Restaurant Story Cornbread With Honey

Cornbread is typically eaten with molasses in the southern states and with butter and honey in the northern states of America. Skillet-fried or skillet-baked.
Since I’m on a kick, let me pose this thought: everyone needs a go-to cornbread recipe, don’t you think?Cornbread is so versatile and we definitely love cornbread around these parts, making it quite often.I already have a tried-and-true recipe for which are fantastic and I make often, but sometimes a basic, no-fail cornbread recipe is needed.I’ve gone through recipe after recipe and always been a tad disappointed: too dry, too crumbly, too sweet.I’m here today to announce that my search is over. I’ve found The One. I’ve made this cornbread four times in the last three weeks. Maybe.But not only am I in love with this cornbread but the honey butter that accompanied this recipe from my brother and sister-in-law is so amazing, I could eat it by the spoonful (not that I am admitting to anything).Food snobs, look away!
The honey butter has a rather unique ingredient, but I tell you what, I’ve never tasted a honey butter more fluffy and delicious than this one.And the cornbread? Moist and perfect. Enough said.Update 2/2015: After five years of having this cornbread as my go-to, I’ve finally updated the pictures and a few notes under the recipe (I’ve taken to decreasing the sugar a bit). You know it’s a good one when it hasn’t been replaced by another favorite recipe after all these years! Happy New Year Mel. I got out the Jiffy cornbread mix to go with the awesome blackeyed peas simmering with ham hock on the stove and wondered.maybe Mel has a better recipe I can use. Well you do and I made it and it is delicious.
Part cornbread, park cake, moist, flavorful, not at all crumbly. Forget the peas, all I want to eat is the cornbread. Just called my neighbors and invited them to come over and try the cornbread. The box stuff is in the trash.
Thank you Mel for sharing your delicious recipes with us. There is not a week that goes by that I haven’t incorporated one of your recipes with dinner. I would be lost without you. After several other corn bread recipes I finally found my go-to corn bread with this one. It’s delicious by itself but recently I started doing add-ins. I’ve been going to a ton of kid-centered potlucks lately. Mini muffin corn bread stuffed with a piece of hot dog.
Broccoli and cheddar corn bread following this recipe exactly but folding in baby bite sized broccoli chunks and a cup of shredded cheddar. The add ins turn the 8×8 really tall so instead I divide into 2 pans. And yes, the white whole wheat substitution is delicious.
I’ve also tried it with dairy free ingredients. Great recipe. No need to heat a cast iron.
Or get buttermilk. I’ve only started add-ins so I could have an excuse to use this recipe wherever I can.
I’ve been making this recipe since I found it on Pinterest, I loved it since the first time I made it. It became a very special recipe recently, I’m a hospice volunteer, and I made it for my patient as I provided respite service hours, while her daughter was at her child’s school function. The patient loved it, she loved the idea of me making it for her, enjoyed the smell while it baked, and ate two large pieces while it was still warm. I know she truly liked it bc her appetite has not been normal, and to watch her eat 2 pieces just thrilled me.
Thanks Mel for sharing your recipe. I’ve been reading Little House in the Big Woods to my girls and wanted to find a recipe for Laura’s “Johnny Cake” (cornbread). Having lived in the UK with my Brit husband for the past 11 years, I couldn’t find cornmeal. BUT I used semolina, which tastes the same (but is made from wheat) and your recipe worked! It was AMAZING, tasted exactly like cornbread should, and we gobbled it all up!
I always use your website when looking for American recipes that don’t require “American packaged” ingredients. Thank you so much!. This is so tender and light and so good!!
I was amazed at how much it raised – the middle was over 2 1/2″ high!! It’s definitely more like a cake than cornbread (which is NOT necessarily a bad thing!) in terms of taste, texture, and appearance.
I grew up on really coarse-textured, non-sweet cornbread baked in grease in a cast-iron skillet, so this was very different. More like dessert.
