This honey cornbread is the ultimate cornbread recipe! It’s slightly sweet, perfectly tender and absolutely delicious. Use it as a side dish or crumble it up to make cornbread stuffing.
You can never go wrong with cornbread, especially when paired with complementary dishes such as smoked pork tenderloin, Texas chili, ham and beans, Hoppin’ John, Shrimp Creole and honey glazed ham.
There are so many types of cornbread out there, everything from sweet cornbread that’s so sugary it’s almost like cake, to super savory cornbread with cheese, jalapenos and other fun add ins. This honey cornbread is the perfect in between cornbread – not too sweet, not too savory, perfect to use in Southern cornbread dressing or enjoy as is. It’s also super easy to make and only uses a single bowl! How can you go wrong with what? It’s the ultimate side dish recipe!
Table of Contents
Honey Cornbread Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need butter, yellow cornmeal, all purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, buttermilk, salt, eggs and honey.
How Do You Make Honey Cornbread?
Start by preheating the oven and greasing a baking pan or large skillet with butter. Place the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients of buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and honey. Stir everything together until it is combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter! Bake until the cornbread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Cool, then cut into pieces and serve.
Tips For The Perfect Dish
- You can bake this cornbread in a cast iron skillet or in a square baking pan, whichever you prefer. This recipe also makes great cornbread muffins. If you’re more in a muffin mood, divide the batter equally into a greased 12 cup muffin tin, bake for 15 minutes, then enjoy!
- Don’t skip the step of using an extra tablespoon of butter to grease the dish – it creates the most delicious golden brown crust! I know the inclination is to use cooking spray, which I typically use, but in this case, go for the butter. Because let’s be honest, cornbread is basically a vehicle to consume lots of butter and jam and honey, am I right?
- I love to serve this cornbread alongside a hearty bowl of tortellini soup or as a side to a holiday meal such as Instant Pot ham or Thanksgiving turkey.
- Have you heard of cornbread in milk? It’s a Southern thing and when I mentioned it on my Facebook page I got a huge reaction! You can even add sugar to the milk to enhance the experience. It’s definitely a unique way to eat cornbread!
Quick Tip
Leftover cornbread will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also freeze it for 2 months.
Recipe FAQs
Southern cornbread contains sugar and/or honey, and also has eggs which give it more of a cake like texture. Northern cornbread is not as sweet, and contains less eggs which makes it crumbly.
You can add a variety of sweet and savory ingredients to cornbread. Some popular options are shredded cheese, jalapenos or corn kernels.
Homemade cornbread tastes much better than boxed mixes such as Jiffy. It has a more pronounced flavor and also a light and fluffy texture.
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Flavor Variations
This recipe is fabulous as-is, but you can add other ingredients to customize the flavors to your tastes.
- Sweetener: Instead of honey, try maple syrup for a different flavor.
- Buttermilk: No buttermilk on hand? You can make your own by mixing together 1 cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, then use it in the recipe as directed.
- Add-Ins: Feel free to add up to 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, cooked crumbled bacon, or corn kernels. You can also add 2 tablespoons of roasted green chilies or diced jalapenos.
This cornbread recipe is so versatile. I love that it’s easy to make, and it produces perfect results every time!
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Honey Cornbread Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Honey Cornbread
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter softened
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
- 1/4 cup honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Use the softened butter to grease a 9 or 10 inch square baking pan or cast iron skillet.
- In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and add the buttermilk, eggs, butter and honey.
- Stir until just combined – do not overmix!
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Cool for at least 10 minutes. Cut into pieces and serve.
Notes
- You can bake this cornbread in a cast iron skillet or in a square baking pan, whichever you prefer. This recipe also makes great cornbread muffins. If you’re more in a muffin mood, divide the batter equally into a greased 12 cup muffin tin, bake for 15 minutes, then enjoy!
I’ve messed around with about a dozen recipes for cornbread, and found most lacking of flavor, or the incorrect texture but this one is great! I admittedly cut the sugar a tiny bit, but that is because I like adding cheddar.
I thought this was a very basic cornbread exactly what I was looking for. I just made it because I have a pot of red beans and rice with some ham hocks and pork sausage on the stove. Looking forward to it. I also made some honey butter.
Great recipe. My mom would make this and sometimes we would have it for desert and for breakfast we would have milk and corn bread, that is if any was left from dinner. When you have 8 hungry mouths to feed you try to come up with ideas to feed them. I can say my mom was the best cook in the world and I’m trying to follow her foot prints with recipes like yours. Keep them coming
God bless
Good gravy, this was so good! I think the salt brings out the flavors front and center, and the texture of the bread is not crumbly nor is too dry. Thank you for making my day.
I made this recipe for Thanksgiving to include with my cornbread dressing, but the cornbread itself was so damn good that I immediately made another batch to eat with chili later. I made a “hot honey” version using pickled jalapeños & cotija cheese, which turned out AfreakinMAZING! 😁
Highly recommended A++++
I always melt butter in a cast iron skillet then pour in the cornbread batter.
This recipe bakes up with a perfectly crispy crust, beautiful golden brown top, not crumbly and not cakey. It’s perfect as written😋
Ahhh Mazingly Good!
Turned out prefect like the picture!
I used unsweetened almond milk and vinegar
Instead of the buttermilk.
Made it up and it sat in the pan for 45 mins before baking.
Very cakelike, sweet and delicious cornbread taste.
I used 2-3 T of butter and ran it around the edge
Is the skillet when it came out if the oven then, all over the top for that added buttery goodness.
Great cornbread recipe, Sara! Iove making it in my cast iron skillet. Will definitely be making this again.
This corn muffins was very good. It was very soft and light. I will try it again.
I made this cornbread twice since Thanksgiving! I am making it again tonight when I get off work. I also made the Southern cornbread dressing. A mazing!! very yummy. I haven”t tried it in milk yet but I intend to. I enjoy it made in a cast iron skillet. Very very yummy!
This is the best cornbread recipe ever! I have made it so many times !
Thank you for sharing your recipe
No butter or oil in the recipe? But tons of sugar/honey? I am skeptical. Won’t it be dry? The cornbread I grew up with in Texas had little or no sugar. It’s in the oven. I’ll get back to you.
There is butter listed in this recipe in two different places, the 1st and 9th ingredients.
This is absolutely delicious! Topped leftover chili my husband made the other day with this cornbread and came up with our own tamale pie! Outstanding!