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Sweet Buttery Cornbread

Sweet Buttery Cornbread

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Sweet Buttery Cornbread for a Crowd

Cornbread for a Crowd

This is mom’s hardbound 1957 Betty Crocker Cookbook.  As you can see it has been well-loved, like some floppy-eared stuffed rabbit, hauled around from place to place until only love is holding it together.

Retro Recipes

As a little girl it fascinated me. I used to love looking at the retro pictures that would make a 50’s housewife proud. These were several of my favorites.

Retro Recipes for a Crowd
Retro Recipes for a Crowd
Retro Recipes for a Crowd
Retro Recipes for a Crowd

Not that I had any interest in cooking, mind you.  But I loved the pictures.  When I moved out in my early twenties, it was the first thing I took. I cherished it.  From then on, mom and I had an ongoing debate of just exactly whose Betty Crocker Cookbook it was.  I still smile every time I look at it.  This Cornbread for a Crowd recipe is derived from one of the original Betty Crocker recipes.  I’ve enhanced it over the years, but I still think about that wonderful cookbook every time I make it!

This cornbread is sweet and buttery-crunchy good.   I’m posting it because we’re cooking for a 175 person youth activity for our church and the kids requested cornbread and chili. Naturally, Jeff wanted some for himself, so I hauled out this wonderful old cornbread mold I appropriated from mom’s kitchen.

How much?

The thing about a Corn Bread for a Crowd recipe is you’re limited by your pan size (length and width).  You can’t simply double the recipe, pour it into a smaller size baking pan without creating a mess.   This recipe produces 24 good size pieces of cornbread per 11 1/2 x 19 1/2 inch disposable pan.  That’s about as big a pan as you’re going to be able to easily get.  I made 7 pans (168 pieces) and it was more than enough for the crowd of 175 with 24 pieces per pan, and there were a lot of requests for seconds.  When you’re cooking for crowds of 100 plus, no one is going to take one of everything.

Cornbread for a Crowd

This cornbread comes together very easily.  I really like adding the optional corn nibbles.  They add a sweet, juicy pop of flavor.  I added the Pepper Jack cheese for Jeff’s version but not for the youth, since I want a more broad appeal.

Cornbread for a Crowd

I prefer a sweet version of cornbread and this recipe really delivers.  I promise everyone will love it!

Cornbread for a Crowd

Don’t you just love sweet warm cornbread dripping with butter?

Cornbread for a Crowd

Let’s do this!

 

5 from 9 votes
Sweet Cornbread
Cornbread for a Crowd
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
25 mins
Total Time
40 mins
 

This wonderful cornbread holds together beautifully.  

It’s light, fluffy and the taste is fantastic.  

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American, Cooking for a Crowd
Servings: 24 servings
Author: Betsy Edwards
Ingredients
  • cooking spray to grease pan
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups yellow cornmeal
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 (11 ounce) cans Niblets corn drained well
  • 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 4 large eggs
  • 6 tablespoons butter melted
Optional Add-ins
  • 1 large jalapeño pepper seeded, roasted, peeled and diced
  • 1 cup Pepper Jack cheese shredded
Special Equipment
  • 1 (13 x 18 inch) sheet pan
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 375°F. 

  2. Place corn in strainer over sink or bowl to drain.

  3. Spray the bottom and sides of a (13 x 18 inch) sheet pan with cooking spray.

  4. In a large bowl, add the sugar, flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk to combine.   Add the corn, buttermilk, eggs, and butter and stir until just combined.   Batter will be like wet sand.

  5. If including any of the optional items, mix them into the batter.   

  6.  Pour onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread evenly.

  7. Bake until light golden-brown and pulling away from the edges of the baking sheet, about 20 minutes.  Cut into 24 pieces and serve warm.

MAKE AHEAD NOTE:
  1. Once cooled, cornbread can be covered with plastic wrap or foil and stored up to 2 days at room temperature or refrigerate up to 4 days. Cornbread can be frozen up to 3 months, wrapped in foil and placed in a heavy-duty freezer bag. Thaw on the counter.

