Bringing the Bite

• In general, the cheese and pepper additions will comprise about 1 cup, or about one-fifth of the final cornbread batter. For best results, grate the cheddar yourself, rather than buying grated cheese. You can find canned jalapenos already diced and seeded, but they won't pack as much heat as their fresh counterparts. Finely chop a couple of fresh jalapenos and remove most of the seeds. A handful -- a gloved handful -- of the diced, seeded peppers go into the cornbread batter, at a ratio of about 3 parts cheddar to 1 part jalapenos.

Boosting the Batter

• Whether you use a store-bought cornbread mix or bake from scratch, additions like cheddar and jalapenos go in last. Use a large bowl for your boxed mix or for a homemade blend of cornmeal, white flour, baking powder and baking soda. A medium bowl works well to whisk together such wet ingredients as a beaten egg, vegetable oil and buttermilk or water. It's only after the wet ingredients are added to the large bowl's blend and briefly mixed that the cheese and peppers are carefully folded in.

Panning for Gold

• A cast iron skillet lends a homey oven-to-table touch to Tex-Mex cornbread. It also enables you to create a crispy brown bottom by heating butter in the sturdy pan before adding the batter. If you'd rather skip that step, coat the unheated skillet with nonstick cooking spray or solid vegetable oil. Pour the cheese-pepper cornbread batter into the hot or room-temperature pan, which then goes into a preheated oven. The cornbread should turn golden brown in about 25 minutes.

Getting Square

• Cornbread baked in a square baking dish comes together in much the same way that skillet cornbread does, although it might need a longer cooking time because the bread becomes thicker with less room to spread out. After greasing or spraying an 8-inch baking dish, ladle the homemade or boxed mix -- to which you've just added cheddar and jalapenos -- into the square dish. Bake the cornbread for about least 35 minutes, or when it's turned golden brown and is pulling away from the sides of the pan.