Honey Butter Cornbread
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This sweet honey butter cornbread is tender and moist with the perfect crumb. The honey-butter flavor makes it extra tasty. Make the batter from scratch in 10 minutes then bake. Or jazz up boxed cornbread mix with flavorful add-ins with this best Jiffy cornbread recipe.
👩🏻🍳 Why You’ll Enjoy This Recipe
- The sweet/savory flavor of honey butter cornbread is deeply comforting and delicious. It’s Grandma’s favorite recipe.
- It’s a simple recipe you can’t mess up! Toss dry ingredients together. Blend wet ingredients together. Mix them together briefly. Then pour the batter into a buttered pan and bake. So quick and easy. And made with pantry staples.
- You can bake this cornbread in different pans. In a square baker, a cupcake tin, or a mini-muffin pan. You can also mini cornbread loaves for holidays, parties and gift giving.
- You can make cowboy cornbread casserole with this simple cornbread recipe.
- Most everyone loves homemade cornbread. It’s the ultimate comfort food. For lunch it’s a great pairing for soup or salad, and for dinner you can enjoy it with a hearty entrée.
- Our luscious honey butter spread (recipe included). Slathering this sweet/savory spread over the cornbread makes this simple recipe irresistible.
🛒 Ingredients
Honey Butter Cornbread
- All-Purpose Flour: For structure. When mixed with liquid it develops a gluten framework that holds the other ingredients together.
- Granulated Sugar: Adds the perfect amount of sweetness.
- Yellow Cornmeal: For beautifully-golden honey butter cornbread. But feel free to use white cornmeal instead, if that’s what you have in the pantry.
- Baking Powder: A leavening agent that provides the perfect rise.
- Salt: Balances the flavors of the other ingredients.
- Whole Milk: Adds rich creamy moisture.
- Large Eggs: Provide stability, structure and richness.
- Vegetable Oil: Contributes delicious moistness
- Honey: Adds a sweet floral taste that pairs well with butter.
- Butter: Adds a fabulous buttery flavor.
🍯 Honey Butter for Spreading
- Salted Butter
- Honey
- Ground Cinnamon
- Pinch of Salt, if needed
📖 Recipe Steps
Make Honey Butter Cornbread
RECIPE PREP: Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter.
- Combine all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, corn meal, baking powder and salt) in a medium mixing bowl.
- Combine all wet ingredients (eggs, milk, oil, melted butter and honey) in a small mixing bowl, and mix well.
- Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients. Mix until just blended. Do not overmix.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
🧈 Make Honey Butter Spread
- Add softened butter, honey and ground cinnamon to a small bowl. Mix until the ingredients are fully incorporated.
- Do a taste test. If needed, add a pinch of salt to balance the flavors.
- Serve and enjoy with freshly-baked cornbread.
⏲ Expert Tips
- Use Quality Cornmeal. My favorite is Albers cornmeal. For cornbread with a coarse, rustic texture, select a stone-ground cornmeal like Bob’s Redmill, Anson Mills, etc.
- Buttermilk Magic: If you like tangy cornbread, substitute regular milk with buttermilk. It adds a pleasant tanginess and helps create a tender crumb. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, make a DIY version by adding a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to milk.
- Don’t Overmix. Overmixing can lead to a tough texture. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Small lumps are okay. They’ll disappear during baking.
- Let it Rest: Allow the batter to rest 5 to 10 minutes before baking. This helps the ingredients meld and ensures a more even texture.
- For a Slightly Crisp Crust: Preheat the pan. Preheating your baking pan with butter before adding the batter helps to create a slightly crisp crust on the the bottom and edges of the cornbread. You can also bake the cornbread in a preheated cast-iron skillet. The skillet retains heat well, resulting in a crispy crust, even cooking, and a nice texture.
- Stiff Honey: If your honey is stiff, warm it slightly before adding it to the batter to make it easier to mix.
- Add Texture: If desired, you can enhance the texture of honey butter cornbread by adding ingredients like corn kernels, diced jalapeños, or shredded (mild) cheddar cheese. These simple additions can bring extra flavor and a delightful crunch to your cornbread.
- Preheat Oven 30 Minutes in Advance: This will ensure your oven has reached the perfect temperature. Although preheating for 15 minutes is often sufficient, recipes like cornbread require a precise and consistent temperature – so opt for a longer preheating time.
