Pete and I both love cornbread, but we always find recipes for this Amercian classic much too sweet for our tastes.
I played around a little with a few recipes and finally came up with this one which the whole family enjoyed. I’ve reduced the sugar down by two-thirds and we still find it quite sweet (but not overbearingly so)…
- 150g (1 cup) plain flour
- 150g (1 cup) yellow cornmeal/fine polenta
- 40g (2 Tbsp) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 8g (2 tsp) baking powder
- 2g (½ tsp) bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), sifted
- 4g (½ tsp) fine sea salt
- 45g (3 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 45g (3 Tbsp) light olive oil
- 1 large (59g) egg
- 250ml (1 cup) milk
- 50g (2 Tbsp) Greek yoghurt (we used homemade)
- a couple of good pinches of dried chilli flakes (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 180C with fan. Line a 20cm/8″ square tin with parchment paper (I used a biscotti tin of comparable volume).
2. Whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, sifted bicarb, chilli flakes (optional) and salt together. In a pyrex jug, whisk together the butter, milk, oil, egg and yoghurt.
3. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry – mix gently but quickly to combine. The batter will be lumpy.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool in the tray before serving.
The boys ate cornbread with grilled chicken wings for lunch, and I had mine topped with chipotle salsa and cheese. The texture was crumbly and scone-like, making it just a bit too easy to eat.
I used this formula as the base for my crackling cornbread muffins – there was enough batter for twelve muffins…
This super quick recipe takes just ten minutes to mix and twenty to bake. As well as being delicious, it also makes a fabulous turkey or chicken stuffing!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Never tried cornbread before, looks like the perfect accompaniment for a braai. I will bookmark this for when Pete is home again.
Have a beautiful day.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, it’s so easy to make and it’s the best thing ever to stuff a chicken with! :)
I love cornbread, but the recipes I’ve tried are too dry. The texture of this looks better!
Sue, this one is a bit crumbly, but not too bad at all – a bit scone-like in texture. I hope you like it! :)
I’ve now tried a cornbread recipe which has a higher proportion of liquid than most, and it gave (for me) exactly the right texture. I also used 3 parts cornmeal to 1 part wheat flour, which would lower the gluten content a bit.
I love cornbread! I didn’t know it could be used for stuffing.
Manuela, I learnt that from the Americans! :)
Thank you for the recipe, I am going to try it with my Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup tonight. Thank you!
I hope you enjoy it! :)
This is new to me so I will have to try it.
Kim, it’s a bit scone-like in texture. I made another batch yesterday, then used half of it to stuff a chicken! :)
In the south of the US, we like our cornbread not sweet. We refer, with some derision, to the northern sweet cornbread as “cake” ;-) Your recipe looks like a winner! Cheers, Ben
Oh thank you so much – I wasn’t sure how “authentic” it would be. But the sweet version was REALLY sweet!:)
Have you ever tried cornbread with a little bit of chilli – delicious! xx
I put a pinch of dried chilli in mine, but next time I’ll try fresh! :)
Haven’t made cornbread in YEARS! we used to make it more often when the kids were around, for some reason that recipe fell off our radar. I agree with you, most recipes are way too sweet….
Sally, this particular combination seems to really strike a chord with my men – I find they keep sneaking slices of it until most of the loaf is gone! :)
Well, I guess it’s not a new thing to prepare cornbread with a lot of sugar. (I thought it was.) I have a ‘Fannie Farmer Cookbook’ which was my grandmother’s (Sadly, it’s beginning to fall apart…) The recipe calls for 1/3 cup sugar & 3/4 cup cornmeal. And thanks Benjamin for reminding us that people living in the southern part of the States don’t like their cornbread sweet. And they know what they’re doing! Celia – I love your recipe & I’m gonna make it real soon.
Cecile, thank you – not sure how authentic my version is, but my men really like it! I think it’s meant to be made in a skillet!
Exactly – a lot of corn bread recipes, esp. the older ones, say to bake the corn bread in a cast iron skillet. I’m gonna have to try that sometime!!
I love the texture of cornbread but the son-and-heirs Texan girlfriend taught him to make cornbread and he brought some out for us to try and it is far too sweet. I tried it with savoury dishes and it just tasted ‘wrong’ with them. I think I will get rid of all of the sugar in the recipe if I ever make it and just concentrate on that lovely crunchy but moist texture that is so engaging. I guess it’s a cultural thing?
Fran, sounds like it’s a North-South US thing! :) Some of the recipes we tried before this one were incredibly sweet!