My kids and hubby enjoyed it with the “frosting” (fluffy honey butter), but I preferred it just plain. Another hit recipe, courtesy of Mel.FYI: I doubled the recipe (reducing sugar to 1 cup instead of 1 1/3) and baked in a 13×9. Still very sweet.
Thank you for all your great recipes! I stumbled on this one today and just HAD to make a comment. It looks suspiciously (haha) like the recipe I have been using almost 15 years! It is exactly the same. I got it off the side of the cornmeal box that I had at the time. I still have the cardboard cutout taped up in my cupboard (no small feat seeing that I have moved four times since then). It is tried and true.
But yes, the sugar is way too high. I knew it was high in those early years when my friend who had gotten the recipe said her husband said he wanted to her to make those “yummy cupcakes” again (she had made corn muffins with this recipe). Also, another tip I have is to omit either the oil or butter – just use one. Also, lately I have been increasing the cornmeal amount a bit, and love how it tastes more cornmeal like! I have even used corn grits. Also, (one more, I promise), it really adds to the final product (if making the bread) – if after it has cooked pull it out and rub butter on the top. Then put it back in the oven under the broiler for just a few seconds/a minute or two (be careful not to burn it though).
The result is a crispy buttery top that is so fun to break your fork through. (So i usually just put oil in the recipe and do the butter on the top) Ok, one more, the bread has a tendency to have that baking powder after taste, so I usually add less with great results. Ok – I’m done – this is just one of those I had to comment on!. Made this for dinner last night and doubled the recipe so I could use my 9X13. So much better than my old recipe, not overly sweet but sweet enough to be yummy. Couldn’t believe how thick it rose while staying moist. Was even better for lunch today, yes I said for lunch, not with lunch LOLThe honey butter was way too sweet for me to put on my cornbread.
I came back to see if I wrote something down wrong but I made it correctly. Dh and the kids like it so it’s just a preference. I will say it was very good but more like a dessert taste than a buttery taste.
So I just ate a little all by its self 🙂 YUM. My family enjoys your cowboy dinner with the cornbread topping, and while eating it last week and admiring the cornbread taste and consistency I wondered if you happened to have a cornbread recipe.ta-da! This was sooo good.
Perfectly moist, not too crummy, and just sweet enough. I’d been making the one on the cornmeal container all these years, but no longer! (Since we had the cornbread with chili, I knew my husband would give me a weird look if I served it with the honey butter so I’ll try that next time!) 🙂. This is the first time I’ve ever made cornbread and it’s wonderful! I don’t think I’ll need to do anymore recipe-hunting, which is awesome.
It’s dense but not dry, sweet but not too sweet, reheats fantastically and is super simple to make. Even my fiance liked it, and he has sworn off cornbread for years because his grandma used to always make the driest cornbread ever and force him to eat it.I’ve got a slight milk allergy, so I usually have almond milk on hand instead of regular cow milk. Do you think it would work as a replacement? I tried it with regular milk this time to make sure I knew exactly how it ‘should’ taste before I experimented. This cornbread is amazing! Ive made it too many times to count and everyone always requests that i make them a batch.
The last time I made it somehow I forgot to put the baking powder in. After the 35 minute baking time I couldn’t figure out why it still looked so undercooked.
I took it out and it was a cornbread brick! Haha Needless to say, everyone at the BBQ that I was supposed to bring it to were very disappointed that I showed up without a pan of cornbread. Thanks for all the yummy recipes!. Ok- sooooo – um – i fiddled with your sweet butter recipe.And you should totally try this!!I have been making spreadable butter (1 stick + 1/3 c oil with frzn bowl and whisk, whip till smooth and store in reused butter containers) and that got me thinking how about a spreadable sweet butter?!I ended up using 3 sticks of butter, 2/3 c oil, 4 oz fluff and a big glob of honey (next time I am using more honey and a little less fluff and salted butter- the hubs prefers unsalted – it is an ongoing issue for us 😉 ).