- Avoid opening the oven door while your cornbread is baking. Each time you open the door, your oven loses an average of about 50 degrees.
- Honey Butter Topping: While the cornbread is still warm, brush the top with a honey butter mixture. This adds an extra layer of flavor and ensures a moist and flavorful finish. Serve the cornbread warm alongside a meal or as a standalone treat with more butter.
👩🏻🍳 Recipe FAQ
These are the most commonly-asked questions about honey butter cornbread, and the most helpful answers for recipe success.
This is a matter of preference. Yellow cornmeal is from yellow corn. It gives recipes like honey butter cornbread a beautiful, rich, buttery color. White corn meal is from white corn and has a milder taste. If undecided, just use yellow cornmeal for cornbread.
Yes, you can. Substitutes for eggs in cornbread include applesauce, mashed banana, Greek yogurt, sour cream, and buttermilk. you make cornbread without eggs?
Yes, you can make cornbread without milk. Just replace it with sour cream, a mixture of water and butter, half and half and water (60/40), or a nondairy option like soy milk.
Yes, you can freeze cornbread. Wrap it well in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and place it in a freezer bag. Freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw and reheat before serving.
Insert a toothpick into the center. It should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Avoid overbaking to prevent a dry texture.
Cornbread is best served warm, preferably with a generous spread of honey butter.
Yes, you can make honey butter ahead of time and store it in the fridge. Bring it to room temperature before serving.
🍽 What to Eat with Cornbread
There are so many delicious meals to pair with cornbread. Here are a few of our favorites. Add them to your meal plan rotation.
- Texas Roadhouse Chili
- Southern Baked Mac and Cheese
- Baked Ziti with Ricotta & Sausage
- Homemade Hamburger Helper
- New Orleans Jambalaya
- NOLA Red Beans and Rice
Rate This Recipe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Flavor testers rated this the BEST honey butter cornbread recipe. The light tender texture, and the delicious sweet/savory taste made it a winner. One tester said it was even better to Marie Callender’s cornbread with honey.
If you agree this recipe’s a keeper, give it a 5-star rating in the comments. Then be a recipe hero. Share it with friends. 📌 Pin it to Pinterest.
Honey Butter Cornbread
- Total Time: 45 Minutes
- Yield: 9 Servings 1x
Description
This sweet honey butter cornbread is tender and moist with the perfect crumb. It’s Grandma’s favorite cornbread recipe. Assemble the batter in 10 minutes, then bake.
Ingredients
Honey Butter Cornbread
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup yellow corn meal
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup salted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup honey
Honey Butter Spread
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, softened
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt, if needed
Instructions
Honey Butter Cornbread
RECIPE PREP: Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter.
- Combine all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, corn meal, baking powder and salt) in a medium mixing bowl.
- Combine all wet ingredients (eggs, milk, oil, melted butter and honey) in a small mixing bowl, and mix well.
- Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients. Mix until just blended. Do not overmix.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Honey Butter Spread
- Add softened butter, honey and ground cinnamon to a small bowl. Mix until the ingredients are fully incorporated.
- Do a taste test. If needed, add a pinch of salt to balance the flavors.
- Serve and enjoy with freshly-baked cornbread.
Notes
Recipe yield: This homemade cornbread recipe makes 9 squares of cornbread (baked in an 8-inch square pan), 18 cornbread muffins (baked in muffin pans), or 56 mini muffins (baked in mini muffin pans).
For corn muffins (the size of cupcakes): Line 18 to 20 muffin cups with cupcake liners. Pour batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
For mini muffins (the size of brownie bites): Grease mini muffin pans. Use a small metal scoop to fill the wells 2/3 full. Bake for 7 minutes, or until done.
Nutritional Information: The calculations shown are for the cornbread only. They do not include the honey butter spread.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Cornbread, Sweet Buttery Cornbread, Cornbread Recipe, Sweet Cornbread, Thanksgiving Recipe, Bread Recipe
Delicious! Sweet, incredibly light and great with soups!
My my ..these are scrumptious !!!!!,the color of recipe is tempting ,I’m definitely making this for my Hubby and surely he is gonna luv every bit of this cornbread ..your recipes are easy to follow ..luvd it
I made this tonight with chili and everyone loved it. It was so good and had the perfect little hint of sweetness from the honey. I didn’t add extra on top. We will definitely be making this again!
