Sweet Cornbread ♥ Recipe

A classic cornbread sweetened with honey. Sweet but not too sweet. Rich but not too rich. Ever so tender. Absolutely delicious! Bake it in the traditional round shape or, for great sliced cornbread, a loaf pan.

WAY BACK IN 2008 I worried that readers might fear that the appearance of a cornbread recipe might signal a diversion from this blog's recipe vegetables-vegetables-vegetables focus. But wait! Cornmeal originates with a vegetable, it's just field corn that's been dried and ground! I'm embarrassed to admit: cornmeal's humble origin just never registered.

Luckily, despite the lapse, it turns out that a real cornbread lover can nose out another cornbread lover. Crescent Dragonwagon, cornbread lover extraordinaire (who else would write an entire cookbook expressing one's love for cornbread?) looked me up when the Country Cornbread recipe posted to help people use up their leftover ham from Easter. Just a couple of weeks earlier, I'd shared my recipe for cornbread (you know, the single go-to recipes we call our own), the savory ever-moist Skillet Cornbread, in Kitchen Parade, my food column. I didn't even know I loved cornbread so much. But Crescent did – she even offered to send a complimentary copy of her cookbook The Cornbread Gospels.

And she was so so right! There's just so much to love about cornbread. How cornbread can save a skimpy supper. How mixing cornbread takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes. How cornbread emerges from the oven just 30 minutes later, steamy, substantial, ready for hungry folk to dig in. How cornbread is made, nearly always, from simple on-hand pantry ingredients. (I swear, The Cornbread Gospels uses the same ten ingredients again and again, turning out an astonishing variety of cornbread and racking up some 200+ recipes.) How cornbread's many variations are so different – starting with southern savory cornbreads and their northern sweeter cousins. How cornbreads' names are familiar but old-fashioned, johnnycakes, hoecakes, hush puppies, spoonbread. Especially, I love how cornbread is so very American, the staple grain fundamental to Native Americans, later to this country's early settlers, and later still, for families in the southern states, especially, of the U.S.

CORN: THE VEGETABLE THAT'S EASY TO HATE Nowadays, corn has become déclassé. There's the farm subsidy issue and the carbs in corn issue and the very real high-fructose corn syrup issue. But how about this to challenge conventional wisdom? Corn is one of the all-time most useful – frugal – plants and thus worthy of use not abuse.

"Every part of the corn plant – the second most plentiful cereal grown on earth for human consumption – serves us in some way. The husks of corn are traditionally used in making tamales, the kernels for food, the stalks for cattle and hog food (silage), and the silks for medicinal tea. You can fry in it (corn oil), bake with it (cornmeal, of course), snack on it (popcorn, tortilla chips), sweeten with it (corn syrup), thicken with it (cornstarch), and get drunk on it (bourbon)."

~ The Cornbread Gospels

ABOUT THE CORNBREAD GOSPELS What to make first: this was my biggest "problem" with The Cornbread Gospels. What a "problem"! These are easy recipes, ones to pull together in a flash. In between recipes are amusing tidbits (think quick quotes from novels) and useful information (the nine major differences, say, between southern and northern cornbreads) and sooo much more. It's beautifully organized: southern cornbreads, northern cornbreads, southwestern cornbreads, 'global' cornbreads, babycakes (you know, muffins, cornsticks, biscuits), cornbread made with yeast, spoonbreads, pancakes, crisped cornbreads, dessert cornbreads – and my favorite chapter, "why you should always make a double batch", ways to use up leftover cornbread.

WHY CHOOSE STONE-GROUND CORNMEAL Could you use the standard "yellow cornmeal"? It's easy to find, it's inexpensive, it keeps forever. Yes – and I often do, when I can't find or don't want to make a special trip, just for cornmeal. But yellow cornmeal has been degerminated, this means that its healthful and flavorful germ (and hull) have been removed. Stone-ground cornmeal has real flavor, its texture is also delightfully gritty – though this may take some getting used to by some, if so, watch for a fine grind of stone-ground cornmeal.

