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Easy Honey Cornbread (Brick Oven and Oven Baked Recipes)

Name: Sweet Honey Cornbread
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 1 cup cornmeal; 2 cups flour; 1 cup sugar; 1 1/2 TBS baking powder; 3/4 tsp salt; 1/4 cup cooking oil (like avocado oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil); 1/2 cup melted butter; 2 TBS honey; 3 eggs (beaten); 1 3/4 cups milk

By:

Britni Vigil

10/10/2024

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This sweet honey cornbread is made with cornmeal, flour, and a sweet honey flavor. It’s melt in your mouth moist and the best side dish to go with a big bowl of chili or a full Thanksgiving meal.

A piece of sweet honey cornbread with honey and butter on top

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Honey Cornbread Two Ways

The weather is finally cooling down here so naturally it feels like time to make all the comfort food. Comfort food and chili.

Normally around this time we’re prepping for our church’s annual trunk or treat and chili cook-off. We almost always bring this white bean chicken chili, or sometimes this homemade Cincinnati chili.

But the one thing we always bring is cornbread. Cornbread is a must-have for chili and the honey cornbread recipe I’m sharing today is sweet (but not too sweet), moist, and super easy to make.

Earlier this year we installed a Round Grove brick oven at my parent’s house that we’ve been cooking in a ton – trying out all of these yummy brick oven recipes! So today I’m going to share how to make this cornbread in the brick oven as well how to make it in a regular oven for those of you who don’t (but should) have a brick oven at home.

The brick oven is my new favorite way to enjoy some outdoor cooking and the perfect addition to any outdoor entertaining area. Plus, we have a combo unit with a fireplace, which means s’mores are always on the menu! I’m already trying to convince my husband that we need to get this Pokeeto unit to put in our backyard since we can’t cook at my parents every night.

Ingredients

Glass bowls with baking supplies in them and labels

Ingredient Notes

Cooking oil – we typically prefer to cook with avocado oil, but I know it’s pricier than other oils so if you want to go the budget route, vegetable or canola oil works as well.
Honey – honey provides a lot of the flavor in this recipe, so I recommend using a good quality locally sourced honey compared to the cheaper stuff. The cheap stuff works as well.

Equipment

If you’re going to cook this in a brick oven, you’ll also need a dutch oven or cast iron pan that has a lid. I also recommend a grill like this one to keep the bottom of the cornbread from burning. The grill is also great for cooking meat in the brick oven!

If you’re cooking this in an oven, you’ll just need a 9×9 glass pan for one batch of a 9×13 pan for a double batch.

Honey Cornbread batter Instructions

I’m going to separate the instructions into two sections – one for the batter that is the same for both cooking methods and one for the actual cooking instructions since cooking methods are different.

Let’s start with the super easy cornbread batter!

Mix your dry ingredients in a large bowl. You’ll be adding quite a bit of liquid to the bowl and want to be able to mix it all together thoroughly so err on the side of a larger bowl than smaller.

A metal bowl with cornmeal and flour in it

Once all of the dry ingredients are mixed together, you’ll add in the wet ingredients. Honey, eggs, milk, melted butter, and oil all go in together.

A woman's hand pouring honey into a metal bowl

Mix the wet ingredients just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do this by hand not with a mixer so you don’t overmix the batter.

A metal bowl with honey cornbread batter in it

And there you have it – the batter is done and all that’s left to do is bake.

Brick Oven Cornbread Instructions

Okay so if you’re going to bake this in your brick oven, here’s what we found worked best.

Heat your baking dish in the brick oven for a few minutes until it’s hot. Then add a little oil to help keep the cornbread from sticking to the bottom.

Heat your brick oven to somewhere between 375 to 425 degrees. Our temperature typically varies depending on when we last added to the fire but anywhere in that temperature seemed to work well for us. Any hotter and it’ll burn.

Pour the batter into either a dutch oven or a cast iron skillet. Make sure whatever dish you have has a lid to cover the batter while it cooks.

We tried baking our first batch without a lid and let me tell you – black is not the color you’re looking for with this cornbread. Golden yellow, just like honey.

A metal bowl pouring cornbead batter into a cast iron skillet

Place the covered cornbread into the brick oven, ideally onto a cooking rack to keep the bottom from getting browned too quickly.

Hands in oven gloves putting a dutch oven of cornbread batter into a brick oven

Then let it cook for 25-30 minutes, checking it regularly to make sure it’s not burnt. For the last five minutes you can remove the cover if you want to get that nice golden brown color on top.

A dutch oven in a brick oven with fire behind

Otherwise, just leave it covered until you can put a knife through the middle without batter coming back on the knife.

A dutch oven with cornbread and a piece cut out

When we cook it in a round pan, I like to cut the cornbread into small triangles but you could also just take it all out and cut into any shape pieces you’d like.

The triangles can get a little big so if you want to share with more people, just cut off the circle edges and cut it into slices.

A white rectangle tray with pieces of sweet cornbread

How to Bake Cornbread in an Oven

If you want to bake the cornbread in a regular oven, simply pour the batter into a glass baking dish and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until the top starts cracking.

Serve either version with soft butter, honey butter, or fresh honey to drizzle over it. While the cornbread is slightly sweet, it can always benefit from a little added honey drizzle. I mean what isn’t better with honey?

A honey dipper drizzling honey onto a piece of honey cornbread

Expert Tips

Stir the batter by hand so that it doesn’t get overmixed with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Small clumps are okay as long as everything is mixed in.

Add more honey if you like your cornbread really sweet. Decrease the amount of honey if you want it slightly less sweet.

Watch for cracking in the top of the cornbread then remove from the brick oven or oven – the cracking typically means the cornbread is done.

Test the cornbread to see if it’s done by sliding a knife into the thickest part of the center of the cornbread. If it comes out clean, you’re good to go. If it comes out with batter, cook for a few more minutes then test again.

Don’t let the fire get too hot in the brick oven. If it gets too hot, wait until it’s cooled down before trying to cook the cornbread. You need a lower, steady heat rather than the hot blazing heat you need for these quick cooking pepperoni rolls.

Check out Brick Oven Lifestyle for even more delicious recipes and tips for cooking in a brick oven! My idea for cornbread in the brick oven was actually inspired by a chili and cornbread recipe on their site!

Recipe FAQs

How do I double this recipe?

If you’d like to double this cornbread recipe, simply double the recipe and bake in a 9×13 dish in the regular oven or a larger cast iron skillet/dutch oven in the brick oven. Or just double it and make two batches in separate pans.

Why does my cornbread fall apart?

If you follow the recipe this cornbread shouldn’t fall apart but if it does, add slightly less milk the next time or mix it less. You want the dry ingredients to be just moistened and if you mix it too much, the batter may not stay together like it should.

Can cornbread be left out overnight?

Cornbread can be left out overnight since all of the ingredients are baked. Store it in an airtight container and enjoy within a week of baking.

Can cornbread be frozen?

This cornbread can be frozen by placing in a freezer safe airtight container and freezing. To thaw, simply take it out of the freezer and let it come to room temp. It will not be quite as moist as it is originally but will still be tasty.

A piece of sweet cornbread on three stacked gray plates with honey and butter

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