Why Does My Jiffy Cornbread Fall Apart? How to Fix It?
Jiffy is a boxed ready-made corn muffin mix you can also use to make cornbread. It is supposed to make the best cornbread; although that is true, the Jiffy cornbread sometimes falls apart. So, why does Jiffy cornbread fall apart, and how can it be fixed?
A Jiffy cornbread falls apart because it lacks either fat or a bonding agent. The easiest way to fix it is to add an egg, butter, or more milk.
A crumbly Jiffy cornbread is common. Luckily, you can prevent that and fix it the next time it happens. Cornbread is naturally crumblier than regular white flour bread, so it can quickly get crumbly than it is supposed to. In the following paragraphs, I will explain the factors that make Jiffy cornbread fall apart and how you can fix and prevent this.
What Causes Jiffy Cornbread to Fall Apart?
Cornbread is supposed to be moist and crumbly. However, it should also keep its shape when cut. So, before you label your Jiffy cornbread as crumbly, make sure you aren’t exaggerating.
Cornbread is overly crumbly and falls apart because it either lacks a bonding agent or is fat. Also, there are other external factors, such as mixing and oven temperature, but if you get the cornbread mix right, they will be less significant.
Once you take it out of the oven, the story is finished, and there’s not much you can do to fix a baked cornbread that turned out too crumbly. However, watching it closely will let you know what you are doing wrong so you can prevent it.
You must balance the dry and wet ingredients to perfection for a compact Jiffy cornbread. If you add too much fat from butter, cream, or buttermilk, the fat will burn, drying out your Jiffy cornbread.
If you add too much milk, your Jiffy cornbread will become overly moist and fall apart. Still, a moist Jiffy bread is the lesser of the two evils, as there may be something you can do to fix it.
Another factor is the mixing. Even though mixing doesn’t have a significant effect if you have already done the batter right, it can still impact your cornbread adversely if you mix too much or too little.
Your bread will be dry and crumbly if you mix too much and lumpy if you mix too little.
What to Do With Crumbly Jiffy Cornbread?
If the damage has already been done and your Jiffy cornbread turned out too crumbly, there aren’t many things you can do to fix this, as it is already a finished process.
Luckily, a few things worth trying might save your Jiffy cornbread.
If it appears dry, the first thing is to try and rehydrate the Jiffy cornbread. So, while it is still hot, spray some warm water on the crust and cover it with plastic wrap and then a cotton kitchen towel. This will seal the moisture, allowing it to penetrate back inside the Jiffy cornbread, making it softer, more elastic, and thus more stable and less crumbly.
If the Jiffy cornbread seems overly moist but is evidently fully baked, don’t pop it back into the oven, as it may burn. In this case, try fixing the Jiffy cornbread by setting it in the fridge. Refrigeration is a mandatory step with custard desserts because it stabilizes them, preventing them from dripping.
Analog to this, it should stabilize your Jiffy cornbread to some extent.
If your Jiffy cornbread seems burnt, but you know you haven’t overbaked, it is probably the fats. If you add a little too much butter, for example, in your Jiffy cornbread batter, it will burn while baking. This is a worst-case scenario, as there’s nothing you can do to fix your Jiffy cornbread.
In this case, the best way to use your Jiffy cornbread would be to repurpose it and make it an ingredient in another dish.
How to Prevent Jiffy Cornbread From Falling Apart?
Preventing your Jiffy cornbread from falling apart is much easier than fixing it. Add one more egg yolk to make sure your Jiffy cornbread keeps its shape. The additional egg yolk will make the batter firmer and more compact without impacting the taste or adding too much moisture.
Adding a whole egg yolk and white would be more impactful; that’s why you should only add the yolk.
This is one of the rare cases where there is such a thing as too much butter. The butter fat is very likely to burn to make your Jiffy cornbread fall apart when you take it out. Another thing you should do is reduce the fat by one quarter.
Although the Jiffy mix already contains sugars, and you don’t have to add any for taste, you can add a teaspoon of brown sugar, honey, or corn syrup. The added sweetener will help the battered bond more easily, creating a more solid Jiffy cornbread.
Instead of milk, you can use buttermilk, or at least partially. So instead of adding the prescribed 1/3 of a cup of milk to the batter, you can mix milk and butter in the same amount. This will keep the butter from burning.
Also, you can skip the milk altogether and add creamed corn instead. You can do this by mashing canned corn and adding it to the batter.
Adding one tbsp. of sour cream may also do the trick and give you a well-balanced and stable-consistency Jiffy cornbread.
To prevent your Jiffy cornbread from getting overly crumbly, causing it to fall apart in your hands, you can try one or several of the solutions listed above. Mix and match as you see fit, and don’t be afraid to experiment; there is always next time.
Can You Cut Jiffy Cornbread While It’s Still Hot?
When it comes to baking, it isn’t recommended to cut the baked good while it is still hot, no matter what. Whatever you are baking, you should leave it on the counter for at least 10 to 15 minutes to rest, settle, and chill.
The same applies to Jiffy cornbread too. Cutting it while it is hot means cutting it before it is ready. Even if the Jiffy cornbread turned out perfect and you did everything just right, cutting it while it is hot can make it crumble beyond repair.
Give your Jiffy cornbread the much-needed 10 to 15 minutes to set and stabilize and cut it once you can touch it with your bare hand without burning your skin.
