Simple Honey Cornbread Muffins

Honey cornbread muffins

Cozy soups and stews, the kind on repeat this time of year, I often find to be lacking without some sort of accompanying bread to dip or dunk or otherwise scoop up the saucy, soupy goodness with. Chunky vegetable soups with crusty sourdough. Fragrant, spicy curries with naan. Hearty chili with dense, crumbly cornbread. They belong together.

This past weekend, I made a big pot of white bean chili, with a batch of these honey cornbread muffins to serve alongside. Somewhere in the midst of dunking big crumbs of cornbread into the savory chili (and relishing in a certain northeastern team’s loss), I realized that in close to five years of blogging, I’ve yet to share with you a basic cornbread recipe.

Sure, we’ve baked up sweetly-spiced pumpkin cornbread muffins, which are wonderful in the Fall (and I honestly eat year round), but they’re sort of seasonal, right?

These honey cornbread muffins are super basic, in the best possible sense. Simple, flavorful and easily adaptable, they speak to the Jiffy cornbread nostalgia in all of us. The ingredients list is straight forward: cornmeal, flour, sugar, leavening, salt, butter, eggs, and milk. I add a bit of oil to keep things moist (as I do with most of my muffins), and honey for extra flavor. That’s it.

The batter whips up quickly and the resultant muffins come out of the oven golden-hued, with a dense, moist crumb and barely mounded tops. Perfect for dunking or dipping or simply devouring on their own with a pat of warm butter and a drizzle of honey or smear of jam. No tricks up my sleeve this time, just easy, paired down, classic corn muffin perfection. Happy baking!!

Easy Honey Cornbread Muffins

• Author: Laura Bolton
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 35 mins
• Yield: 12 Muffins 1x

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

---

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1–1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp fine-grain sea salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp pure honey
• 1/3 cup pure cane sugar ¹
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk

---

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400℉. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with butter or cooking spray, or line with paper muffin liners. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Melt the butter. Set aside to cool.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, honey, sugar, eggs, and milk until completely combined. Stir in the melted butter.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Use a spatula to gently fold the flour into the liquid mixture, until just combined. A few lumps throughout are okay.
6. Use a cookie scoop to divide the batter between the muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until gently puffed and golden, and a cake tester inserted into the center of each muffin comes out mostly clean.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool in the muffin tin for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a baking rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room-temperature. Enjoy!!

---

Notes

¹ These cornbread muffins are not overly sweet; if you prefer a sweeter muffin, add up to a 1/2 cup of sugar.

For Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread Muffins: After combining the wet and dry ingredients, add 2-3 minced jalapeños and 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese to the batter.