WHERE TO BUY STONE-GROUND CORNMEAL Yes, it's slightly harder to find.
The Cornbread Gospels lists online sources for stone-ground cornmeal including War Eagle Mill (I'm now a regular customer here) and Purcell Mountain Farms. Many thanks to a Wisconsin reader who recommends the stone-ground white cornmeal from Anson Mills in South Carolina. For retail sales, Anson mills and ships one day a week – this stuff is fresh! Anson sells grits and polenta too. Thank you so much, Edith!
Bob's Red Mill stone-ground yellow cornmeal is at Whole Foods and many well-stocked grocery stores. I prefer the fine and medium grind for Sweet Cornbread.
Stone-ground cornmeal should be refrigerated and even frozen so that it doesn't go rancid. (How to tell if it's gone bad? Do the sniff test. If it is virtually odorless, it's fresh. If it has an "off" smell, the oil has gone bad.)
I buy stone-ground cornmeal in small packages (compounding the hard-to-find and out-of-the-way problem) and then freeze it.

BACK to THE RECIPE for SWEET CORNBREAD This is an easy cornbread to love, sweet but not too sweet, rich but not too rich, so very tender but not one to fall apart. The first skillet was perfect for an evening when supper's soup was a big disappointment, part bread, part dessert. With butter and honey? To moan over. The leftovers would make a great sweet cornbread pudding, too. If I wanted one recipe for my sweet cornbread, this would be it. But thanks to The Cornbread Gospels, I've got 199 more recipes to try before picking just one.

2011: Aiii, this is a good cornbread recipe! It's just sweet enough, not too sweet.

2015: Gosh this is good cornbread! This time, I baked the batter in a long loaf pan, making for small slices of cornbread instead of large wedges. Portion control!

2018: Ha! This recipe has become my #1 go-to cornbread since both the men at my table (my husband and now 92-year old father) especially appreciate its honeyed sweetness. It's simple to throw together, no wonder I make it often! Has it become "my cornbread"? Yes ...

SWEET CORNBREAD

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 35 - 40 minutes
Serves 8

1 cup flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring or 125g
1 cup (120g) stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon (yes, tablespoon) baking powder, fluffed to aerate before measuring
1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/4 cup (90g) honey or sorghum
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 oz/57g) salted butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (50g) sugar
1/2 cup (120g) cream
1/2 cup (120g) whole milk

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Lightly butter a baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.

In a four-cup Pyrex measuring cup, warm the honey in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. (To make it easier to pour, I warm the honey right in its container, then pour it into the Pyrex cup.) Stir in the butter until it melts into the honey. Whisk in the eggs until all three are well combined. Whisk in the remaining ingredients.

Transfer to the baking dish. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden. Serve immediately. Keeps well at least through the second day.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
BAKING DISHES The inspiring recipe calls for a 9-inch square pan. In 2008, I used a 9-1/2" round cakepan – both have similar areas. Since 2011, I mostly use a 9-inch cast-iron skillet but sometimes bake the cornbread in a loaf pan, lowering the temperature to 350F/175C. This batter would make great muffins too, I think.
FOR CAST IRON If you like a chewy bottom crust for cornbread, use a cast iron skillet and this quick trick. First, put the ungreased skillet into the oven while it heats up. When the oven is hot and the batter ready, carefully remove the skillet, lightly grease and then gently pour the batter into the skillet, then bake.
MEASURING Using a Pyrex measuring cup means there will be no measuring cups, etc. to dirty.
FLOURS All-purpose flour works, so does 100% white whole wheat flour, 100% whole wheat flour and 100% whole wheat pastry flour.
BLUE CORNMEAL & CORNFLOUR Too bad, blue cornmeal is so pretty in the bag but it creates an unfortunate blue/gray cast in the cornbread. The very finely ground cornflour is also not great, I miss the stone-ground slightly gritty texture of other cornmeals.
SORGHUM We especially love this cornbread when made with sorghum instead of honey. Extra special? Mix together sorghum and soft butter. It's "sorghum butter" instead of honey butter. So good!
EXTRA INGREDIENTS? I had the idea that fresh sweet corn kernels or dried currants might be nice additions on occasions. Nope. Forgettable.

TODAY'S RECIPE INSPIRATION Adapted from The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Serving: 277 Calories; 11g Tot Fat; 6g Sat Fat; 40g Carb; 2g Fiber; NetCarb38; 16g Sugar; 366mg Sodium; 88mg Cholesterol; 5g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS WW Old Points 6 & WW PointsPlus 7 & WW SmartPoints 11

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MORE FAVORITE CORNBREAD RECIPES

~ Sweet Potato Cornbread ~
~ Pumpkin Cornbread ~
~ Pumpkin & Green Chile Cornbread Topping ~
~ more cornmeal recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Simple Cast Iron Southern Corn Bread ~
~ Skillet Cornbread ~
~ Summer Corn Bread with Fresh Blueberries ~
~ Savory Cornbread Muffins ~
~ more cornmeal recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

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