Honey Cornbread Muffins — Between the sour cream, coconut oil, and butter in the batter, it’s impossible to wind up with dry honey cornbread muffins! Serve these at Thanksgiving, or alongside your favorite soups, chilis, and stews.
Honey Cornbread Muffins Recipe
Cornbread, like scones, can be horribly dry and tasteless. I promise these honey cornbread muffins are not.
I hadn’t had cornbread in ages and randomly it popped into my head. Actually, I had a craving for honey, and the muffins were the perfect excuse to satisfy my honey craving.
There’s honey in the batter to add sweetness and moisture, as well as drizzled on top. If you like sweet cornbread muffins, this is the recipe for you.
It’s an easy whisk-together recipe that follows standard muffin-making protocol. A bowl of dry ingredients, a bowl of wet ingredients, add wet to dry, fold, and bake.
The milk I used was Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and I love it. It only has 30-calorie per 8 ounces, tastes great, and if I need a milk for baking, vegan or otherwise, it’s what I use most often. All Silk products are dairy-free and gluten-free and I like that Silk is committed to and believes in the benefits of a plant-based diet.
I combatted the dryness issue that often plagues cornbread by using a bit of coconut oil (you can’t taste it) and sour cream in addition to the melted butter in the batter. Between the oil, sour cream, and butter, there’s no excuse for dryness unless you over bake the cornbread muffins. Less is more with cornbread because it can become dried out and overdone quickly.
The muffins are soft, fluffy, light, and nicely sweetened from the honey. They’re like little sponges and soaked it right up, but you can omit the honey drizzle if you want to pair the muffins with chili, soup, or savory fare.
For me, the more honey, the merrier.
What’s in These Cornbread Muffins?
To make these sweet cornbread muffins, you’ll need:
- All-purpose flour
- Cornmeal
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Milk
- Eggs
- Honey
- Coconut oil
- Sour cream
How to Make Cornbread Muffins
To make this sweet cornbread muffin recipe, simply stir together the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another. Then, combine the two and spoon the cornbread muffin batter into your prepared muffin cups.
Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full, then top with a sprinkle of cornmeal. Bake at 400ºF for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350ºF and continue baking until the tops are domed, puffed, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the sweet cornbread muffins to cool for roughly 10 minutes before serving them. I like to eat mine with a pat of butter and a drizzle of honey on top, but enjoy these however you’d like!
Can I Make This Recipe as One Loaf of Cornbread?
I haven’t tried making these cornbread muffins as regular honey cornbread, but I’m sure you could turn the batter into a 9×13-inch pan and bake it that way. I haven’t made it like that myself though, so I’m not sure how long you’d need to bake the cornbread for.
Can I Freeze Cornbread Muffins?
Yes, but you’ll want to freeze them plain (i.e. without butter or honey on top). To freeze these sweet cornbread muffins, let them cool completely on your counter and then seal them in a freezer bag. To thaw the muffins, either reheat them in the microwave or set them on your counter.
Tips for Making Honey Cornbread Muffins
If you prefer less sweet muffins, you can scale back the amount of sugar you add to the batter. This cornbread muffin recipe calls for 3/4 cup sugar, but add 1/2 cup if you don’t want them to be as sweet.
Also, make sure your eggs and milk are room temperature before whisking them into the wet ingredients. If the milk and eggs are still fridge cold, you’ll wind up solidifying some of the butter and coconut oil when you stir them together.
Finally, this sweet cornbread muffin recipe makes about 14 muffins, but rather than dirtying another muffin pan after making 1 dozen, I used the remaining batter and made a mini cornbread loaf. I used my mini loaf pan and use my mini pans all the time for extra cupcake or muffin batter, or for mini cakes. Super handy.
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Honey Cornbread Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cornmeal, plus more for sprinkling
- ¾ cup granulated sugar, reduce to 1/2 cup for less sweet muffins
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, melted
- 1 cup milk, I used Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup honey, plus more for drizzling
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, vegetable or canola oil may be substituted
- 2 tablespoons sour cream, plain or vanilla Greek yogurt may be substituted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a Non-Stick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan with floured cooking spray or grease and flour the pan; set aside. Recipe makes about 14 muffins but I made 12 muffins and used a mini loaf pan for the remaining batter rather than dirtying another muffin pan or discarding batter; do whatever is easiest.
- In a large bowl, add the first 6 ingredients, through optional salt, and whisk to combine; set bowl aside.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, add the butter and heat to melt, about 1 minute on high power. Allow butter to cool momentarily so you don’t scramble the eggs.
- Add add remaining ingredients to butter and whisk to combine and until smooth and no white streaks remain.
- Pour wet mixture over dry ingredients and fold until combined; don’t overmix.
- Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or spoon, fill each muffin cavity to a solid 3/4-full. Any less and you won’t get a domed top.
- Add a generous pinch of cornmeal to the top of each muffin and loaf.
- Bake at 400F for 10 minutes.
- Reduce oven temp to 350F and bake muffins for about 5 to 7 minutes (about 15 to 17 minutes total), or until tops are domed, puffed, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs dangling, but no batter. Mini loaf will take a approximately 2 minutes longer than muffins. Be very careful not to overbake or cornbread will be dry.
- Allow muffins and loaf to cool in pan for about 10 minutes before carefully removing.
