My sweet skillet honey cornbread is the perfect Southern pairing to any good meal--from breakfast to dinner! I grew up on Jiffy, and this homemade honey sweetened cornbread is honestly just as easy and tastes even better. Let me teach you how to make it in just a few simple steps.
And if you enjoy this recipe, you'll love my Third Coast cornbread dressing, too!
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Featured Reader Review
★★★★★
"I made this recipe tonight because my husband LOVES sweet cornbread. It's soft, fluffy, and has the perfect amount of sweetness to it. I'm gonna make it part of my rotation of regular recipes."
-Chelsea
❤️ Why You'll Love this Recipe
Quick and Easy - You can whip up sweet southern-style cornbread from scratch in just about 30 minutes. And no fancy tools or techniques required, so it's a beginner-friendly recipe.
Satisfyingly Sweet - This old-fashioned skillet cornbread recipe is for people who like sweet cornbread. In my opinion, it's the only way to eat it! It's like cake for dinner.
👉🏾 Being from Texas, I'm obsessed with Southern recipes and have plenty for you to feast on: the best barbecue baked beans, bourbon peach cobbler, Cajun turkey wings, sweet potato casserole, Soul Food potato salad, and slow-cooked mustard greens with ham hocks!
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What You'll Need for this Recipe
Cornmeal and Flour in equal measure provide structure without graininess in the final result. Feel free to use yellow cornmeal, white, or even blue.
Honey and Brown Sugar for sweetness and moisture. I love the rich molasses flavor that brown sugar adds in baked goods. Use either light or dark.
Buttermilk helps to create a tender crumb, which is baker speak for soft texture. If you don't have dairy or plant-based buttermilk available, just stir a tablespoon of vinegar into plain milk!
Baking Powder and Baking Soda combine with the buttermilk for a good rise that results in perfectly fluffy texture. For best results, you really need both.
Check out the recipe card below for full ingredients list, measurements, nutrition facts, and step-by-step instructions!
Substitutions & Variations
Shape - Instead of an iron skillet, you can also use a 9x9 square baking dish, a 9-inch round cake pan, a loaf pan, or a 12-count cupcake pan to make sweet corn muffins.
Vegan - Use non-dairy egg, milk, and butter substitutes to make your cornbread vegan. Maple syrup, vegan molasses, and sorghum syrup are suitable alternatives to the honey in this dish.
Flavors - Add spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger or vanilla for a more complex taste that complements the sweetness quite well.
Try my honey ginger syrup in place of honey or brown sugar cinnamon syrup in place of the sweeteners in this recipe to add extra cozy flavor notes at the same time!
How to Make Sweet Cornbread in Cast Iron Skillet
- Step 1: Mix up the cornmeal, flour, rising agents, and salt.
- Step 2: Beat the eggs, then stir with the butter, buttermilk, brown sugar, and honey.
Pro Tip #1
For the best texture, make sure not to over-mix the batter. Stir until just combined and no dry pockets of flour and cornmeal remain.
- Step 3: Combine the wet and dry mixtures to form batter, then pour into a hot buttered skillet.
- Step 4: Bake until golden brown, then serve.
Pro Tip #2
A hot cast iron skillet is key to making cornbread with crispy edges. Just set the skillet in the oven while preheating, then carefully add the batter once ready. I use this same method for making sweet potato cornbread, too!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can make cornbread up to three days in advance if stored properly.
Store homemade cornbread at room temperature for up to three days, then in an airtight container in the refrigerator beyond that. It typically keeps for up to seven days total.
Cool cornbread to room temperature, then wrap in plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil before freezing. You can freeze it whole or in pieces. Either way, it keeps for up to four months in the freezer.
How to Serve
Southern sweet honey cornbread is best served warm. And I won't tell you not to be extra with more pats of butter and a generous drizzle of honey over top! It's fabulous with my creamy sweet potato soup, ground beef chili recipe, or chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, by the way.
In African American culture, especially in the South, cornbread is traditionally served with southern collard greens and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for fortune in the year to come. So let this honey kissed cornbread represent the gold for luck in your Black New Year meal!
My moist honey cornbread recipe deserves a spot in your Black Thanksgiving feast and is an instant classic for any given Soul Food Sunday dinner.
More Favorite Recipes
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
I hope you'll enjoy this old fashioned honey cornbread recipe soon and very soon. And sharing is caring, so be sure to pin this recipe for later and follow me over on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
📖 Recipe
Sweet Skillet Honey Cornbread
Equipment
- 1 whisk
- 1 silicone spatula or kitchen spoon
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter divided with 4 tablespoon melted
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup brown sugar light or dark
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit. Add two tablespoons of butter to cast iron skillet and place skillet into oven to melt.6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside.1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- In another bowl, beat the eggs then stir in buttermilk, honey, brown sugar, and melted butter until uniform.2 eggs, 1 cup buttermilk, ½ cup honey, ¼ cup brown sugar
- Fold wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined to form batter then carefully pour into hot buttered skillet.
- Place pan in oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until cornbread is cooked through and golden brown.
Chelsea Gordon says
I made this recipe tonight because my husband LOVES sweet cornbread (he is from China, and he says it reminds him of a dish called 發糕 or Fa Gao).
I had never made sweet cornbread before and I really wanted to find a recipe that mimicked what he had tried from restaurants and this recipe did the trick!
The cornbread is soft, fluffy and has the perfect amount of sweetness to it. you can enjoy it as is or add honey to it if you wanted. and it is the perfect amount of moist. not too moist but just perfect. My husband and I loved it. I'm gonna make it a part of my rotation of regular recipes.
Jazzmine Woodard says
Thanks for your feedback, Chelsea! I'm so glad y'all enjoyed the cornbread, and now I'm going to look into Fa Gao. 😊