It’s been years and years since I last made this Best Jiffy Cornbread. I’m thinking about 1985 or so! Back then I often brought it office food days but the last time, I think, was a Thanksgiving get-together with friends.
Best Jiffy Cornbread – not necessarily a beauty in the pan!
It’s funny, isn’t it, how food can take you back in time and help jog a memory that might have been otherwise lost? I read recently that none of our memories are actually lost – what is lost is our ability to access them. It makes me think of a filing cabinet with no labels. The files are there but we can’t locate them. Sometimes food comes to the rescue.
About Best Jiffy Cornbread:
But I digress. See, I’d lost the recipe. So there we go. I couldn’t remember exactly how to make it, and when I googled it, I came up with hundreds (well it seemed) of different recipes. None of them looked quite right. I wasn’t aware that Jiffy had their own cookbook or I would have checked there!
What I could remember was that it wasn’t too much like cornbread at all. Maybe it would be best described as a corn dish. Almost a corn pudding, except it held together and was sturdy enough that a slice could be picked up. In other words, it was substantial, heavy, dense, and very moist. And it was very flavorful.
It was also extremely easy, which makes sense since it starts with Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix and mostly canned ingredients. I reached out to my sister (we’ve shared so many recipes over the years) and sifted through many recipes online and ultimately melded what was in my head with what I found!
If this isn’t exactly the same, I know it’s darned close and I know it’s every bit as delish as I remembered! The surprise here is how it is so much more delish than could rightly be expected from a simple little box mix and canned ingredients.
So how about you? Do you have any nostalgic memories of or a favorite Jiffy mix-up recipe to share? I’m curious as there were so many possibilities and variations. It’s almost incredible how many, and I don’t know that I’ve seen this amount of spin-offs from any other product. I feel like Jiffy has reached cult status.
Best Jiffy Cornbread
Making the Best Jiffy Cornbread:
Like I said above, this is a super easy recipe. It’s a one-bowl dump-in and mix-it-by-hand recipe and so easy even a child can do it. It might be fun to hand off to a child, maybe with a little help getting it in and out of the oven. It’s so fun to see budding cooks bring something to the table!
The wet ingredients (including the egg) are all mixed together in the order given. The butter is melted but doesn’t have to be cooled because the two kinds of corn cool it down. If the mixture is made in a larger microwave-safe bowl, you can melt the butter and then add the rest of the wet ingredients in the same bowl.
After all the wet ingredients are mixed, in go two boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix. Once that’s been folded in, add in half of a cup of sour cream. The recipe is so forgiving that you could grab a big spoon and plop an estimated amount into the bowl. Stir that in, pour into a dish, and bake.
Serving:
This is easily a side dish and great with a ham dinner for either a special occasion or every day.
Try leftovers (if any) for breakfast, maybe with a pat of butter on top and drizzled with a little maple syrup. Unlike most cornbreads, it’s so moist, even the next day, that it doesn’t “need” the maple syrup but it’s nice for flavor.
Storing Cornbread:
- Store on the counter, tightly wrapped. It will stay moist for several days.
- This may be frozen. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat in the oven.
Saving Money:
The best way to save money on this recipe is to have a well-stocked pantry and fridge full of sale-priced items.
Cornbread Mix: Jiffy is actually the cheapest cornbread mix. I’ve never even seen a knockoff or generic copycat. Do watch for sales and freeze for three days after bringing it home to avoid the possibility of any pests.
Canned Corn: Both canned and creamed corn may be on sale at the same time. For basic pantry items like this, there’s never any sense in paying full price. They are on sale far too often. Stock up when at a low if you use.
Butter: If you have a freezer there’s no reason to ever buy butter at full price. It goes on sale often enough and freezes well. (If you are interested in saving money, you should have a deep freeze.)
- Butter is usually on sale before any holiday but reaches a rock bottom low before Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Stock up at a low, and buy enough to last until the next great sale. Count out the weeks between holidays and buy appropriately.
- Both Aldi & Lidl have great pricing on butter (and sale prices before holidays) and so does your buyers club; you may have to buy more at your buyer’s club than you will at your grocery or discount store.
Sour Cream: Can be a little pricy, especially the better, thicker ones. Buy on sale, take steps to keep it fresh to maximize your spend.
- Sour cream goes on sale regularly, especially before holidays. It has a long shelf life in the fridge (for dairy) unopened but once opened, make sure the seal is tight and store it upside down.
- When using, keep it covered between dips, even if it’s just loosely, and use a clean utensil; you’ll introduce less contamination and it will last much longer.
- If your sour cream looks watery when opened, just stir it back together.
Best Jiffy Cornbread – it doesn’t need maple syrup but leftover for breakfast? Yum!
Best Jiffy Cornbread
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: bread
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
- 1 can (15.25 ounces) whole kernel corn
- 1 can (15.25 ounces) cream-style corn
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
- 2 – 8.5 ounce boxes Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Melt butter in a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl.
Drain the juice off of the whole kernel corn and add to the melted butter. Add the can of creamed corn as is. Add egg. Mix everything together.
Add both boxes of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix and sugar (optional) and mix well. Mix in the sour cream.
Pour into a greased 9″ x 9″ or equivalent casserole dish or cast iron pan.
Bake for 50-55 minutes until top is golden brown and butter knife comes out moist but clean when inserted in the center.
Serve warm.
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