i also don't like the grit), but you can heat the liquid in a recipe in the microwave, stir in the cornmeal and soften it by letting it rest for 5-10 min.

Looking at two recipes, Ina's and SmittenKitchen, i'll take the SK. The flour to cornmeal ratio and much less sugar. And i like that she explains why and what could be substituted. More flour will make a more cake-like muffin but i want more corn flavor. If you want that in a muffin, take a look at Ina's. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/corn-muffins-recipe.html

SK is completely different. Could be differentiated by calling this one a 'cornbread' muffin rather than a 'corn' muffin.

.http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2015/02/perfect-corn-muffins/

Take a look at Bob'sRedMill recipes. We love the corn waffle recipe on the back of the organic corn flour package.

Just checked Ruth's recipe in my Gourmet book for skillet cornbread that DH makes and their is no flour at all. Just cornmeal. But that is more of a cornbread that we make in muffin form. And i see a penciled-in change...he uses yogurt milk instead of buttermilk, : )

Most store bought seem more like cupcakes these days. More flour than cornmeal.

We don't like dry, flat tasting, crumbly cornbread. So I searched for a sweet moist cornbread recipe. I found this recipe a couple of years ago and it's our favorite. This is half of the original recipe. Sometimes I make it in a cast iron pan (love the crusty bottom), but muffins are more popular, so I usually make muffins now.

Yes, I know it's not "cornbread", but it's sweet, and moist, and everyone loves it. That's more important than purity, at least at my kitchen table.

Sweet Moist Cornbread

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¾ cup white granulated sugar
½ cup plain yellow cornmeal (not cornmeal mix)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
¼ cup melted butter (½ stick)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease an 8x8” square baking pan

In a small bowl combine flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt.
Mix well to combine with a wire whisk.

In a larger bowl, combine remaining ingredients and whisk well to
combine.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet all at once and stir to combine with a
spatula, don’t over mix, a few small lumps are good.

Pour into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or
until it tests done using a toothpick or a knife inserted near the center, if it
comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, it is done. Let cool, cut into
squares.

If you make muffins, bake them for about 15 minutes - of course you know the drill.

**************

The cornbread from the grocery store is more like this recipe, with more flour than cornmeal.

I would hazard a guess that corn meal muffins from a box have very little cornmeal and a lot of sugar. Find a recipe like that. Sound's like Mom's will fill the bill. If you want something slightly less sweet but along those lines, here is mine. But not very sweet, I don't like sweet corn flavors, I think it is bad memories of my childhood relationship with Captain Crunch! Too many tummy aches from over indulging. You can always drizzle honey on a less sweet muffin, as the men in my family tend to do. And although you don't have to grind your own cornmeal, it does tend to go rancid fairly quickly so store in the fridge and try to buy stuff you know hasn't been sitting on a shelf too too long. They add BHT to store bought mixes to help it stay fresh longer.

Sour Cream Cornmeal Muffins

Mix together:

1 1/4 cup unbleached flour
3/4 cup corn meal. I use a find grind here
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar (I guess you could use 1/3 or 1/2 as well if you want to try even sweeter)

In a separate bowl, mix together:
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sour cream (I have made this with plain yogurt and low fat sour cream and also soured milk and buttermilk)
1 beaten egg

Combine wet and dry ingredients. Scoop into greased muffin tins or use paper liners. Makes a dozen.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Test with a toothpick for doneness.

I have also made this in a square or round pan for cornbread. I have also added corn and shredded cheese and even diced jalapenos on occasion.

You all are such an amazing source of info. I showed this to DH and he's now completely intrigued. I think we'll try the two extremes....no wheat flour and lots of wheat flour and see where we come out. He likes the idea of sour cream, as do I. Yum!

I don't even think of us eating much corn, but with chowders and polenta, masarepa, tamalies, popping corn, mom's corn pone recipe, corn tortilla taco's, the fresh frozen corn from harvest....cornbread...so at least once a week in our rotation or favorites! I even think i have corn in our chili for dinner i just pulled out of the freezer...

We rarely eat corn...once a year we treat ourselves to a fresh ear in the summer of locally grown stuff. And corn muffins are my only true weakness for corn. Maybe an occasional polenta...

I asked the same question a few years back on another forum and got similar suggestions. Grinding our own corn meal/flour is probably out of the question (at least for me) and if you up the ratio of corn to wheat flour you're going to have texture issues because corn has a lot less gluten than wheat flour. I never did figure it out.

I do recall seeing something on America's Test Kitchen where they were making some kind of corn based bread (or something) and they added pureed corn kernels (fresh or frozen) to the mix to punch the corn flavor. I don't have an online subscription to ATK but maybe somebody does and could take a look for the recipe.

