Chew Out Loud

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Sweet Honey Cornbread

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This honey cornbread recipe is hearty and robust.  It’s rustic with plenty of cornmeal, yet tender and moist. Sweet, buttery cornbread that’s baked in the skillet or cast iron for a soft interior and a slightly crispy golden exterior.

sweet honey cornbread, sweet cornbread, skillet cornbread

Sweet Honey Cornbread Recipe

Cornbread is one of the little golden joys in life.  I’m a sucker for for a great cornbread recipe, and apparently, so is the rest of my family.  We break out the homemade cornbread whenever we have an excuse to have it.

Whether our super moist cornbread is paired with this Chunky Homestyle Chili, White Chicken Chili, Slow-Cooker Chili with Sriracha, or  Baked BBQ Ribs… honey cornbread has a well deserved, permanent fixture next to them all…

sweet cornbread, honey cornbread, skillet cornbread

This Sweet Cornbread smells irresistible

Just the sweet aroma of honey and cornmeal wafting throughout the kitchen and home is enough to tempt everyone’s taste buds.

The sight and smell of freshly baked honey cornbread gets everyone racing to the dinner table, and I don’t have to ring that dinner bell more than once.

In fact, they’re usually tasting sweet pinches of honey cornbread before they even sit down at the table.

honey cornbread, sweet cornbread, skillet cornbread

Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread for hearty results

This honey cornbread is baked in a cast iron skillet, which gives it much more of a hearty and rustic quality. This is not an airy, light, cakey type cornbread, though it is sweet and tender.  It’s a real cornbread-cornbread.

This skillet cornbread boasts a crumb that lets you know the goodness of old fashioned cornmeal is in every bite.  It’s dense, rich, and moist.  Not at all dry.  This honey cornbread comes out beautifully thick, does not sink, and is wonderfully sweet and buttery.

Hint: right after this golden skillet cornbread comes out of the oven, smother the top with melty butter and serve while it’s warm; you’ll be dubbed  the world’s most epic cornbread maker.

Fresh out of the oven with butter on top

Let’s re-emphasize the fact that honey cornbread is simply delectable when eaten freshly baked, still warm, with a drizzle or pat of butter on top to soak into the luscious bread.  Drool worthy.

This cornbread is still great the next day, as long as it’s wrapped airtight and left at room temp.  Give it a little microwave zap, wrapped well in damp paper towels, and it returns to melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  I would recommend eating it all up within the first or second day.  (Not a problem in our house!)

If you prefer to make sweet cornbread muffins, these ones are the ultimate favorite of ours…everyone who’s tasted them agree they are the best and moistest cornbread muffins around!

You may want to save this recipe, too:

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Sweet Honey Cornbread

★★★★★ 4.9 from 12 reviews
  • Author: Chew Out Loud
  • Prep Time: 15 min
  • Cook Time: 14 min
  • Total Time: 29 minutes
  • Yield: 10 1x
  • Category: side dish
  • Method: baking
  • Cuisine: American
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Description

This honey cornbread is tender and moist, while slightly crisp on the exterior, thanks to the cast iron skillet! Simply amazing fresh out of the oven. Perfect with chili, soups, stews, or BBQ!

Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 cup yellow cornmeal
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 TB baking powder
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp table salt
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2 large eggs, room temp
  • 6 TB salted butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup real honey
  • 2 tsp real vanilla extract
  • additional butter for drizzling or serving

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375F, with rack on lower-middle position. Grease your cast iron skillet and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Whisk together well.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, butter, honey, and vanilla. Gently fold wet and dry ingredients together until just incorporated; do not over-mix or over work the batter.
  4. Pour batter into greased cast iron skillet and bake 20-30 minutes until golden brown (bake time will depend on size of your skillet.) If top browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil and continue baking. Be sure to start checking for doneness after 20 minutes. Cornbread is done when toothpick inserted in center has a couple of tender crumbs attached to it. Not completely clean, or it might turn out dry.
  5. Drizzle melted butter over the top, allowing it to soak into the cornbread, and serve while warm. Or serve with pats of softened butter on top.
  6. * For muffins, bake 13-15 minutes in lined muffin tins, just until toothpick comes out with tender crumbs attached.