 

 

Retro Recipes

Want more great Group Recipes ?

Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

This lovely summer dessert combines sweet juicy peaches with a crunchy, buttery, golden brown cobbler. I served this at our Young Men and Young Women Church Camp, but it’s just as perfect for your family’s summer dinner cooked in the oven!

Marvelous Meatball Sandwiches

Want a wonderful ooey-gooey, saucy, savory Freezer Meal Sandwich Recipe? These little meatballs are baked in the oven, heated with a great time-saving spaghetti sauce, and place on a crunchy hoagie roll slathered with garlic butter and melty Provolone cheese! And you have a Fan-‘freakin’-tastic sandwich (to quote Jeff).

Easy Oven Rice for a Crowd

Don’t miss this one! Now you can make perfect rice EVERY TIME in just 30 minutes with this easy and proven recipe to cook rice in the oven. You’ll want to add this to your recipe box for sure.

Butter Pecan French Toast Breakfast Casserole

Looking for an over-the-top delicious breakfast for your family this holiday season? This wonderful overnight Butter Pecan French Toast Casserole won’t fail to delight. Nestled in between the velvety pieces of cream-soaked bread are bits of buttery, suger-y crunchy pecans. Heaven!

Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole for a Crowd

You’ll love this Delicious Easy Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole. They don’t get any quicker or easier than this! The great thing about this dish is that it comes together easily in 20 minutes night before and is simply the best Breakfast Casserole I’ve ever had. It’s the perfect Breakfast Casserole for your Crowd this holiday season. I’ve also included a smaller version which serves 12.

Aloha Dreams

Welcome to Aloha Dreams!

I'm so glad you dropped by.  I'm Betsy.  Here you'll find my favorite fabulous, trusted recipes - everything from delicious, quick meals for your family to wonderful classics made easy.

I'm also here to help you with large group recipes from 20 to 200.  So next opportunity you get to cook for a large group - Say 'Yes!'  Then relax. I've got your back.

Ever wished you could build your dream home? How about building your dream home in a tropical paradise?  Join me, room by room, as we design and build a fabulous dream home in Hawaii!

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Cheesy Garlic Bubble-Up Bread

Cheesy Garlic Bubble-Up Bread

  Aloha Dreams

   Fabulous Recipes, Cooking for a Crowd & Dream Home Design      

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Buttery, Crunchy Cheesy Garlic Bubble-Up Bread

This buttery, crunchy Cheesy Garlic Bubble-Up bread is not only delicious, it’s easy!  Just put frozen dinner rolls in your refrigerator to thaw overnight and you’ll be enjoying it in no time.  The Parmesan cheese forms a wonderful crunchy crust and the top is basted with garlic butter.  What’s not to love?  This quick, easy and delicious cheesy bubble-up bread has only 4 ingredients, 15 active minutes prep time and is irresistible!  See how good it looks in the pictures?  It tastes even better.

Cheesy Bubble-Up Bread

Have you ever noticed how the smell of yeasty, delicious baking bread locks in to some primitive settings in your brain to produce feelings of safety and comfort and home?   I was in getting my annual mammogram this morning (if you’re a gal, have you gotten yours lately?  If not, please stop right now and call to make an appointment.  It’s important to squeeze in a little time.) and the imaging center is located adjacent to the hospital in one of the campus buildings – where, apparently, they bake the bread for the hospital cafeteria.  I don’t particularly enjoy getting mammograms (who does?), but that smell fills me with a sense of peace and comfort every year I go in there.   I find I don’t mind it nearly so much…

That wonderful smell inspired me to create this delightful Cheesy Garlic Bread Bubble-Up recipe.  I’ve been wanting to update my bread recipe on the Large Group Lunch menu section of AlohaDreams for some time.  And man, was it worth the wait.  I served a similar bread and salad combo to a local ladies networking lunch and it was gone in seconds. This one’s even better.

It’s easy too, using frozen roll dough.  Just let the rolls thaw overnight in the refrigerator, give them a quick bath in some butter and garlic salt, followed by a quick spin in the Parmesan, then set them aside in a skillet to rise.  Your bread will look like this before it rises.