My understanding is that corn has no gluten.

I love corn bread - sweet, less sweet, cakey or not. Right out of the oven with butter though - but it sure doesn't age well. I am always unsure what to with dry crumbly gritty old corn bread left overs. I do like adding a little chopped up frozen corn.

agmss15, I freeze leftover cornbread before it gets dry. I once forgot and some cornbread got dry, but not to the point of just crumbling apart. I cut pieces then split them in half horizontally, buttered them, and put them in a hot cast iron skillet to brown a little. Good save there! they were great w/ soup. :)

You can put huevos rancheros with spicy tomato sauce over dry cornbread, I have done it. Top with melted cheese under the broiler--yum!

So DH made the corn muffin with sour cream. He found the mix very dry and had to add milk to make it work. They're fine. They are more cake like than muffin like. But as for replicating the commercial stuff, it's not there. They had even less corn flavor than the regular. So I think the next step will be to go all the way to no wheat flour and make the GF version. It'll take some time though as DH now has 2 batches to eat and I rarely eat them, esp the home made ones.

But I appreciate everyone's input and help on this quest.

IMO, the sour cream recipe has too much cornmeal to the flour, and not enough liquid, and no butter or oil, it's going to be dry.

For down and dirty store bought try some Jiffy Mix.I use it for hush puppies when having fish frys and may add anything to it.Just to much going on at fish frys to use anything time consuming and I like it.

I went back and checked my recipe just in case I forgot to list oil in the recipe, but I copied it correctly. I assume the fat comes from the sour cream. I've been making these muffins for 25 years, got the recipe off of an old Hodgsen's Mill cornmeal sack. Never found them to be "dry" but different strokes for different folks, different tastes to be sure. Not real "corny" though. I'll be interested in hearing what recipe you find that you like. I am like Agmss, I love cornbread in all its variations. I tend to freeze my muffins right away because cornbread either dries out on me or gets moldy. That's why I don't make it more often, its just me at home. That's one reason why I LOVE the Jiffy mix, it only makes six muffins, perfect for my lifestyle. I have ton of cornmeal in the fridge right now though, gotta use that up! I have a recipe for cornmeal cherry scones I want to try.

I don't use many mixes, but I love Trader Joe's cornbread mix. However, it has some whole corn kernels in it, so might not be what you're looking for Annie. They are dried, but give some "tooth" to the finished muffins or bread.

I did find the ATK recipe here.

I like the TJ's cornbread mix too, but it's expensive. At least compared to Jiffy. ;-)

I've used Jiffy when stuck without a paddle...but i need to add some minced onion, garlic, cheddar, any hot pepper flakes i have, and even a tsp of mustard...and a dollop of plain yogurt....frozen corn. I like that it is not too sweet and a good one when traveling and no other options are in sight. Been a long time but would not hesitate. Not sure if it makes a good muffin like Anne is looking for.

I would go back and look at Ina's recipe. She did start out her baking career with a successful bake shop. And maybe add another egg?

Momj47.........I made your Moist Cornbread today and is it ever good! It's perfect and what I was looking for in a corn bread. I'm going to have some with just butter with my tea a little later.

My favorite cornbread has more corn meal than flour, it also has corn kernels which are a nice surprise. The recipe is from A Cowboy in the Kitchen by Grady Spears

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

3 eggs lightly beaten

1 T sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup fresh corn kernels

1 cup flour

1 1/2 cups fine yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375. prepare an 8 x 8 pan, cast iron skillet or 12 muffin cups rubbing with oil or butter. Combine buttermilk, eggs, sugar and soda and mix well. Add the corn. Sift together the flour and cornmeal. Slowly add the flour mixture to the liquids, whisking until well incorporated. Whisk in the melted butter. Pour the batter into pan or muffin tin. Cook pan for 40 minutes or muffin tin for 20 minutes.

Annie: I found the ATK recipe in one of their All Time Best Recipe editions. It is the same recipe you linked to but, as you probably know, they give a lot of detail in their recipes. They didn't find Quaker or Hodgson Mill corn meal to their liking for this recipe, instead recommended a whole grain, fine grind such as Arrowhead Mills. The directions in the reprint you linked to are paraphrased and leave out a few details about how it is to be mixed, which I'm sure makes a difference. If you can get a copy of this cookbook (?library) it is from 2010 and titled Special Collector's Edition All Time Best Recipes. If not and you are interested, I can post it later.

Here's the ATK recipe, with links to their choices for cornmeal and flour, which you can't see unless you can log in?!

Fresh Corn Cornbread

ATK Cornbread

Published July 1, 2013.
From Cook's Illustrated.