Notes

If you enjoyed this skillet cornbread, please come back and give it a review 🙂 

Keywords: sweet honey cornbread, skillet cornbread

My all-time favorite, never fail recipe for Sweet Cornbread Muffins that’s moist and tender every time is this recipe, adapted from Cooks Illustrated:

Sweet Corn Muffins

How about no-fail, crowd-pleasing Chunky Chili to go with the cornbread?

Hearty Chili 3


White Chicken Chili in the Slow Cooker is one of my favorite things to make for new moms, new friends, potlucks, etc. etc.

White Chicken Chili 4

Anytime we have sweet cornbread, BBQ Baked Ribs are a perfect match.  This one is oven-baked to perfection, so no need to fuss with the grill on a rainy day!

Best Baked Ribs

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Carol at Wild Goose Tea says

    I love honey in cornbread recipes. I have lost my master corn bread recipe. That’s what happens when you have had a long campaign to reorganize ‘stuff’. Moist is the name of the game with me in regard to corn bread too. A lot of it is dry. Okay I think we have a go here. Happy Chocolate Bunnies to you—–

    Reply

  4. Susan says

    First time I made these they had a metallic flavor, too much baking powder so I backed off to 2 tsp the next time I made them and they are much better.

    Reply

  6. Zennie says

    I wasn’t sure how this would turn out. I needed a quick recipe and I do like a little sweetness to my cornbread but I thought this might be a little too sweet with both honey and sugar. Imagine my surprise and delight when this turned out to be one of the best cornbread recipes I’ve ever made! Perfect amount of crumbness and sweetness!

    Reply

  8. Sarah Landau says

    What size skillet do you use for this recipe? I’m in a pinch and need to find a substitute pan using my handy baking pan substitution chart. Thanks!

    Reply

  9. Rebecca says

    So delicious! This came out perfect. Ate it with chicken chili while handing out candy during trick-or-treating. So great for a cool fall day.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  12. Stacie says

    Oooh that sounds like good cornbread! I live in the south, so it’s all about the cornbread down here. I’ve never had it with honey in it before. I can’t wait to try it.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  19. Lisa Rios says

    Cornbread with a sprinkle of honey sounds delightful! Can’t believe I never thought of this pairing before!

    Reply

  24. Kristine Nicole Alessandra says

    Oh yum. Delicious cornbread! I like that meal suggestion of pairing it with chunky chili. I will add that to our menu plan for next week!

    Reply

  26. Sondra Barker says

    Corn Bread is one of the best side options! It is so soft and delicious! I am making this for my roommates soon!

    Reply

  33. Marysa says

    This sounds delicious! Cornbread might be a good alternative to biscuits this Thanksgiving, as we are cooking on our own without help. I’ll have to save your recipe.

    Reply

  37. Jasmine M says

    I love sweet cornbread! I am going to have to try this recipe out this Thanksgiving. I know it’s going to be good since it has honey in it.

    Reply

  39. Kathleen says

    This recipe is my family’s go to with chili every time! They beg for it! It’s moist and the sweet honey taste is perfect! AND making This cornbread in the iron skillet is the only way to go! It’s soooo amazing!
    Thank youuuu!

    Reply

  40. Nicole says

    Best cornbread ever. Honey gives it the perfect sweetness and baking it in the cast iron skillet gives it those crispy edges and makes it extra special in my opinion

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  41. Pat says

    Can I substitute the Jiffy Corn Muffin mix for the dry ingredients? Stuck at home during pandemic and don’t have the cornmeal for the recipe.

    Reply

    • chewoutloud says

      Hi, Pat! For Jiffy and other pre-packaged cornbread mixes, I’d go ahead and follow the package instructions. You can add 1-2 TB honey to the mixture if you want the honey flavor, and just start testing for doneness 5 minutes prior to package suggestion 🙂

      Reply

  43. Vicki says

    I made this recipe as muffins. It is delicious. The amount of honey and vanilla add a great taste to the recipe.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  44. G says

    I hardly ever rate things or comment on recipes, but, THIS. Was astounding. I’m so picky about cornbread (I feel like so many recipes are just so bland) and this was absolutely delicious!! I didn’t have whole milk on hand, so I did sub 1/2 cup heavy cream + 1/2 cup water, & I also drizzled honey lightly across the top as soon as the cornbread got out of the oven (I baked it in a regular pan also, I don’t own a cast iron skillet…. YET!). Regardless of the minor modifications, it turned out DELICIOUS. The absolute best cornbread recipe I’ve found yet!!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

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