Cornbread is one of the great American baking traditions - a golden, slightly sweet, tender quick bread made from cornmeal that has been a staple of Southern and Midwestern cooking for centuries. It's the natural accompaniment to smoky BBQ ribs, chilli con carne, gumbo, jambalaya, and campfire cowboy stew, and it's one of the fastest and most satisfying bakes you can pull from the oven in under 40 minutes.
There are two schools of cornbread: Northern style, which is sweeter and more cake-like, and Southern style, which is less sweet, denser, and more savoury - traditionally baked in a cast iron skillet and eaten alongside beans, greens, and slow-cooked meats. This recipe takes the best of both traditions - sweet enough to balance smoky, spiced dishes, moist enough to eat alone warm from the oven with butter, and sturdy enough to mop up the sauce from a bowl of gumbo or chilli without falling apart.
Fine or medium cornmeal is the essential ingredient - not polenta, which is coarser and produces a grittier result, and not corn flour, which is too fine and produces a different texture entirely. Fine or medium cornmeal is available in the world foods or baking aisle at Tesco, Sainsbury's, and most major UK supermarkets. This recipe bakes in a standard 20x20cm tin for squares, or in a 900g loaf tin for a more traditional loaf. A cast iron skillet gives the crispest base and most authentic result if you have one.
Ingredients
For the cornbread
- 150 g Fine or Medium Cornmeal
- 150 ml Plain Flour
- 50 g Caster Sugar
- 1.5 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Fine Salt
- 2 Medium Eggs , ightly beaten
- 240 ml Buttermilk , (or whole milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice, left for 5 mins)
- 80 ml Whole Milk
- 80 g Unsalted Butter , melted and cooled slightly
- 1 tbsp Honey , (adds a subtle depth and golden colour)
Optional additions
- 100 g Tinned Sweetcorn , drained and patted dry (adds texture and sweetness)
- 1–2 Jalapeños from a jar , finely diced (adds a gentle heat —-brilliant alongside chilli or gumbo)
- 80 g Mature Cheddar , rated (fold in with the wet ingredients for a savoury, cheesy cornbread)
Method
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Preheat your oven to 190°C fan / 210°C conventional / Gas Mark 6½. Grease a 20x20cm square baking tin generously with butter or oil and line with baking paper. If using a cast iron skillet (22–25cm), place it in the oven to preheat while you make the batter - a hot skillet gives a crisp, golden base that's the hallmark of great Southern-style cornbread.
Tip: Preheating the cast iron skillet or tin in the oven is the trick that gives cornbread its characteristic crisp base and slightly crunchy edges. If using a standard baking tin, greasing generously achieves a similar effect, though the base will be less dramatically crisp. -
In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, plain flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt.
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In a separate jug, whisk together the beaten eggs, buttermilk, whole milk, melted butter, and honey until combined.
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Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together with a spatula until just combined - the batter should still look slightly rough with a few small lumps. Do not overmix.
Tip: As with American pancakes and waffles, a slightly lumpy batter produces a more tender cornbread than a smooth one. Overmixing develops the gluten in the plain flour and makes the cornbread tough and dense rather than light and crumbly. Stop folding as soon as no large dry pockets remain. -
Fold in any optional additions if using - sweetcorn, jalapeño, or Cheddar.
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Pour the batter into the prepared tin or carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and pour the batter in - it will sizzle on contact with the hot fat, which is exactly right. Smooth the surface.
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Bake for 22–25 mins until the top is deeply golden, a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean, and the edges have pulled away slightly from the sides of the tin. The cornbread should spring back when lightly pressed in the centre.
Tip: Unlike brownies or flapjacks, cornbread should be baked until a skewer comes out completely clean - it doesn't benefit from being underbaked. The moist crumb comes from the buttermilk and butter rather than residual heat, so baking it through properly gives the best texture. -
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins before cutting into squares, or turn out of the loaf tin onto a wire rack. Serve warm with softened butter alongside BBQ ribs, chilli con carne, gumbo, or jambalaya - or eat plain, straight from the tin, which is equally valid.
