This is truly the best easy cornbread recipe I’ve EVER tried.
The texture of this cornbread recipe is ultra moist, tender, and buttery. The taste is perfectly sweet, thanks to the honey.
I’ve even included a recipe for jalapeño honey butter. You just can’t enjoy cornbread without honey and butter, in my opinion!
You may never buy pre-made cornbread or a box mix again after you see how simple and quick it is to make cornbread from scratch.
This recipe is also a perfect base for Thanksgiving stuffing and dressing.
In the meantime, you’ll just have to serve this cornbread on the side with some soups, stews, or hearty, warming chili.
How to Make the Best Cornbread Recipe
What is Cornbread?
Cornbread is a fairly simple combination of basic kitchen ingredients, plus cornmeal – but it’s always an impressive, delicious side to bring to any gathering, family dinner, or potluck. This moist, flavorful cornbread contains buttermilk and sour cream for so much moistness and flavor. It also uses real corn for an extra pop of flavor, extra sweetness (without too much sugar), as well as extra moisture. Serve with a side of butter (or flavored butter – recipe below!) or a drizzle of honey, and people will be asking you to bring it to every gathering for years to come.
What’s the Difference Between Northern-Style Cornbread and Southern-Style Cornbread?
This recipe is for a Northern-Style cornbread. It’s sweetened with both honey and sugar and contains lots of rich ingredients like eggs, buttermilk, milk, and sour cream. This makes it ultra-rich and more cakey, not crumbly. It stands out all on its own… but with a dollop of flavored butter and/or a spoonful of honey, it’s simply amazing.
Many Southerners would say sugar has no place in cornbread. That’s likely because the first versions of cornbread were made with just cornmeal, salt, and water as a part of many daily diets. Southern-style cornbread tends to be more crumbly.
Ingredients for Northern-Style Cornbread:
- Eggs – Binds the ingredients to avoid a cornbread that crumbles apart.
- Buttermilk – Helps to thicken the batter, provide extra flavor, and activate the baking soda so every square of cornbread stands tall and proud. More on buttermilk below.
- Milk – The ratio of equal parts buttermilk and milk provides the best texture!
- Sour cream – Adds richness and a bit of a tenderizing tang.
- Honey – Lends sweetness and a hint of floral flavor.
- Yellow cornmeal – Preferably stone-ground cornmeal. More on this ingredient below!
- All-purpose flour – Measured correctly, so you don’t end up with chewy or dense cornbread.
- Baking powder & baking soda – Helps the cornbread rise. Learn more about the differences between these two leaveners in my Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder article!
- Granulated sugar – Sweetens and moistens the cornbread. More on the role sugar plays in baking here.
- Fine salt – Brings out all the other flavors.
- Butter – Always use unsalted butter in baking so you’re in control of the amount of salt.
- Fresh or canned corn – The star ingredient! This boosts the corn flavor and provides a slight contrast of texture.
What Type of Cornmeal Should I Use?
- I prefer stone-ground cornmeal for cornbread, as it’s generally a slightly coarser product, and typically boasts a corn-forward flavor – which is exactly what we’re looking for in a cornbread recipe.
- If you don’t have stone-ground cornmeal, or can’t find it at the supermarket, then any yellow cornmeal will work just fine.
- Any cornmeal should be found in the baking aisle of your local supermarket.
- Just be sure not to accidentally use cornstarch or corn flour, as these are not the same thing and cannot be used interchangeably!
How to Make Easy Homemade Cornbread Recipe:
- Whisk the wet ingredients. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, milk, sour cream, and honey.
- Whisk the dry ingredients. Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Make a well and add the wet to the dry, then stir.
- Add the melted butter and the corn. Stir until just combined.
- Bake. Pour into a prepared 9×13-inch baking pan and bake until the top is golden brown and the edges have pulled away from the sides of the pan.
What Type of Pan Should I Use for This Cornbread Recipe?
My favorite pan for baking cornbread is my 9×13-inch USA Pan. I don’t recommend baking this recipe in a glass pan or a ceramic pan, as those types of pans don’t conduct heat well, so the edges may dry out before the center bakes through. Check out my full post on Glass vs. Metal Pans for more info.
How Do I Make My Cornbread Moist? How do I Prevent Cornbread from Being Dry?
Buttermilk and sour cream are my secret weapons here!
- Buttermilk is used primarily for its pleasant tangy flavor, but it also helps to tenderize and leaven baked goods.
- I always recommend using real buttermilk for this reason.
- You can read more about buttermilk, and why I don’t prefer buttermilk substitutes, in my Buttermilk 101 article.
- Sour cream lends extra fat content, combined with its creamy consistency, means it brings another level of moistness to this cornbread.
- I recommend using a full-fat sour cream for the full textural and flavor benefits.
Is Cornbread Gluten-Free?
Most cornbreads, including Jiffy Cornbread Mix, contain at least some flour (often whole wheat flour). My cornbread recipe contains all-purpose flour, for added structure, so this recipe is not gluten-free. If you experiment with gluten-free substitutions, let me know how it goes in the comments below!
Can I Use this Recipe to Make Cornbread Muffins?
Sure! Pour the batter until three-quarters full into about 24 muffin tin cavities and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes.
How Long Will This Cornbread Recipe Stay Fresh?
Wrap leftover cornbread in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature.
Can I Freeze Cornbread?
Yes! Full slabs of cornbread, or sliced portions of cornbread, can be wrapped well in plastic wrap and stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
What to Do With Leftovers of Homemade Cornbread Recipe?
