Cornbread is one of those dishes that varies greatly from region to region of the United States. Canada tends to go along with the northern versions, as of course they are our neighbours.
In the south, cornbread tends to be more cornmeal and less flour, for a dryer texture and more corn flavoured taste.
In the north, cornbread tends to be less cornmeal and more flour, for a cakier texture and less pronounced corn taste.
In my kitchen, I have found that I like a balance of the two. I developed a cornbread recipe, and have been using it for a few years now. One morning I had some buttermilk left over, and an overabundance of cornmeal. I decided that I wanted to see how well the cornbread muffin mixture would convert over to pancake recipe. After a couple of adjustments, I have a recipe that I am quite happy with. It is a bit more northern, but still has a good cornbread taste and texture. I did sweeten it up, but used brown sugar and honey so that there was not just sweetness from the ingredients, but a flavour as well.
There is a fair amount of butter in this recipe, but it contributes to the tenderness of the pancake. It also makes butter at the table unnecessary, and when leftovers are toasted they can easily be eaten out of hand with no added butter.
These are a nice brunch pancake, and if you have some pulled pork kicking around, serve them in a stack with pulled pork in between and Jack Daniels/Maple syrup poured over the top for a super nice sweet and savoury breakfast. They also pair very well with my Maple Butter, or so says my chief taste tester.