Air Fryer Method
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Preheat the air fryer to 170°C for 3–5 mins. Grease a small square tin or silicone baking mould that fits your basket - a 15–18cm tin works well. If using a small cast iron skillet that fits your basket, preheat it in the air fryer for 5 mins before adding the batter.
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Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.
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Cook for 18–22 mins until the top is deeply golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Check at 16 mins - air fryers vary and the top can colour quickly.
Tip: The air fryer produces excellent cornbread - the circulating heat gives a particularly good golden crust and the bake is faster than the oven. Cover loosely with a small piece of foil from the 12-minute mark if the top is browning too quickly before the centre is set.
Alternatives & Variations
Reduce the butter to 50g and replace the remaining 30g with the same weight of Greek yogurt - cuts saturated fat while keeping the cornbread moist and tender
Reduce the sugar to 30g - the honey and buttermilk provide enough sweetness for a more savoury cornbread that works particularly well alongside spiced dishes
Use semi-skimmed milk instead of whole milk - a small but worthwhile fat reduction with no noticeable impact on the finished texture
Skip the Cheddar and jalapeño additions and serve plain - keeps the calorie and fat count lower while still delivering a satisfying cornbread
Replace the eggs with 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 6 tbsp water, left for 5 mins to gel). Swap the buttermilk for oat milk mixed with 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (left for 5 mins to curdle). Use melted vegan block butter instead of dairy butter and swap the honey for maple syrup or agave. The result is a very good vegan cornbread - slightly denser than the dairy version but still moist and flavourful.
Swap the plain flour for a gluten free plain flour blend - Doves Farm works well at the same quantity. Cornmeal is naturally gluten free, though check the packaging as some brands are processed in facilities that handle wheat. All other ingredients are naturally gluten free. The texture of the gluten free version is very close to the standard - cornbread is naturally low in gluten-forming flour, making it one of the more successful gluten free baking substitutions.
FAQs
ust 35 mins - 10 mins of prep and 25 mins of baking. It's one of the fastest bread-style bakes on the site and requires no proving time, no kneading, and minimal equipment.
Rated Easy. It's a simple quick bread - mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients, combine briefly, and bake. The main thing to get right is not overmixing the batter. There's no yeast, no proving, and no complicated technique involved.
Both are made from ground dried maize, but the grind is different. Fine or medium cornmeal - the right choice for this recipe - is ground to a consistency similar to fine sand. Polenta is typically coarser and produces a grittier, denser cornbread. In the UK, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably on packaging, so look for a product labelled specifically as fine or medium cornmeal, or check that the texture feels like fine sand rather than coarse grit.
Yes - it freezes well. Cool completely, cut into squares, and freeze in an airtight bag or container for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature for 1–2 hours or wrap in foil and warm in the oven at 170°C fan for 10 mins. It reheats very well and is almost indistinguishable from fresh.
Stored wrapped or in an airtight container at room temperature, cornbread keeps for up to 3 days. It's at its best on the day of baking, when the crust is crisp and the crumb is moist. Reheat individual squares in the microwave for 20–30 seconds or in a dry frying pan for 1–2 mins per side to refresh the texture.
Cornbread is the most authentically American accompaniment for smoky BBQ ribs, chilli con carne, gumbo, jambalaya, and campfire cowboy stew - all of which have recipes on RecipeTrove. It's also excellent alongside baked beans, pulled pork, or fried chicken. Eaten warm with salted butter and a drizzle of honey, it's also one of the finest standalone snacks in American baking.
Yes - cornbread works very well in the air fryer and is one of the better quick bread recipes for the air fryer method. Use a small tin that fits your basket, preheat to 170°C, and cook for 18–22 mins until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Cover loosely with foil if the top colours too quickly. The result is very close to the oven version with a particularly good crust.
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