Butter-Honey Glazed Cornbread

The butter-honey glazed cornbread thing came completely out of the blue. My husband was making chili two weekends ago and we both agreed that we needed cornbread to go with it (not to mention copious amounts of sour cream, shredded cheese, and avocado — but that’s just us). Not having a go-to cornbread recipe in my collection, I began looking for a Cook’s Illustrated recipe that my cousin had been raving about. I was certain the recipe would make a mean cornbread, as my cousin does not screw around in the kitchen, but it called for frozen corn and a food processor, and I just wasn’t feeling that.I took a quick peak at a Smitten Kitchen cornbread recipe, that was far less complicated than the cook’s one, only to discover it was Dorie Greenspan’s. and then it hit me: umh, duh, I could develop my own cornbread recipe and quit with this internet recipe goose chase. And so I did (but not before taking a look at King Arthur’s recipe — you know, just to make sure I understood the cornbread landscape — but then I went to work).I decided to use some homemade cornmeal in my recipe (ie: corn that my husband grew and ground). FYI, that makes me sound way more DIY than I actually am, so please don’t get the wrong idea here. My husband’s cornmeal was pretty coarsely ground which ended up giving the bread a bit of a bite and chew. I knew I wanted my recipe to have some brown sugar in it (like the Cook’s one), and buttermilk (like Dorie’s and Cook’s). But most important of all, I wanted my cornbread to be moist and oil always delivers on that front, so I did an oil/melted butter combo. I also knew I wanted the sweetness of a honey glaze, and a combo of butter and honey gave me that.And, voila, guys. I had created my (and i’m hoping your) ideal cornbread: super easy to make, corny-tasting (with a bit of a crunch) from the “homemade” cornmeal, extra-moist (from the butter oil, glaze, and some yolks that I just had to throw in for good measure), molasses-y and sweet (from the brown sugar), and tender as all get out from the buttermilk. No, you do not need a husband who grinds corn for you in order to make this recipe (and I’m hoping you won’t tell anyone about that anyway — it’ll ruin my image), but, yes, you should think about making it some time soon — along side some chili, sour cream, cheese . . . you get the picture.

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5 from 8 votes

Butter-Honey Glazed Cornbread

This butter-honey glazed cornbread is easy to make and hits all the right flavor notes. It's sweet and moist with the right amount of corn flavor.

Recipe Author Jessie Sheehan

Course Bread

Cuisine Cornbread

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornmeal coarsely ground (or finely ground, if you prefer)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 light brown sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 4 Tbsp half stick, unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil canola is fine, as is a mild olive oil
• 1 large egg
• 2 yolks

For the glaze

• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375-degrees. Spray an 8x8-inch square pan and line with parchment. Spray the parchment.
• Combine the flour, cornmeal, leavening, salt, and sugars in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.
• In a large measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg and yolks, until incorporated.
• Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and using a rubber spatula, gently combine the two. The batter can be lumpy and perhaps there's even a streak of flour or cornmeal, that's okay.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan after 12 minutes. Begin checking for doneness at 20 minutes (I think the sweet spot is 28 minutes). A wooden skewer should come out clean.
• While the bread bakes, warm the butter and honey in a small saucepan over medium heat until the butter melts. Once removed from the oven, brush the cornbread with the butter honey glaze and wait 15 minutes before serving. The cornbread will keep for at least a day or two on the counter, tightly wrapped — it gets moister and more flavorful on the second day (as do many quick breads, FYI). Yum.