A quick and easy Cornbread recipe which you can make in 30 minutes! This cornbread is perfect as a side dish or even served as a sweet snack.
What is Cornbread?
As an Australian, I didn’t know what cornbread was until one of my trips to the US. In fact, my first taste of cornbread was at a breakfast one day during our honeymoon in Nantucket. That cornbread muffin, served warm with a dollop of butter and honey, remains one of my fondest food memories.
After a few years of living and working in the US, I soon learnt that cornbread was either a cake which you could eat as a dessert (e.g. smothered with jam or honey) or, more commonly, as a side dish to a savoury meal, often a barbecue.
Why This Recipe Works
- This cornbread takes a mere 5 minutes to prepare!
- Bake this cornbread in either a cast-iron skillet or a cake pan, or even as muffins.
- Cornbread is a quick and easy side dish to make when entertaining.
Cornbread Recipe
This easy cornbread recipe comes from one of my favourite cookbooks of all time, Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson.
Her recipe is for making cornbread in a cast-iron cornstick pan, if you are lucky enough to own one. Thankfully, you can also make cornbread in a cast-iron skillet, or even in a normal cake pan.
I think there is something very warm and welcoming about bringing a large pan of cornbread (which is essentially cake) to the table for everyone to slice and share.
What to Serve with Cornbread
Cornbread is perfect served alongside so many dishes. My favourites include:
Easy Cornbread
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 3 to 4
- Category: Bread
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
A quick and easy Cornbread recipe which you can make in 30 minutes! This cornbread is perfect as a side dish or even served as a sweet snack.
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RateIngredients
- 175 g (1 cup) cornmeal or yellow polenta
- 125 g (1 cup minus 1 tablespoon) plain flour (all-purpose flour)
- 45 g (4 tablespoons) caster sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 250 ml (1 cup) milk
- 1 egg
- 50 g (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- butter or non-stick baking spray to grease the pan
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F (without fan).
- Grease a cast-iron skillet (26 cm/10.5 inch) with butter or non-stick baking spray. (See Kitchen Notes below for using other pans.)
- In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal (or polenta), flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
- In a measuring jug, whisk together the milk and egg.
- Pour the milk mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients.
- Lightly mix until everything is just combined.
- Last, mix through the melted butter.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared skillet (or cake pan).
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top of the cornbread is lightly golden.
- Serve warm, but allow the cornbread to rest for about 5-10 minutes before serving (not crucial, but the cornbread will be very soft if served straight from the oven).
Kitchen Notes
USING A CAKE PAN
Instead of a cast-iron skillet, you could also use a 23 cm/9 inch round cake pan or 20 cm/8 inch square cake pan.
CORNBREAD MUFFINS
This recipe makes 12 muffins which need 12 to 15 minutes to bake in the oven.
RECIPE CREDIT
This recipe is adapted from Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson.
OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.
CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Easy and oh so good. Very moist and not too sweet
★★★★★
Hi Dottie,
Thank you for your feedback! So glad you enjoyed this cornbread recipe.
Love this website!!
★★★★★
Thank you! 🙂
Delicious! Will make again.
★★★★★
Thank you!
I made this on the weekend and everyone loved it. I’ll be making it again for sure on Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
★★★★★
You’re welcome! I hope you and your family had a lovely Thanksgiving.
Decided to make this at the very last minute for Thanksgiving. Success!! Loved the buttery, crumbly texture.
★★★★★
That’s wonderful to hear! I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving.
Followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly. Delicious cornbread.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
This looks like a delicious yet simple recipe. It’s a must-try and will be on our menu very soon. Thanks for sharing it.
★★★★★
Hi Kate,
I hope you will enjoy this recipe!
Could you add a can of sweet corn kernels to this without altering the consistency?
Our family did not like this recipe. The cornbread turned out very dry and the flavor was not what we enjoy unfortunately.
★★
Delicious recipe! The cornbread was tasty and moist. Making it again this weekend for my in-laws.
★★★★★
Hi Sarah,
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Great recipe, my family loved it.
★★★★★
Hi Janie,
Happy to hear that your family enjoyed this recipe!
Yummy! Happy New Year 2021!
★★★★★
Happy New Year! So glad you enjoyed this recipe 🙂
200 degrees??
200 degrees?
I used a 23cm cake pan and ended up with a flat cornbread, didn’t rise what so ever.
★★
I made this cornbread with your chilli con carne. Both recipes were excellent!
★★★★★
Delicious!
★★★★★
100% using this recipe again! Thank you. Was perfect! Everyone loved it.
★★★★★
Hi Nicole,
So glad you and everyone enjoyed this recipe!
Even using gluten free flour, this is always my go-to cornbread recipe. It comes out great!
That’s great to hear that it also works with gluten-free flour!