It filled almost 3 butter containers and I tested it this morning- totally spreadable right outta the fridge.Niiiiice!. I just want to thank you for this recipe. It made my evening. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I have been wanting to make cornbread for a LONG time and was quite ready to move beyond the crumbly, starchy box versions. A friend of mine told me about your site and I’ve tried several of your wonderful recipes, so I thought you would be a good resource for cornbread. It was so simple to make and the results were wonderful. All I wanted to talk about with my husband during dinner was how great this cornbread is; such moist, sweet, wonderful goodness!
I was quite excited. So, thank you thank you thank you.I was also wondering if I could post the picture and a link to this on my private blog to let my sisters and mom know about it. Would that be okay? Thanks again!!. I wanted to come back and tell you that this was a huge hit at the chili/soup fundraiser! I cut it into a bunch of small pieces (probably at least 24) and sold them for 50 cents each. It went fast!
I work at a place where we don’t interact with each other, don’t know each others names, b/c we have to be completely silent while we’re keying on the workroom floor and we never get to know each other very well. However, people actually hunted me down to ask me for the recipe! I have never had so many recipe requests. I just sent them to your blog!. OH, I should tell you, that my husband loves this cornbread. And this is a big deal because I’ve never been able to get him to take more than a bite of any cornbread I’ve ever made.
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I’m thinking I’m in the minority here on preferring dense, dry, whole wheat, non-sweet cornbread. You guys are weird. 😉 I’m bringing a pan of this to work for our soup day. Everyone is bringing soup and people will pay $1 a cup to go to charity so I figured they’d probably need some cornbread.
I know they’ll love it!. I finally got to make your honey butter (I won’t let myself make cornbread until my Costo-size bag of mix is gone). I mixed it up exactly as you said, tasted it, and it is the best honey butter I’ve EVER made.
Unfortunately, I’m a sucker for secret ingredients, and one of your commenters said that vanilla is sometimes added. I only added 1/2 tsp., so I don’t think it was too much, but I WISH I HADN’T ADDED IT! That one little taste before vanilla was so much better.
From now on, I’m just sticking with your recipe 🙂. I am fairly new to your blog (although it has quickly become my go to site for recipes) and made this for the second time this week.
It is fantastic and even gets my husband who doesn’t usually like cornbread to eat it willingly.I used some whole wheat flour in mine both times that I made it and it is still very moist and delish. The first time I made it I also substituted some buttermilk that I needed to use up for some of the milk (I can’t remember how much) and I think it was even tastier that way.And the honey butter, yum!Anyway, I love it and will make it again and again!. Hey, Melanie!I know you said this beautiful cornbread is THE one, and search no further. Indeed it’s a delish version of a Northern-style cornbread. But I think cornbread (America’s native bread – 1st cornbread was the corn tortilla!) is like nature, always has something to teach and is worth another look, & another. So many stories connected with it, and regional preferences & prejudices!
I’m obsessed w/ it after 6 years of working on The Cornbread Gospels (. If you would like a review copy, it would be my pleasure to ask my publisher to send you a copy. Just email me (crescentATdragonwagon.com) your snail mail address with URL; if I ask nicely, they usually get it right out. Thank you, and thanks for the glorious pictures. Hey Nicole – I use a lot of whole wheat flour in my cooking, too, and although I haven’t subbed it for this cornbread, this is what I’ve found: I can usually get away with great results substituting 1/2 whole wheat flour (I prefer white wheat over red wheat) for cookies, cakes, quick breads, other breads. I rarely substitute 100% whole wheat unless the recipe is specifically written that way. I’m sure for this cornbread (and other recipes) the texture may be a bit more dense with the whole wheat, but my bet is it will still be delicious and you’ll be getting a lot more fiber.
