This is the best homemade cornbread recipe! If you’re wondering how to make cornbread, this recipe is a great one to try. Our family has been enjoying this cornbread recipe for decades and literally hundreds of readers have made and loved this easy recipe. It comes out fluffy and perfect every time!
Our Favorite Homemade Cornbread Recipe
This cornbread has been a staple for my family for years and years, but I realized a while back that I hadn’t created a post to document and share it with you all! My family absolutely loves this cornbread and I’m sure your loved ones will too.
This cornbread is as easy as it gets. No buttermilk needed. Bake it in any pan.
One of the reasons I love this cornbread recipe is that you don’t need anything fancy to make it. Many cornbread recipes require buttermilk or creamed corn or a very specific kind of pan. By comparison, my recipe is one you can make any day, any time, with what you have on hand. You can use any kind of pan and don’t need any special ingredients. With just a few things you probably already have on hand you can make the best cornbread ever!
What Makes this the Best Cornbread?
Well for starters, it tastes DIVINE. It’s sweet but not over the top, soft but not cakey, and crumbly without being a plain mess. I can’t recommend it enough!
Plus, there’s a lot of room to play with the recipe. Use melted butter OR oil, use fine OR medium ground cornmeal, use all-purpose flour OR a white whole wheat flour. Don’t like a sweet cornbread? Feel free to reduce the sugar to as little as 1/4 cup. It’s perfect, the ingredients are simple, AND you can make it your own.
Tips for Making Perfect Cornbread at Home:
- Baking Dish: You can make it in a 9-inch round cake pan, square baking dish, or 9-inch cast iron skillet. Bonus! You can also make these into muffins or double the recipe and toss it in a 9×13-inch baking pan. You’ll just need to adjust the baking time if you are making muffins or doubling the batch. Muffins take around 15 minutes to bake and a doubled recipe takes 35-40 minutes to bake.
- Cornmeal: Use yellow cornmeal in this recipe. White works fine, but it just doesn’t look the same. Golden yellow cornbread is a must. Also, don’t try to sub any of the cornmeals used for making tamales – they are a different grind and the texture doesn’t come out the same.
- Topping Ideas: This recipe is great with a drizzle of honey, butter, honey butter, or just as it is. If you live someplace where you can get your hands on maple cream, that’s amazing on cornbread too!
- Serving Ideas: I like to serve cornbread with beans or chili. It goes well with lots of things. My favorite thing is crumbling the cornbread into my chili, mixing it, then sprinkling cheddar cheese on top. So good!
Common Questions About Homemade Cornbread:
What is Cornmeal?
A lot of readers ask about cornmeal. What is cornmeal? What about polenta? It can be confusing. Cornmeal is dried and ground corn. It’s found in the baking aisle of grocery store. Cornmeal is just dried and then ground field corn and you can typically find it in a fine or medium grind. Both will work well for this recipes. Polenta and grits will also work in this recipe. Corn flour is more finely ground and can also be used.
What Can I Substitute for Vegetable Oil in Cornbread?
Another great thing about this particular tried-and-true cornbread recipe is you don’t NEED to use vegetable oil. You can use any mild oil you prefer, like peanut, or even melted butter!
Why is My Cornbread Crumbly?
Ugh, isn’t overly crumbly and dry cornbread just the worst? If you’re experiencing just a little bit of crumble, that’s normal. It shouldn’t be true quick bread consistency, but it also shouldn’t be totally dry and feel like wet sand. Using too much cornmeal is one way to dry it out, so don’t skip out on the equal portion of flour.
What Should I Serve With Cornbread?
A lot of people love to pair cornbread with chili… for the obvious reasons (it’s amazing). But I love cornbread with so many other meals, too! It’s great with all kinds of barbecue or grilled meats. Its subtle sweetness makes it a great accent for spicy and meaty foods.
How to Make this Cornbread Gluten Free
Yes! I have made this recipe gluten free by simple swapping out the all purpose flour for a gluten free baking blend (often labeled 1:1 gluten free baking blend) and it worked perfectly. This truly is the best cornbread recipe! It can be whatever you need it to be and still come out amazing.
How to Make Homemade Cornbread
Ok now let’s get to the subject of this post: how to make homemade cornbread! You may be surprised to discover that baking a perfect pan of cornbread only requires a few easy steps:
- Mix together flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
- Add oil (or butter) eggs, and milk.
- Stir to combine.
- Pour into a pan.
- Bake until golden brown.
- Serve right away with butter and honey.
See! It’s that easy. I love a side that comes together in a snap and is on the table in about 30 minutes.
Watch my video showing you how to make this easy cornbread recipe here:
The Best Homemade Cornbread Recipe
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8-10 1x
Description
This easy homemade cornbread recipe comes out fluffy and perfect every time! It is the absolute best sweet cornbread and a family favorite for years and years.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/3 cup neutral oil or melted butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup milk
Instructions
- Grease a 9-inch round cake pan or cast iron skillet well and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Whisk to combine well.
- Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add your oil or butter, milk, and egg. Stir just until the mixture comes together and there are only a few lumps remaining.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Serve hot.
Notes
- You can make it it in a 9-inch round cake pan, square baking dish, or 9-inch cast iron skillet. Bonus! You can also make these into muffins or double the recipe and toss it in a 9×13-inch baking pan. You’ll just need to adjust the baking time if you are making muffins or doubling the batch. Muffins take around 15 minutes to bake and a doubled recipe takes 35-40 minutes to bake.
- Use yellow cornmeal in this recipe. White works fine, but it just doesn’t look the same. Golden yellow cornbread is a must. Also, don’t try to sub any of the cornmeals used for making tamales – they are a different grind and the texture doesn’t come out the same.
- To make this recipe gluten free simple sub the all-purpose flour for a gluten free 1:1 baking flour.
- Category: Baking
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: best cornbread recipe, easy cornbread recipe, skillet cornbread, gluten free cornbread, sweet cornbread, thanksgiving cornbread, how to make cornbread, southern cornbread
Want To Save This Recipe?
More Cornbread Recipes:
- Sour Cream Cornbread
- Skillet Cornbread
- Sweet and Creamy Cornbread
- Whole Grain Cornbread
- Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins
- Homemade Cornbread Muffins
I absolutely LOVE this recipe for cornbread it is the perfect amount of moist and sweet! (Just the way cornbread needs to be) I’ve made it tons of times now and have never been disappointed!
All the reasons I love it too, thank you so much for leaving a comment!
Based on all the fab reviews, I’m planning to make this for Thanksgiving — at a friend’s house. Can I make this day ahead, or is it best day of? Also, since I’m taking it to a friend’s house, would you wrap it in cling wrap or Tupperware?
I like it best hot out of the oven, but if it’s Thanksgiving and that oven space is a hot ticket item, you’d be fine to make it ahead of time by a day. Just make sure you let it cool all of the way before covering it so that it doesn’t get steamy or sweat on itself. You care good to cover the whole pan with cling wrap and serve it out of the pan. You can also warm it a bit in a warm oven for a few minutes it you like though I think it’s fine at room temperature. I can’t wait to hear how you like it!
My daughter has an egg allergy. Have you ever made this using an egg substitute? If so would you be able to share how you made it egg free? Thanks so much!
It’s so flexible, I bet an egg replacer would work, you could make a flax egg, and I have even tried it using sour cream or greek plain yogurt to replace the egg. I think it’ll work great!