Cornbread is one of the easiest things to bake. It is made in one bowl and you don’t have to overthink anything. This recipe has bits of chopped sage and is made with buttermilk. The buttermilk enhances the moistness and buttery feel of the cornbread. You can make this either in a 9-inch pie pan or 8-inch/9-inch brownie pan.
The cornbread batter consists mostly of cornmeal, buttermilk, sage, butter, brown sugar and flour. Yellow cornmeal is highly recommended for cornbread. It has a rougher texture than white cornmeal so this is perfect for the gritty texture in cornbread. This is because white cornmeal is often milled into a finer grind than yellow cornmeal (source). You can still use white cornmeal though if you really can’t find yellow cornmeal. You can usually find it in the baking section or the pasta section of the grocery store.
As I previously mentioned, everything is made is one bowl. I’ve seen people use chopped jalapeños and even tinned corn in their cornbread for different interesting textures and flavors. I used sage for this recipe, but you don’t really taste it intensely. It adds a nice aroma to the cornbread and mellows the overall sweetness. It is not savory but not overwhelmingly sweet. Brown sugar is also my go-to choice over white granulated sugar because it makes everything softer. You can serve this cornbread with melted butter, maple syrup or honey.
Ingredients
1 cup yellow cornmeal (see above post)
1 cup all-purpose flour, leveled
1/2 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
1/4 cup sage leaves, finely chopped (not the stems!)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, whisked (at room temperature)
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature (you could also use full-fat (whole) milk)
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.
- Mix the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder, chopped sage leaves and salt together in a mixing bowl.
- Whisk in the buttermilk, whisked eggs, melted butter in the same bowl form the precious step until just combined. It might have the consistency of thick porridge so some small lumps are ok. Don't overmix the batter because this will result in a cake-like cornbread.
- Pour this batter into a heavily greased 9-inch brownie pan or pie pan. You can grease the pan with softened butter or cooking spray.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cornbread comes out clean. The edges of the cornbread should have also pulled away from the pan.
- Let the cornbread cool for a few minutes on a wire rack before cutting.
- Serve the cornbread warm with butter or honey/maple syrup.