Let me know if you try it. Halo spartan strike wallpaper. Hi Melanie,I went ahead and tried subbing whole wheat and I liked it a lot and will make it again. It was a bit denser I imagine, so someone not dedicated and used to using wheat might prefer the white. I ground my own wheat for the first time so it was fresh – does that make a difference I wonder? I think I heard the protein content is higher? – and it was red wheat (I’m a total newbie to the different kinds of wheat and grinding it myself thing, but I’m having fun learning). Holden says hi 🙂.
Hide TranscriptNative Americans, settlers, slaves, all used corn for everything from food, to soap. And one of the greatest discoveries that came from all of that, was cornbread. MUSIC While the rest of the country was flourishing from the production of wheat, the south was just too hot for it. In hot weather, ni heavy rainfall, wheat can go rancid. Which really opened the door for corn. It was easy to grow, it was very easy to prepare.
All you really needed after you harvested was a mortar and pestle to grind your corn into this great meal which would then be used for cornbread. If you go even further than the American south. To Mexico and South America, where the Aztecs and Mayans, centuries ago were using corn. Grinding it into meal and making tortilla.
Which are an essential part of their diet. In it's early development, cornbread did not taste very good. It was just a simple combination of cornmeal and water. Stirred together And then baked over a open fire or in a hearth.
Now, what really changed the game for corn bread is when they started invoking things like buttermilk, like eggs, baking powder, like baking soda. The settlers and the slaves had pigs. They used pig products, rendered bacon fat, rendered ham hog fat, things they had around that were gonna Help with the texture and the flavor of these ingredients. One of the most classic southern cooking methods for cornbread was the hoecake.
Which was made by heating the flat side of your garden hoe in the fire or in the hearth. And then you would take your corn batter and spoon it out onto the hot surface. And you'd have this really delicious, tender Flat cake.
Now, the secret to any great cornbread is going to be a super hot cast iron skelet,essential for getting a nice crispy, well baked, cornbread. As you see, as cornbread evolved it no longer became a bread of necessity. It was something people enjoyed making.It was a delicacy.
It would evolve even further into a common side for almost all classic Southern food. It's perfect, exactly what you want from cornbread. Rich corn flavor, nicely from the butter, enriched with the egg and buttermilk, absolutely perfect. Native Americans, settlers, slaves, all used corn for everything from food, to soap. And one of the greatest discoveries that came from all of that, was cornbread. MUSIC While the rest of the country was flourishing from the production of wheat, the south was just too hot for it. In hot weather, ni heavy rainfall, wheat can go rancid.
Which really opened the door for corn. It was easy to grow, it was very easy to prepare.
All you really needed after you harvested was a mortar and pestle to grind your corn into this great meal which would then be used for cornbread. If you go even further than the American south.
To Mexico and South America, where the Aztecs and Mayans, centuries ago were using corn. Grinding it into meal and making tortilla. Which are an essential part of their diet. In it's early development, cornbread did not taste very good. It was just a simple combination of cornmeal and water. Stirred together And then baked over a open fire or in a hearth.

Now, what really changed the game for corn bread is when they started invoking things like buttermilk, like eggs, baking powder, like baking soda. The settlers and the slaves had pigs. They used pig products, rendered bacon fat, rendered ham hog fat, things they had around that were gonna Help with the texture and the flavor of these ingredients. One of the most classic southern cooking methods for cornbread was the hoecake. Which was made by heating the flat side of your garden hoe in the fire or in the hearth. And then you would take your corn batter and spoon it out onto the hot surface. And you'd have this really delicious, tender Flat cake.
Now, the secret to any great cornbread is going to be a super hot cast iron skelet,essential for getting a nice crispy, well baked, cornbread. As you see, as cornbread evolved it no longer became a bread of necessity. It was something people enjoyed making.It was a delicacy. It would evolve even further into a common side for almost all classic Southern food. It's perfect, exactly what you want from cornbread. Rich corn flavor, nicely from the butter, enriched with the egg and buttermilk, absolutely perfect.