Delicious! If made w/polenta, it’s crunchy… so a matter of preference and mouth feel for polenta vs corn meal. We had zero problems w/dryness, baked in a cast iron skillet, and my entire household LOVED it! ( Me and hubs.) YUMM- this cornbread recipe is now my keeper (plus easy and easy to remember– one cup x,y,z, and one egg, one stick of butter, one TB bpowder, 1/2 tsp salt (a little more is ok), and 4 TB sugar (I used 2 TB bcs am NOT a sweet fan). Thank you!!!
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed this cornbread recipe! Everyone always loves it when I make it too 🙂
Delicious recipe! This cornbread is so good!!
★★★★★
Excellent cornbread recipe! The family loved it
★★★★★
So simple to loved them I added a can of sweet corn
★★★★★
Easy and delicious! I’ve made it many times now. Don’t need any other recipe!
★★★★★
Really delicious cornbread! My family fought over the crumbs!
★★★★★
Thank you so much for this recipe! I have done it countless times over the past months and it is now a staple in my kitchen I wouldn’t want to miss. I have changed it slightly by substituting half of the sugar with brown sugar which I think gives it a slightly more interesting flavor. Best regards from Germany
★★★★★
Hi Tamara,
I’m so glad you like this recipe! It’s also a staple in our home 🙂 I will definitely have to try with brown sugar – thank you for the suggestion! Herzliche Grüsse 🙂
Unbelievable!!
My husband loved cornbread but I’ve never mastered it…even using my Oma’s recipe.
This was perfect and he kept going back incl at 2am for a wedge with preserves on it.
So simple and beautiful texture. Bravo!!!
★★★★★
My favorite cornbread recipe! So delicious and tender.
★★★★★
Please advise/help! I’m in Spain and I get so confused with polenta and cornmeal. I have bought cornflour, which is flour like in texture. It is not the cornflour that the British use to thicken gravy etc, but yellow flour. Can I use this? I understood this to be ‘fine cornmeal’ in American language?? Thanks! (If not, I have regular polenta. These are the only things I can get here.) I want to try it but do not want to waste eggs, butter etc if this is the wrong ‘corn’ ingredient. Thank you so much.
Hi Jo,
My understanding is that, what Europeans call “polenta” is the same as what Americans call “cornmeal”. So if you are in Spain, I’m guessing that you should be able to find polenta. I recommend using the fine polenta, and also the instant variety, i.e. the type that takes a few minutes to cook and not 30 minutes.
I’m not sure what type of flour you have bought, but if it is like wheat flour in texture, then it is probably the wrong thing. You need “polenta” for this recipe. Hope this helps!
Thanks for replying! I didn’t see your reply and it was too late. :(. Yep. Didn’t work. Extremely dry. I *do* have fine polenta, NOT the quick kind. Will that work? Ugh! I have fine polenta for an American friend’s pastry recipe and that also didn’t work because I needed the flour type stuff – ie maize flour and NOT polenta! Every time it’s the wrong thing because of what Europeans call polenta and what Americans call cornmeal! 🙂 Loved the easiness of your recipe so really hoping it works next time! Thanks.
Hi Jo,
Any type of polenta should work in this recipe, including the type which takes longer to cook (because it will cook in the oven with the rest of the ingredients). However, the texture of the cornbread might be a bit different, e.g. it might taste a bit more gritty. The same applies if you use larger grains of polenta.
But the quality of polenta varies everywhere and, as you can see from the other comments above, almost everyone everywhere has enjoyed this cornbread recipe. Which, to me, means that you can use any type of polenta 🙂
FYI I only keep fine, instant polenta in my pantry so that I can make polenta quickly for my kids. So this happens to be the polenta I also use for this cornbread recipe, which is why I recommended it.
Easy and so delicious! I will be making this cornbread again for Thanksgiving!
★★★★★
This is the only cornbread recipe I use now. Works out perfectly every time and everyone, esp my mom, loves it. Thank you!
★★★★★
I am pleased with this recipe… its the first time I have ever made in the UK 🇬🇧….
Hi Mary,
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
I tried this recipe and it’s really good.
★★★★★
Hi Elsie,
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Just wanted to thank you for the lovely recipe. I made it two times in two days in a row lol we all loved it including my hard to impress son. Its easy, quick, not overly sweet and sensible amount of butter.
thank you
Hi Violet,
That’s great that you and your family enjoyed this recipe! It’s a staple in our home 🙂
Loved this! Never ever tasted cornbread in my life as it’s not a typical Aussie staple, but I have always been curious since it features a lot as an accompaniment in bbq recipes. It will be a menu regular in our house from now on! I made it with GF flour. Simple and delicious. Thank you:)
★★★★★
Hi Rey,
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! I agree that cornbread is not very typical in Australia. I first tried it on a holiday in the US. But great to hear that the recipe worked well with GF flour 🙂
This cornbread is delicious! I love the soft tender texture it has…I think because of the added flour. I saved it, and it will be my new go to for quick, easy, and delicious cornbread. What could be better! Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi Meghan,
I’m so glad you enjoyed this cornbread recipe! It’s a favourite in our family 🙂