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Our Sweet Cornbread Recipe turns out perfectly moist and tender every time. If you love northern style cornbread, with that perfect balance of sweetness, this will quickly become your go to recipe!
Alright, everyone, I’m about to get controversial.
I am sharing the best cornbread recipe today and you’re about to see that it has sugar in it.
That’s right.
I generally love me some southern food, but when it comes to cornbread I just have to have the sweet stuff.
I know that people are very passionate about whether or not sugar belongs in cornbread, so please just pass right on by if you like the southern version without a hint of sweetness. You’ll hate this recipe. 🙁
If you want a rich, dense, sweet cornbread that goes great with my turkey chili and my Instant Pot ham and bean soup, well, here you are. I have the best cornbread recipe for you and I’m so excited you’re here for it.
Not into our plain sweet cornbread? You might like our Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread instead!
Ingredient Notes:
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Cornmeal – The key ingredient! This will give the cornbread the taste, texture, and color that we all know and love.
Dry Ingredients – In addition to the cornmeal you’ll need some all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda for the cornbread batter. The flour helps lighten it up a bit. If you use just cornmeal, the bread will be quite dense.
Wet Ingredients – Some egg, buttermilk, and vegetable oil are the remaining ingredients you’ll need for the batter. The buttermilk helps keep the bread moist and the tangy flavor pairs well with the sweet.
What We Love About This Recipe:
- Better Than a Box: This homemade cornbread is so much better than the boxed mix! It’s a little more work, but you’ll love the result.
- Versatile: Slather on some butter and have a slice for a snack or serve this alongside your favorite soup, stew, or chili!
- Kid-Approved: Kids love the sweet, moist texture of this cornbread, making it a great choice for family dinners.
How To Make Cornbread:
Dry Ingredients: One of the things I love about cornbread is that it’s EASY! Start by adding the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda) to a large mixing bowl.
Combine: Now you can start adding the wet ingredients (oil, egg, buttermilk) to the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
No need to even use a mixer here. Just stir it together by hand until it’s a mostly smooth batter with just a few lumps remaining.
Bake: This buttermilk cornbread mixture can be baked in a greased round cake pan or a cast iron skillet. It’ll take about 25 minutes for the cornbread to finish baking.
That’s it! I told you it was easy.
My Favorite Skillet!
Cast iron skillets are my favorite! They heat so evenly, get piping hot for searing, and nothing is better than bacon fried in a cast iron skillet.
Variations:
Like a little heat with your sweet? Stir in some diced jalapenos!
Out of buttermilk? Add a tablespoon of vinegar to a measuring cup and then add milk up to the 1 cup mark. Let sit for 5 minutes and you’ve got a cup of buttermilk. This is buttermilk cornbread, so don’t skip the buttermilk! You need the acid to help the cornbread rise.
Like it sweet, but not too sweet? Feel free to adjust the sugar to your tastes. I wouldn’t leave it out entirely, but you should be able to cut it down to half without any issues.
What To Serve With Cornbread:
This sweet cornbread is pretty great all on it’s own with some butter and honey, or maple syrup! It’s even better served as a side though. Here are some good recipes to serve with this cornbread:
- Beefaroni
- Instant Pot Vegetable Soup
- Crock Pot Ribs
- Air Fryer BBQ Chicken Legs
- Grilled BBQ Chicken
- Korean BBQ Pork Chops
- BBQ Meatballs
- Keto Pulled Pork
FAQs:
This sweet cornbread will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days. You can extend it to a week in the fridge, or up to a few months in the freezer.
No, not with the all-purpose flour being added in. You could substitute that for a gluten-free flour like coconut flour or almond flour.
MORE CORNBREAD RECIPES!
If you love cornbread as much as I do, you’ll want to try these other recipes too!
- Jiffy Corn Casserole
- Cornbread Salad
- Mexican Cornbread Casserole
- Sloppy Joe Cornbread Bake
- Mini Corn Dogs
- Tamale Casserole
- Keto Cornbread
Sweet Cornbead
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9 inch round cake pan or cast iron skillet.
- Add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking soda to a mixing bowl and stir to combine.
- Add the oil, egg, and buttermilk to a small bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined with a few lumps remaining.
- Spread mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
- Cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
Linda says
Hmm I don’t have a 9” pan. Can I use a spring form pan?
Karly Campbell says
I haven’t done that myself, but I Think it would work great. 🙂
Linda Ponce says
All your recipes lack the oven temp for baked good like your cornbread and biscuit recipes.
Karly says
Hi Linda! I’m guessing that you’re looking in the wrong spot because all of that information is included in the recipe card. In this particular recipe, step 1 says “Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9 inch round cake pan or cast iron skillet.” Make sure you’re scrolling down to the recipe card.
merlene lewis says
Thank for recipes always looking so good ?
Gail says
I had some buttermilk I wanted to use up and this cornbread recipe popped up on Facebook so I tried it and perfect! Delicious… it will be my new cornbread recipe.
Karly says
I’m so happy you gave this a try and enjoyed it! 🙂
Evelyn C McGee says
I would not use this recipe because it has flour in it. Cornbread is supposed to be made our of corn meal, not flour. I make lots of cornbread, which is slightly sweet and everyone who eats it wants the recipe.
Everett says
Cornbread is good food !
Carla says
My husband is gluten intolerant, but he and I love cornbread. For that 7-9% of you who are gluten intolerant, and near an ALDI’S market they have products called “Live Free,” and they carry a delicious gluten-free cornbread mix. In fact, I made it just the other night to serve with beef stew. Other supermarkets may, also, carry gluten-free cornbread mixes.
If you like gravy, are GF and are either too busy or older and sick of cooking, try McCormicks’s GF turkey, chicken and beef gravies, they are excellent, and just need three minutes in your microwave to heat up. If you do not have a microwave oven, you can heat them slowly on top of your stove.
When we eat in a restaurant we find that more and more restaurants have gluten-free entrees. Some folks eat GF because they just think that it is better for them, others, like my husband have no choice. Thankfully, nearly all grocery chains have GF foods, and Market 32 carries Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes, that are GF and just need a fast heating up in the microwave, or the top of the stove.
Years ago I never wanted a microwave, but my husband bought one, it is installed above the stove, and I am so, so happy that I have one, as I use it, along with a small countertop oven more than I use my regular oven. It saves a lot of energy. I do use the oven for larger roasts and whole chickens, or turkey breasts.
Maybelle Murphy says
`Is this Johnny cake
Evelyn C McGee says
I would not use this cornbread recipe because it has flour in it. Cornbread should have just corn meal in it. The recipe I’ve used for years has only cornmeal, and it makes wonderful cornbread. Curiosity made me look for this recipe, though, wondering if it could be any better than the one I use. It is not!!!
Karly says
Hi Evelyn! Using just cornmeal creates a much more coarse bread. We prefer the texture of cornbead made with a mix of flour and cornmeal. 🙂