Skip to Content

Homemade Cornbread

November 25, 2024

The old-fashioned comfort of a pan of homemade cornbread makes any meal just a little bit better. Our easy cornbread recipe makes it so easy to serve up comfort every night.

Categories

homemade cornbread in a 9x9 baking dish with a slice cut out topped with a pat of butter
Photography by Gayle McLeod

This cornbread recipe is easily the best we’ve ever made. And we’ve made lots of them over the years! We’re no strangers to cornbread mix—sometimes when you’re hungry for cornbread, you just need the shortest distance between two points and that’s using a mix. But you know that homemade cornbread is always, always going to be just a little better. Fresh, sweet cornbread, all warm from the oven with salty butter and honey on the side is a pleasure that can so easily be yours! Plus, cornbread goes with so many things! Our Award Winning Chili or Black Bean Soup are classic cornbread partners, but it’s one of our favorite BBQ Side Dish Ideas, too. Check out cornbread’s cousin, Spoon Bread, for another great bake, or for a super retro side, try Scalloped Corn Casserole.

cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, sugar, honey, eggs, sour cream and milk in prep bowls

Homemade Cornbread Ingredients

  • Cornmeal: You really need to find fine cornmeal for this easy cornbread. Do not use grits or polenta — they’re coarser and they won’t yield the sweet, tender cornbread that you want.

  • Sour cream: A lot of recipes call for buttermilk, but our cornbread recipe stays moist and tender thanks to the magical baking powers of sour cream! Because sour cream is fattier than milk or buttermilk (which are perhaps more traditional cornbread ingredients) it adds a lot of richness without thinning the batter at all.

  • Flour: Regular all-purpose flour is ideal here.

  • Baking powder and baking soda: For lots of lift! Fluffy, tender cornbread, here we come.

  • Sugar: Not too much — just enough to highly the sweet corn flavor.

  • Salt: Cornbread walks a delicious line between sweet and savory, and a hint of salt is a must.

  • Butter: You’ll want to have extra butter on hand to spread on your warm-from-the-oven cornbread, too.

  • Milk: Use whole milk here for the most tender results.

  • Honey: It adds just a little extra something to this cornbread recipe, and we adore it drizzled on top of the finished bread, too.

  • Eggs: You can’t really bake with out them. If you can’t eat eggs, you could try an egg replacer, but it might not turn out quite as fluffy and tender as it would with real egg.

cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt being combined in a bowl
melted butter, sugar, honey, egg, sour cream, and milk being mixed in a bowl

How To Make Cornbread

  1. Butter and flour a baking pan. This is super important! You want your slices of homemade cornbread to slide right out of the baking pan, so take a minute to really get that butter, then flour into every corner.

  2. Mix the dry ingredients! The cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

  3. Mix the wet ingredients! Melted butter, sugar, honey, egg, milk and sour cream.

  4. Mix it all together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. This is your one moment of focus. Remember: DO NOT over mix the cornbread batter. Once you see a relatively cohesive batter, STOP stirring.

  5. Spread the cornbread batter in the pan and bake!

  6. It’ll be done after roughly 20 minutes, and you’ll have to let it cool a bit before you eat it. (The hardest part of all!)

melted butter, sugar, honey, egg, sour cream, and milk being mixed in a bowl
melted butter, sugar, honey, egg, sour cream, and milk being mixed with flour, cornmeal, baking powder & soda and salt
homemade cornbread batter in a greased 9x9 baking dish
homemade cornbread warm out of the oven in a 9x9 baking dish

What to Serve With This Cornbread Recipe

Cornbread goes with so, so many things! And we’re happy to just have it around as a snack! Can you even imagine a better after-school snack than warm cornbread with butter and honey?! But we also think cornbread goes really well with:

homemade cornbread in a 9x9 baking dish with a slice cut out topped with a pat of butter
homemade cornbread sliced in to squares stacked on a serving plate

How To Store Cornbread

Homemade cornbread goes fast in our homes, but if you do have leftovers, they’ll keep beautifully in an airtight container on the counter for a few days, and you can even freeze your cornbread if you want to. Just be sure to wrap it tightly — we’d do a layer or two of plastic wrap, followed by at least a layer of foil — and freeze it for up to 3 months.

homemade cornbread sliced in to squares stacked on a serving plate

There’s Nothing Corny About How Much We Love This Homemade Cornbread Recipe!

For more recipe inspiration, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest or order our cookbook. We love when you share your meals. Tag us on Instagram using #themodernproper, and we’d love to hear what you think of this recipe in the comments below. Happy cooking!

💌 Let's Stay Together

There are so many great ways to receive all of our latest recipes, meal tips, and inspiration.

Homemade Cornbread

  • Serves:  6
  • Prep Time:  15 min
  • Cook Time:  20 min
  • Calories:  343

Ingredients

  • 1 cup fine cornmeal, (see Note)
  • 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted, plus more for greasing
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 large large egg, at room temperature
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ¼ cup whole milk

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the center position. Grease and lightly flour a 9 x 9-inch baking dish.

    cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, sugar, honey, eggs, sour cream and milk in prep bowls
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

    cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt being combined in a bowl
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, honey, egg, sour cream, and milk until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until just combined.

    melted butter, sugar, honey, egg, sour cream, and milk being mixed in a bowl
  4. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

    homemade cornbread batter in a greased 9x9 baking dish
  5. Let cool slightly before serving.

    homemade cornbread in a 9x9 baking dish with a slice cut out topped with a pat of butter

Nutrition Info

  • Per Serving
  • Amount
  • Calories 343
  • Protein 3 g
  • Carbohydrates 38 g
  • Total Fat 20 g
  • Dietary Fiber 1 g
  • Cholesterol 52 mg
  • sodium 817 mg
  • Total Sugars 24 g

Homemade Cornbread

Questions & Reviews

Join the discussion below.

or
  • Barbara

    CAN THE RECIPE BE ADJUSTED TO FIT A 9X13 PAN

    We haven't tested the exact measurements for a 9x13 pan. If we want to make extra we usually do double batch and pour it into 2 separate pans to bake.

  • Nina

    I’m a savory cornbread girl. Do you think you could cut the sugar from this recipe and it would still work? Or decrease the amount?

    Hmm we haven't tested it but you could try to cut it in half

  • Christine

    Is there a cornmeal you would recommend? I can't fine one designated as fine ground...

    Goya sells one. If you look it up on amazon you can see a lot of brand options. Hopes this helps Christine!

  • Piper

    Does this recipe make enough cornbread for your cornbread stuffing recipe?

    It will take 1.5 batches of this cornbread for the cornbread stuffing. Hope you enjoy Piper!

  • Sarah

    I made this for a BBQ and got so many compliments! Really is the perfect cornbread and so easy to make.

    Thanks Sarah, so glad you loved it!

  • Kylee

    So good!! I used brown sugar and they were almost like a dessert. Delicious! I will definitely make these again and again!

    Thanks Kylee, we are so happy you loved it!

  • Alana

    I used medium ground cornmeal and baked in a muffin tin for about 14 mins and they turned out perfect — not dry at all!

    Thanks Alana, so glad you loved it!

  • Katie

    This is my go to cornbread recipe now. I don’t even need to try any others.

    Thanks Katie! That is so wonderful to hear!

  • Jenn

    LOVE THIS CORNBREAD!

    Thanks Jenn!