Stacy thanks so much for taking the time to share your love for this yummy cornbread recipe. I appreciate your sweet comment! :-)
Wanted to make this but the recipe link is down =(
http://www.confettiandbliss.com/recipes/food/cornbread-recipe/2/
I don’t have mini muffin tins. Any thoughts to how long to bake them in regular muffin tins?
Hi Brooke. I love your name – it’s my daughter’s name too! :-) When using regular muffin pans bake the cornbread at 350 degrees in the center of your oven for 18-20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. At about the 15-minute mark start keeping an eye on the muffins just to make sure they remain buttery yellow in color and don’t get too brown on the tops and edges. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Thank you! You are so prompt! Looking forward to making these babies for Thanksgiving.
I made these last night and the flavor was AMAZING!! My entire family devoured them quickly. I had one small problem: they stuck to the muffin pan! I sprayed each well of the pan with cooking spray and let them cool 5 minutes, but they still stuck. Do you have any suggestions for how to prevent this? Thanks a bunch!
Hi Tina. I am so happy to hear that you and your family loved this cornbread recipe! I’m planning on making these little beauties again for Thanksgiving along with fluffy homemade biscuits. I bake my cornbread muffins in the non-stick pans shown in one of the photos in this post. But I also put some softened butter on a paper towel and lightly butter each muffin hole on the non-stick pans. It adds just a little bit of extra buttery taste to the final product and helps prevent sticking. To remove the muffins from the non-stick pans I use a skinny silicone spatula. With each large batch of muffins I might have maybe one or two that will stick a bit, but the others all release cleanly. I hope these tips will be of help the next time you bake up another yummy batch! Happy holidays to you and your family. :-)
Saving this for later! These will make a great side when it cools down here in California and I make chili in the crock pot!
Yum! This cornbread sounds really good!
I love cornbread and it’s been so long… and I love the idea of honey in it! This chili looks to die for – I pinned both! Thanks!
Hello Clare. I’m so happy that you love these yummy recipes! Thank you so much for pinning them to Pinterest. I want you to know how much I appreciate that. Have a great weekend. :-)
I haven’t had cornbread in such a long time but these look so simple and delicious to make. Will definitely be incorporating this in a meal at some point next week, I love cornbread. :)
I LOVE cornbread! I just had some last week… I will have to try and make it myself, and I will start with your recipe! thank you for sharing, your pix of those delicious cornbread muffins make my mouth water! yum!
These cornbread muffins look like the ones my mom use to make. She wouldn’t make them as muffins but in a square pan. I love this recipe (which is close to her’s) because there is an awesome sweetness and butter goodness to them. Taste great with a little more butter on them or with some chili on top. These look delicious! I will have to try this recipe! Thanks for sharing!!
Yum! I love cornbread! These are such fun little bites too!
I want a cookie scoop like that! Years ago, I worked in a university kitchen, and we had them in all sizes, from little one ounce ones right up to jumbo muffin tin sizes. I don’t know why I never thought to check Amazon.
And I think we’ll have cornbread muffins tomorrow for breakfast. I love how you showed pictures of each of the ingredients. :)
My family is originally from the east coast/ the south and my Dad always used to make homemade cornbread. One of my favorites:) thanks for sharing this recipe!
Yum! That cornbread looks delicious. I’ll have to use it next time we make chili, thanks!
These sound fantastic! I always love the idea of little cornbread muffins so I don’t eat so many! Yum!
Mmmmmm cornbread! Homemade cornbread!!! PERFECT addition to that amazing chili recipe!
I love cornbread muffins and this recipe looks delicious! It’s so good paired with soup!
You recipe is similar to mine. We started grown our our corn and grinding our cornmeal. Even better.
Can you believe I’ve never tried this bread? I going to get those ingredients ASAP and follow this amazing recipe! Can’t wait to try it.
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Yum! Cornbread is one of my absolute favorites(especially with a little bit of honey) and these look amazing! Cornbread is one of the go to dinner breads in our house (goes with just about anything), can’t wait to try your recipe :-)
These muffins looks simply perfect!
I LOVE cornbread, oh my gosh. I love the addition of honey! Thanks for posting this!
I love homemade corn bread! Looks delicious.
These looks so yum! I have not tried Corn Breads ever but your post makes me crave for theses. I will definitely try them myself! Thanks for sharing :)