Jiffyloaf: a Guide to Happiness Through Cornbread

So, you like cornbread, but you don't want to make corn muffins or don't have a pan,. I stumbled on the delicious solution to this problem a while ago, and thought others might also like to savor the fresh baked goodness of Jiffyloaf.

So, Jiffy is about the simplest thing to make, and the directions vary only a little from what's on the box, but I'll go through the whole deal for completeness sake.

Ingredients:
1 box of corn muffin mix (I happen to use Jiffy)
1 egg
1/3 cup of milk

Other Supplies:
aluminum foil
a mixing bowl
measuring cup
something to mix with (I use a hand beater)
a spoon (not shown)

I'd recommend once you've got everything together, go ahead and preheat the oven to 375F so it'll be ready when you are.

So, this is where the magic behind Jiffyloaf lies: the aluminum foil pan. This pan is great because you can vary the size depending on your tastes, and there's very little cleanup involved.

Making a pan is fairly simple, get a sheet of aluminum foil that's roughly square. I place the jiffy box down about 2 inches from each edge and fold the aluminum up. At the corners, just pinch the foil together and fold the little triangle to one side or the other. As you can see from the image below, I try to make the box about half again as wide and as tall as the jiffy box itself. This seems to be a good size to evenly cook.

This is fairly obvious: mix the ingredients in the bowl.

Once you've got everything a nice, even consistency, pour it into your pan and spread it around to an even height.

By this point, your oven should be heated up, so you can go ahead and toss your pan in. The aluminum foil will sag a lot, I recommend holding it at opposite corners. I also recommend mixing it up near the oven so you don't have to hold it as long.

Another trick I've learned is to place the foil such that the very ends are resting on bars, not sagging down between them.

So, cooking times will probably vary a lot, I know they do for me and I use the same oven every time. This loaf turned out delicious as always, so you can use the times below as a starting point. Basically, you're going to want it to be a nice golden brown and not gooey in the middle.

I started the timer at 18 minutes, since I'm paranoid about burning things. The first image is what it looked like at the end of those 18 minutes. The loaf is way too pale, it's obviously underdone.

After about 6 more minutes, I checked again, and it looked to be about done. I jabbed the center of the loaf with a toothpick and wiggled it around. It didn't feel gooey, and the toothpick didn't have any uncooked batter on it when I pulled it out, so I proclaimed the loaf ready to eat.

Once you think it's ready, you get to learn yet another benefit of cooking in an aluminum foil pan: You can just pull it out with your hands. Grab the foil at the ends and pull it out. I usually flip it upside down over a plate and peel the foil off.

Now just make sure to turn the oven off, and you're ready to eat!

For those of you wondering where the happiness comes in, I threw a party based entirely around this stuff, and it was probably the best party I've ever had. I'm serious.