The south love their cornbread SWEET. It’s like crunchy cake and as much as I love semolina in my cakes, eating them with chilli doesn’t float my boat ;). I think it’s just that the Americans in general like a lot of their food to be sweet and we Aussies tend to be savoury creatures as a rule. Vegemite anyone? ;). I hold aloft the humble pumpkin as my example here. We Aussies (and most of the rest of the world) use it predominately in savoury applications but the Americans appear to love it best in sweet recipes. I really don’t like pumpkin pie but will go back for seconds of a good pumpkin soup any day :)
I love me some good cornbread. I usually do mine in a cast iron skillet and cut into pie wedges. It’s good with fresh corn or green chilies mixed in too. :-) Maz
I’ve tried it with corn kernels and it was wonderful! :)
I agree, cornbread is often too sweet. This recipe looks like it would be a wonderful addtion to my stuffing. My family also loves leftover cornbread toasted with butter and jam for breakfast.
Liz, I made a batch again yesterday and used it to stuff a chicken. It was delish! :)
Ah, the age old American debate…sweet cornbread or not sweet. In general in the South it is not sweet, the rest of the country is sweet (thus more cake like). My hubby makes it with no sugar at all in a cast iron pan. He grew up having it with pinto beans or chili. Even more disgusting, in my opinion, he will put a
Ice of cornbread in a glass of milk and eat with a spoon!
That’s called “crumble-in” and was often a late snack to “fill the far corners” before bedtime on the farm.
The men and boys got up at 4 a.m. and worked a couple of hours in the barns before coming in to breakfast so that late snack was necessary to give them energy for the early morning chores.
We had 40 cows and 60 goats that needed milking early in the morning and when I was a child in the ’40s, theree were no electric milking machines.
So like a cold cornbread porridge! :)
I like mine without too much sugar as well as I serve it with savoury things so too much sugar just tastes wrong. Great recipe, Celia xx
Thanks Charlie! I tend to serve them with roast meats and antipasto – so savoury as well! :)
Funny, the sweetest cornbread I have ever eaten was in the South of the US, but maybe that was an exception. I don’t like it terribly sweet but use about the same amount of sugar as your recipe in mine. Looks nice Celia.
Thanks Ardys! I know it’s not terribly authentic, particularly with the yoghurt, but hey, we use what we have.. :)
Will have to give this a go a I too find cornbread too sweet normally. Right, am now off ot check out your overnight sourdough recipe as I want to give it a go and will need to start on it tomorrow!
Your loaves looked gorgeous T! How did they taste?
As good as they looked (well, I froze one for later in the week) ;) Loved the crunchy semolina crust, will be using that a lot more in the future. One was cooked in the pot and one turned out from my banneton into a hot tray. Perfect!
I don’t think I’ve ever had corn bread before but if it’s so easy I will have to try that. I find that with a lot of American bread recipes. I have to dramatically cut down the sugar.
I usually have to cut back the salt in US bread recipes – often by a huge amount! :)
Real southern cornbread does not contain sugar – or very much wheat flour for that matter.
Cornbread was the basic bread in the south because wheat does not grow well in the region and “white flour” was much more expensive than home grown dried corn that could be milled locally. I grew up on a very large farm in western Kentucky and my grandpa also owned a grist mill where local farmers would bring their dried corn to be ground.
I wrote a treatise, along with photos on my blog (see website) showing how to make cornbread “from scratch” using buttermilk, for which regular milk soured with lemon juice or vinegar can be substituted.
Thanks Andie! Buttermilk is available here but isn’t commonly used – we find the yoghurt and milk make a reasonable substitute! :)
I have never eaten cornbread. Yours looks lovely. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Sherri, it’s very simple, but my boys love it! :)
Celia, there’s a divide between the Mason Dixon Line (aka The North and The South in the U.S.) that defines cornbread as not too sweet and/or just sweet enuf. Let me do some research on ‘local’ recipes! :) I’m a sucker for either — and yours sounds fantastic!
Kim, this one is just right for us in terms of the sugar/salt balance. I baked a batch a couple of days ago to stuff a chook with, and found it half gone by the time I was ready to make dinner! :)
I have used mashed sweet potatoe alone to sweeten cornbread, it really works plus extra nutrition , its a satisfyng and yummy treat.
Oh *that’s* an interesting idea, thank you!
Good one, Celia… Peter loves corn bread… I shall try your recipe soon xo
Lizzy, it comes out quite scone-like. My Pete loves it too. Really nice with corn kernels in it as well!
Haven’t made corn bread for eons- thanks for the reminder and the great recipe.
Cheers Fra, hope you like it! xx
Nice recipe, thanks Celia. I, too, find many cornbreads way too sweet.
Amanda, this one makes a great base for other things as well!
Looks so good Celia! I’ve only had fairly sweet cornbread but don’t have much of a sweet tooth myself so your review sounds great to me. I have a bag of crackling in the freezer for my cornbread, it’s so naughty but oh so nice! :) xo
Becca, do you make your gf? Do you use all cornmeal or do you add gf white flour as well?
