Honey Butter Cornbread

Sweet honey butter cornbread has been a family favorite for years. This from scratch recipe celebrates the moist bread and sticky sweet top I loved as a child.

Cornbread is a divisive food. There are those that swear it should be dry, have no sugar, or only cooked in a cast iron pan. There are others who won’t stray from that box of jiffy mix.

For me, the cornbread I grew up with was with that jiffy box, but my mom doctored it up, made it more moist and it always had a sweet, sticky top that was so good with warm meals like oven baked ribs or sweet and spicy oven fried chicken.

This honey butter cornbread celebrates my childhood (and adult) love for that style of cornbread. It’s sweet, moist, and makes a huge batch, so everyone can feel free to take a second serving with their homemade chili and soup.

Ingredients for Homemade Honey Cornbread

Here on The Flour Handprint I focus on making everything from scratch because it tastes better, but also because I genuinely don’t see any reason to buy a box of cornbread mix when I already have cornmeal and everything else to make it on hand. Odds are, you do too.

• All purpose flour
• Cornmeal – I use a fine to medium grind, so it doesn’t have a gritty texture. 
• Brown sugar
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Milk
• Butter, melted
• Honey
• Eggs

See? It’s so simple to make, and by buying cornmeal instead of the box, I can also make my cornbread muffins with corn, hush puppies, fritters, polenta and more.

Variations on Flavors

This cornbread is sweet by nature. It’s not cloying, like you’re eating cake, but it definitely has a sweet edge to it, especially when you bite into that sticky top that I love so much.

If you’re looking to add some different layers to the sweet honey cornbread, you can add spicy peppers, finely diced, like a jalapeno. You could also add bell peppers if you like, white cheddar cheese or a nice smoked gouda.

How to Make Honey Butter Cornbread

This is a very simple quick bread at its core. Start by combining all the dry ingredients into one bowl. Whisk it so the flour and cornmeal are well combined. 

Then, in a small separate bowl, melt the butter. Add the honey to the warm butter and whisk or stir with a fork to help the honey melt too. Pour the milk into a measuring cup and crack the eggs right into that, then whisk until the eggs are broken down a bit. 

Pour the warm honey butter and milk egg mixture into the dry ingredients and fold until it comes together in a thick, smooth batter with no dry streaks of flour. 

Then your homemade honey cornbread gets baked in a lightly greased 9×13 baking dish and baked for 25-30 minutes. Once out of the oven and cooled, it will stay good for up to 5 days on the counter once covered.

FAQ’S

I always try to answer questions I might have while reading a recipe like this. If I missed yours, please ask in the comments so I can answer you!

Serving Suggestions

Once your honey butter cornbread is cooled (mostly) go ahead and slice and serve. It’s perfectly moist already but you can certainly add a pat of butter if you like! I wanted to quickly share some of my favorite ways to serve it, both on it’s own, and the dishes I pair it with.

• Dr. Pepper Braised Short Ribs
• Red Wine Braised Brisket
• Tomato Carrot Soup

No matter what you choose to serve it with, or if you just eat it all by itself, sweet honey cornbread is a winner for anyone who loves a good moist cornbread. I don’t know what tradition this recipe is most like, but I know it’s a family tradition we’ll keep around for my kids too.