 

Cheesy Bubble-Up Bread

When it’s ready to go in the oven It should look like this.  See all that wonderful Parmesan cheese goodness on those rolls?  Well, when it’s done baking that Parmesan cheesy goodness gets wonderfully crunchy and delicious around the bottom and edges.

Cheesy Bubble-Up Bread

Like this.

Cheesy Bubble-Up Bread

Combined with a nice salad, it’s a terrific large group lunch recipe for girls camp or for a ladies event.  It will produce 24 rolls, although I guarantee you that many people will want seconds, so I’d plan on it serving 20.  You can assign it out to volunteers to make in advance and re-heat it, wrapped in aluminum foil, for 10-15 minutes in a 200 degree oven at the event and it’s just as good.  The handy recipe’s at the end of the post.

Cheesy Bubble-Up Bread

Mixed Salad for a Crowd

And speaking of salads, here’s everything you need to know to pull together a great mixed salad for a large group!

Tossed Green Salad for a Large Group

Serving Size for Salad as one of your Main Dishes

Lettuce seems like such an easy ingredient.  But when you’re cooking for a crowd, the question is more one of ‘how much’ than ‘how to’.  (In the midst of planning a meal for a large group, that question has kept me awake at night.) (Yeah, I know, I need a vacation!)  But seriously, it helps to know.  So here you go.  When serving salad as one of your main dishes, plan on 2.5 – 3 ounces of lettuce per person if you’re going to also have add-ins, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. (which you totally should!).  Here is 2.5 ounces of lettuce.

Salad Serving Size

Just pick yourself up some mixed lettuce.   Sam’s Club offers either Tossed Salad or Chopped Romaine, both in 2 pound bags.

1 (2 lb. bag) Tossed Salad/Chopped Romaine serves 16 (young women) to 25 (combo of adults & children as part of a buffet).

 Dressing

A standard serving of salad dressing is 2 tablespoons, which equals 1 ounce.

1 (2 pack – 40 ounce each (80 ounces total)) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing SERVES 85 – 100.  (I have actually SERVED 120 with 80 ounces since, on average, the guests (an even mix of men, women, teens and children) really only took approximately .75 ounce per person.)   For faster serving, mix dressing with milk,until it’s reached a thinner consistency of your liking, then pour thinned dressing into 2-4 squeeze bottles or pour it back into the original dressing bottles.

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1 (2 pack – 20 ounce each (40 ounces total) Olive Garden Italian Dressing = 40 – 50 (2 tablespoon) SERVINGS.   

Salad Dressing Quantities to Purchase

SERVING SIZE 12 SERVINGS 24 SERVINGS 48 SERVINGS
2 Tbsp 1 1/2 cups 3 cups 1 1/2 qt

Croutons

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1 (32 ounce) bag Olive Garden Seasoned Croutons will serve about 35 people.  Not every one will take some, an average serving is about (1 ounce) .   That’s this much.

Salad Serving Size

Veggies

NOTE: You can probably find folks who have an abundance of vegetables and would be happy to provide them at no cost (trust me, toward mid-summer they are looking for someone to take their extras).

Tomatoes

Salad Serving Size

 

15 (medium tomatoes), sliced or chopped, mixed in with the tossed lettuce = approximately 150 servings.

 

Cucumbers

Salad Serving Size

6 (sliced cucumbers) mixed in with the tossed lettuce = approximately 150 servings

Carrots

Salad Serving Size

10 (carrots, sliced) mixed in with the tossed lettuce = 150 servings

 

Bell Peppers

Salad Serving Size

20 (bell peppers, sliced) mixed in with the tossed lettuce = 150 servings

Pin for Later.

Cheesy Bubble Up Bread

Or Make Now.