I use polenta and masa flour Celia, but you could certainly use GF flour instead of Masa if it wasn’t available xo
Northern recipes for cornbread always have a lot of sugar but the Southern recipes have a lot less or that was my experience from moving from Maine to Tennessee for uni. Southerners eat cornbread by the truckload so I had to get used to it. It’s most always baked in a cast iron skillet with some oil that’s been preheated in the oven. Then the batter is poured in and in a short time it’s cornbread. I’ve never made it in a different way because I love the crusty bits that touch the pan.
Now I want some crackling bread!!
Maureen, it does sound delicious that way! I can’t be trusted with hot pans filled with oil! :)
I never though of cornbread as sweet… ewww. I think it would be a great accompaniment to autumn-winter casseroles etc.
ED, I’ve been wondering if it might make a nice topping for a casserole or stew? As in cook the stew, the blob the cornbread mixture on top like dumplings and put it back in to bake. Hmm…
You might consider “Tamale Pie” which uses cornbread batter as a base for a Mexican style casserole. http://southernfood.about.com/od/hamburgcasseroles/r/bl50816d.htm
Most use ground (minced) beef but I often make it with shredded cooked pork or turkey or chicken.
The flavorings and other ingredients remain the same.
Some folks add chopped chiles, mild or hot, whole kernel corn.
When my kids were teens, they loved it with a lot of black olives in the mix – the mild, canned type, not the salty cured ones.
It is a great potluck dish, particularly enjoyed by men – I’m not sure why but it has always been so in my experience.
That looks like a good one to try, thanks Celia. I like cooking cornbread too although I haven’t made it for ages and I’ve had to cut down the sugar in the North American recipes too. A tip for your Aussie readers: look for maize flour, it’s quite powdery as it’s real flour and gives a better result than polenta.
Rose, thank you, I’ll try it! I do like the slighty grittiness from the cornmeal though!
I haven’t eaten cornbread in my entire life, Celia. :/ I bet they are so good. :)
Jhuls, something very easy to try if you can get cornmeal or polenta! :)
I will, Celia. ;)
I love cornbread – there used to be a baker in Brisbane who made it – but it must have been a yeasted loaf, it was only mildly sweet. I read Andie’s history of cornbread – it’s so interesting, I’ve never known what hominy grits were. There was also a baker in Brisbane who made a yeasted, flattish, round loaf, studded with grapes on the surface and baked with a sprinkling of sugar – I think it was called sciatta – or summat like that:). interesting post Celia.
Jan, I’ve heard of that, it looks and sounds delish! Like a flat focaccia studded with grapes! :)
You had me at chipotle salsa and cheese… cornbread is delicious, isn’t it? The boys love it, and sometimes I’ll even put bits of corn kernels and chives in mine. xo
Em, I sometimes put corn kernels in it too – we love it like that! :)
I’ve never tried cornbread but always thought that I’d like it :) x
I think it would be a nice match with most vegetarian meals! :) x
I think so too :)
I love how easy and tasty cornbread is. Especially smothered with butter! :D
Ha! Don’t even go there..it’s too tempting! :)
gotta try it soon. the post is really good.
Thank you. Hope you enjoy it!
Hey Celia! I had the same problem as you….I settled on a variation of one I saw on Food Safari, it is REALLY moist and really “corny” because it is made with creamed corn. I don’t like overly sweet things either, but this one’s a keeper in my books! Because it is so moist, you will need to let it cool before handling. SO GOOD! http://www.recipetineats.com/corn-bread-muffins/
Corn bread is an absolute fave of mine. I also find many of the recipes too sweet and now have a ‘go to’ that I use but also reduce the sugar. I brought back a cornbread pan from the US so when the weather gets a little cooler, I’ll be sharing a recipe that shows off the pan.
I’ve never made cornbread and in all honesty, not eaten it much either. But I do remember trying a particularly good one at one of our cakeclubs – maybe I should try and make it! X
Someone’s probably already mentioned this, but there are many different ideas on how sweet cornbread should be. We don’t put any sugar in ours when we’re making stuffing, but just a bit of honey when we’re eating it plain. Sometimes cornbread is so sweet you might as well eat it for dessert. I like your version.
I love cornbread & make it quite a lot. Always have to have it with Boston Baked Beans plus the extra is the best for breakfast. It’s funny though, I always made mine cornbread from scratch & when Niki was in nursery school, they made it for a Thanksgiving lunch that they put on for the parents & the cornbread was from a box mix. I was really surprised that it tasted pretty good & the next time I made my cornbread my daughter’s comment (being an expert now of course) was that I needed more “moist” in my cornbread – you know like Mrs. Dona’s.