Why this recipe works:

For cornbread that’s packed with fresh, concentrated corn flavor, we
puree fresh corn kernels and cook them down into a “corn butter” that is
incorporated into the batter. Buttermilk adds tang, while egg yolks and
a little bit of extra butter ensure that the bread is moist.

Fresh Corn Cornbread
What about a cornbread that actually tastes like fresh, sweet corn instead of cornmeal?

Watch the Video

Serves 6 to 8

We prefer to use a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet in this recipe,
but an ovensafe 10-inch skillet can be used in its place. Alternatively,
in step 4 you can add 1 tablespoon of butter to a 9-inch cake pan and
place it in the oven until the butter melts, about 3 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3
  cups (6 2/3 ounces) stone-ground cornmeal -Arrowhead Mills Organic Yellow Cornmeal

• 1
  cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour -King Arthur Unbleached Enriched or

  Pillsbury Unbleached Enriched All-Purpose Flour
  All-Purpose Flour

• 2
  tablespoons sugar

• 1 1/2
  teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4
  teaspoon baking soda

• 1 1/4
  teaspoons salt

• 3
  ears corn, kernels cut from cobs (2 1/4 cups)

• 6
  tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces -Plugrá European-Style Unsalted Butter or Land O’Lakes Unsalted Sweet Butter

• 1
  cup buttermilk

• 2
  large eggs plus 1 large yolk

Instructions

1. 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven
   to 400 degrees. Whisk cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking
   soda, and salt together in large bowl.

   2. Process corn kernels in blender until very
   smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer puree to medium saucepan (you should
   have about 1½ cups). Cook puree over medium heat, stirring constantly,
   until very thick and deep yellow and it measures 3/4 cup, 5 to 8
   minutes.

   3. Remove pan from heat. Add 5 tablespoons butter
   and whisk until melted and incorporated. Add buttermilk and whisk until
   incorporated. Add eggs and yolk and whisk until incorporated. Transfer
   corn mixture to bowl with cornmeal mixture and, using rubber spatula,
   fold together until just combined.

   4. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in 10-inch
   cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Scrape batter into skillet and
   spread into even layer. Bake until top is golden brown and toothpick
   inserted in center comes out clean, 23 to 28 minutes. Let cool on wire
   rack for 5 minutes. Remove cornbread from skillet and let cool for 20
   minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

Bake muffins for about 15 minutes, or "until done". You know the drill.

This recipe has too much cornmeal for our family. I'm not sure what we actually like, some sort of "corn cake" maybe, but we like it. So I make it!

Annie: The recipe I was referring to in the above post is for corn muffins, not corn bread. Too late to edit.

I generally use the recipe on the box but cut sugar to half, this worked well for me. The best cornbread recipe I tried is on the Bob's Red-Mill box, the almond flour made different compared to other recipes. and it tastes like cake even with coarse stone ground cornmeal. someone may found cut out sugar not have enough sweetness, then you can use 2/3 of the sugar the recipe called for, I do this when we have guests. But my family used to not consume too much sugar.

So we tried GF corn muffins today. Not good. The recipe called for canola oil but didn't say when to add it. So we added it with the wet ingredients, and not liking canola, we used peanut oil. Not a good choice. The muffins have a decent crumb but are oily and not tasty. I think butter is definitely the shortening of choice. Also, unfortunately, they got a little overdone, which didn't help.

I'll be heading to TJs today and will see if they have corn muffin mix to try...

I've never made the tj's into muffins, just bread, but I think it's really good, for a mix. I can't remember if it calls for oil or butter, but I never have oil except olive oil so I just use melted butter anyway.

I much, much prefer Hodgsen Mills yellow cornmeal to any other brand that I've used, included Bob's Red Mill. I store it in a Ziploc in the freezer to help maintain moisture. (
When you open the package, you'll notice that the meal feels and looks kinda' moist.) It's a whole grain cornmeal, not degerminated like many of the other brands. Makes a moister cornbread, IMO.

Here's a recipe for cornbread from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Looks good.

Dr King loved southern specialities. Traditionally, this is a savoury dish, but this version is sweet.

Makes one cornbread, or enough for 20 pieces

Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Sift together 180g coarse yellow cornmeal (aka polenta), 125g plain flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a quarter-teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, half a teaspoon of salt and 125g caster sugar. In a bowl, beat 300ml buttermilk, two eggs, four tablespoons of flavourless oil, two tablespoons of cooled melted butter and the zest of half an unwaxed lemon. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones, until just combined (don’t overmix), then add 200g fresh blueberries. Melt a little butter in a cast-iron oven-proof pan, swirl to coat, then pour in the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, and serve warm or cold.

Not sure about the blueberries, but I like the lemon zest

Here's the link