 

Cheesy Garlic Bubble-up Skillet Bread
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
45 mins
 
Part of the charm of this recipe is the contrast in textures. The soft, fluffy interior of the rolls combines wonderfully with the crunchy buttery bottom. Add bits of savory parmesean cheese through out and a cheesy toping and it doesn’t get much better! To accomplish the crunchy, buttery exterior these rolls need to be cooked in a Dutch oven or heavy high sided skillet or pot.
Course: Salad
Cuisine: American
Servings: 20 people
Ingredients
Makes 24 rolls, serving 20 - 24 people
  • 1 (12 roll bag) Rhodes dinner rolls
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup grated parmesan cheese 4 1/2 ounces
To baste the rolls:
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 3 tablespoons butter
Equipment
  • 1 large cast iron skillet
  • Basting brush
Instructions
Instructions
  1. Thaw desired number of rolls overnight in the refrigerator. It can be kept in the refrigerator up to 48 hours before using. (Do not refreeze once it’s thawed).
  2. In a small bowl, add the butter and the garlic salt and microwave 30 seconds to melt. Stir and set aside.
  3. Pour 1 tablespoon of the melted butter into the skillet. Roll the skillet around to distribute the butter evenly across the bottom.
  4. Add the Parmesan cheese to a small bowl and set aside.
  5. Using kitchen sissors or a knife, cut each roll in half to form 24 balls. They will mangle a bit when you do this. It’s not a problem, just reform each dough half into a new ball.
  6. One at a time, roll each of the balls in the seasoned butter mixture, making sure to cover completely. Then roll the dough ball in the parmesean cheese, pressing slightly to thoroughly incorporate the cheese.
  7. Nestle each roll into the prepared skillet or pot. They should just fit, keep them 1 layer deep only.
  8. Allow the dough to rise for about 30 - 45 minutes (it takes less time in a warm kitchen than in the dead of a cold winter.

  9. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
  10. When the dough has risen, place the skillet in the oven for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes remove, cover with aluminum foil to stop further browning and bake for another 10 minutes.
  11. Let the bread cool for a couple minutes.  While cooling, microwave the butter and garlic salt for 30 seconds.

  12. Slide rolls out of pan, brush with the melted butter mixture and enjoy warm.

Recipe Notes

NOTE on Rhodes Rolls: Before you buy your rolls, make sure:

  1. Rolls should be separate, not stuck together
  2. There are no ice crystals in the bag
  3. Dough should be frozen solid
  4. Make sure the “Best By” date has not passed

 

Want More Great Group Recipes?

Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

This lovely summer dessert combines sweet juicy peaches with a crunchy, buttery, golden brown cobbler. I served this at our Young Men and Young Women Church Camp, but it’s just as perfect for your family’s summer dinner cooked in the oven!

Marvelous Meatball Sandwiches

Want a wonderful ooey-gooey, saucy, savory Freezer Meal Sandwich Recipe? These little meatballs are baked in the oven, heated with a great time-saving spaghetti sauce, and place on a crunchy hoagie roll slathered with garlic butter and melty Provolone cheese! And you have a Fan-‘freakin’-tastic sandwich (to quote Jeff).

Easy Oven Rice for a Crowd

Don’t miss this one! Now you can make perfect rice EVERY TIME in just 30 minutes with this easy and proven recipe to cook rice in the oven. You’ll want to add this to your recipe box for sure.

Butter Pecan French Toast Breakfast Casserole

Looking for an over-the-top delicious breakfast for your family this holiday season? This wonderful overnight Butter Pecan French Toast Casserole won’t fail to delight. Nestled in between the velvety pieces of cream-soaked bread are bits of buttery, suger-y crunchy pecans. Heaven!

Aloha Dreams

Welcome to Aloha Dreams!

I'm so glad you dropped by.  I'm Betsy.  Here you'll find my favorite fabulous, trusted recipes - everything from delicious, quick meals for your family to wonderful classics made easy.

I'm also here to help you with large group recipes from 20 to 200.  So next opportunity you get to cook for a large group - Say 'Yes!'  Then relax. I've got your back.

Ever wished you could build your dream home? How about building your dream home in a tropical paradise?  Join me, room by room, as we design and build a fabulous dream home in Hawaii!

Tropical Salad

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