- Make Cornbread Stuffing
- Cornbread Dressing – crumble or dice the cornbread to make dressing/stuffing.
- Cornbread Croutons – to make croutons, brush cubed cornbread with butter and season with a little salt and pepper, and bake in a low oven until crispy.
I tried this recipe and it’s really good.
So glad you enjoyed it, Elsie!!
Tessa, can you use cake flour instead of all purpose to get a slightly lighter cornbread? If so, would it be the same amount as the AP flour, or does the amount need to be adjusted.
Hi Lisa! We haven’t tried that, but we think that would give the cornbread a really cakey texture and odd flavor, so we wouldn’t recommend it.
hey Tessa ! can i use white cornmeal instead of yellow cornmeal?
Hi Fatima! We haven’t tried this cornbread with white cornmeal, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work! The flavor might be a little more delicate, as white cornmeal has a more subtle flavor. Let us know what you think once you’ve given it a try! Happy baking 🙂
My tenth month old can’t have honey yet even if it’s baked into something. Can I omit the honey? Should I add more sugar?
Thank you!
Hi Josafina! I would just skip the honey! It shouldn’t make too much difference to the sweetness, but feel free to add a tiny bit more sugar if you prefer a sweeter cornbread. Let us know how you like it! 🙂
Made this for work and first time overbaked it at 40 minutes but it was still good. I added a drizzle of honey on top. I do prefer mine sweeter so second time I added another tablespoon of sugar and will add honey drizzle on top. Also will bake for 30 minutes. Thank you for a great recipe
Can I make this without eggs Tessa? I am allergic… Any good egg substitutes?
We haven’t tried that, sorry, so I really can’t say Raj! Feel free to experiment and see what works for you 🙂
Excited to try this recipe as I had recently just said I needed to learn to make cornbread from scratch rather than from a box! Turned out tall, fluffy, moist, and lightly sweetened with a full corn-forward flavor – so yummy! My family was mixed on having whole corn in it, so I might try without next time, but I personally like having the whole kernels in there Definitely will make again!
YAY! So happy to hear that you and your family loved this cornbread so much, Emily!!!
Made this tonight… it’s so good. I sautéed the jalapeños for the honey butter but opted to leave them out (knowing my family’s tastebuds and they would love the honey butter without the extra spice). Will definitely save this recipe and make it again. It came together easily and tastes great.
So excited you and your family loved this cornbread so much, Cindy!!
I am not a fan of corn in cornbread. How will it affect the structure if I leave out the corn?
Hi Karen! We have not tried omitting the corn in this recipe, so I can’t tell you for sure! We like the corn for an extra pop of flavor, extra sweetness, and extra moisture – and it does provide more stability for a thicker structure. If you don’t prefer the corn, feel free to experiment with omitting it and let us know how it goes!! 🙂
Can I make this recipe into muffins?
Hi Marguerite! We haven’t tried that, but it should work fine! You’ll need to decrease the baking time to about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Let us know how it goes!
I made this recipe into muffins. I sprayed the pans with olive oil spray and they released beautifully. I got 22 muffins and baked them for 15 minutes. The corn flavor is very good and the texture is outsatnding. I would have preferred a bit more sweetness to my corn muffin. I will make these again!
Pjcamp, girlfriend you cracked me up! I hadn’t made cornbread in a long time and just wanted to make sure I wasn’t forgetting baking powder or soda amounts. My mother never put sugar in her recipe. I never hadn’t either till the hubby came into my life. I’m a Texan, and he’s a Nebraska cornhusker. So he’s not really a Yankee except some of his food preferences. I just make him Jiffy mix, rather than desecrate my Mother’s Cornbread recipe. I’m going to use the leftovers in dressing so I dont want sugar in that either! I’ll have to rate this later, but the recipe looks perfect yummy.
Love this recipe thank you! My husband likes it sweeter so I added 1/4c sugar and he says it’s not sweet enough. Do you think if I add a 1/2c or 1c it would mess with the baking texture? I also added frozen corn and it was so good! Super easy!
Damn. Y'all Yankees always wreck the cornbread. Allow me.
Leave out the flour and double up the corn meal. About two cups. What you've got there is a giant corn flavored biscuit.
Leave out the sugar. Corn is already plenty sweet. It doesn't need help. We're not makin' johnnycake here.
Heat the oven to 450 with a cast iron skillet in it containing about 1/4 cup of oil.
You only need the one egg.
Milk and/or buttermilk until it looks like quicksand. Between 1 and 2 cups but eyeball it.
When the skillet is blazing hot, pour the batter in. Yes, it will start to fry on the bottom. That's how you know you did it right.
Cook for roughly 20 minutes. You're really going for something that looks like cornbread, not a specific time. It looks like cornbread when it is (a) dry in the center and (b) pulling away from the sides of the skillet.
Invert on a plate, slice in wedges, serve hot with lots of butter. Nobody likes cold cornbread.
If you want it extra crispy, sprinkle some cornmeal into the skillet before pouring in the batter.
cute pic
aah looks perfect..
I just cant believe we are in Nov already!!
Can I throw some jalapenos into this recipe or is the cornbread too sweet to make that combo work?
That would work perfect! Yum!
Thanks!
This basic cornbread recipe is so useful!! Loved this.
Wow. That looks great. You have a nice blog. Glad I stopped by.
This looks delicious Tessa! All I need is a big bowl of chili to go with!