- Optionally, drizzle with honey and add a pat of butter before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Thanksgiving Recipes:
Skillet Cornbread — Moist, fluffy, golden brown buttermilk cornbread prepared in a cast iron skillet for a crispy edge. Whether you make it for a weeknight family dinner or a holiday celebration, it’s so EASY, ready in 30 minutes, and FOOLPROOF!
Slow Cooker Sausage Stuffing — This sausage stuffing is super easy to make since the slow cooker does all the hard work for you! There’s no sauteing or browning required at all!
Sweet Potato Casserole with Butter Pecan Crumble Topping — The sweet potatoes are so tender, creamy, and fluffy while the crumbly, streusel topping adds a buttery, brown sugary crunch thanks to the pecans.
Cabernet Cranberry and Blueberry Sauce — Move over boring cranberry sauce! Cranberries are so much better with blueberries and wine! Make your own sauce in 30 minutes, so EASY, and everyone LOVES it!!
Honey Butter Pumpkin Dinner Rolls — These rolls are soft, slightly chewy, and the pumpkin puree keeps them moist and adds just enough tooth-sinking density.
Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts — These balsamic Brussels sprouts are easy to make and pair perfectly with any main dish. Serve with Parmesan and chopped pistachios to amp up the flavor!
Cranberry Baked Brie – EASY, 15-minute appetizer that’s filled AND topped with richly spiced orange-scented cranberry sauce!! Perfect for holiday entertaining!
Classic Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing – Nothing frilly or trendy. Classic, amazing, easy, homemade stuffing that everyone loves!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.
Good afternoon; I have just one question for you, since we don’t like muffins, can I make this cornbread
in a 9×13 inch glass pan??. and how long would it bake??.
I love your recipe looks so yummy and I want to make it for my family.
Thank you and keep baking,
Libni
I’ve never made this as a 9 x 13″ recipe so I can’t speak from personal experience about how long to bake it. I would just bake it until it’s done. I think it will work well in a 9 x 13, or if you wanted it a bit sicker, you could try a 9 x 9 pan. Let me know how it goes.
*thicker not sicker. Replying from phone!
These are so scrumptious! I followed your recipe exactly and they came out perfectly! I made 3.5 mini loaves. They are very moist and flavorful! Love love them!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you as mini loaves!
Outstanding! Best cornbread muffins I ever made. Moist, not too sweet……delicioius!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
I am late to this party but WOW! These are amazing and I had to comment. Have been looking for a cornbread recipe without buttermilk for awhile and came across this. I used 1/4 butter and 1/4 coconut oil and the 1/2c sugar option and it was soft and delicious! Thank you!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
I have not had much luck with cornbread in the past but I’m very glad I tried these muffins. They came out nice and moist, dense and tender. I love the sweetness and the drizzle of honey was a nice finish. They were easy to throw together in a pinch having all ingredients on hand. My husband loves cornbread and really liked them with the chili we had. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Just made these and they were AMAZING! Thank you! :] I was wondering if you had nutrition information for 1 muffin or a rough estimate?
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! I don’t have any nutrition stats on these.
Maybe it was common sense to let the milk sit to room temp, but on my second try of mixing the wet ingredients together it just turned to clumps of fat. I’ve had this recipe on my to-do list for awhile, I’m disappointed it didn’t work for me.
It sounds like your milk was too cold and it re-solidified the butter. Thanks for trying the recipe and yes room temp ingredients with baking are always recommended and standard unless specified, i.e. use cold butter for pie crusts.
The corn bread muffins were excellent. I failed to read the part about reducing the heat and ended up cooking for 3 mins more at 400 degrees. Came out very good. Next time I’ll try following the instructions better. ;) Thanks!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you even with a slight goof but it all worked out and that’s great :)
I wanted to report back. I tried freezing the cornbread and they froze and reheated just like they came from the oven. They weren’t crumbly or dry once they were reheated as I was worried about. Perfect for having cornbread whenever we want!
Oh that’s great news! Thanks for trying it that way and for reporting back!
Do you know if this freezes well? I freeze bread all the time, but Ive never done cornbread and was planning to make it this weekend. But I feel like it would make it crumbly.
I can see why you’d think that about it turning crumbly; hmmm…not sure. Bread in general freezes well but anything is possible. You could always freeze a few and see what happens upon thawing!
Can’t wait to make these today! Quick question: if I wanted to make these purely mini muffins (easier for more guests at a party), can you advise what the approximate baking time would be? Thanks so much!
In my mini muffin pan, I bake things about 7 to 12 minutes. It depends on the pans (I have a few diff sizes and types) and on the batter, etc but that’s my experience.
I made these tonight to go with chili my husband was making. My family LOVED them. I love the flavor the cinnamon added and my 2 year old little man called it sprinkles in his muffin! Thanks for a great recipe! :)
Glad they were a hit with your family and love your 2 yr old’s comment :)
Wow these look incredible! We featured this recipe in our Featured Friday blog post today for a Halloween Chili Party, love for you to visit! https://returntothetable.net/recipes/halloween-chili-party/
Thanks for the feature and glad you liked them!
Oh my goodness – that honey! I could pop a few of these right into my mouth!
Cornbread is such a comfort food for me. So fluffy, rich and sweet at the same time — I can’t get enough. Love that you made this into both plush muffins AND an awesome loaf. Pass the butter :)
These are beautiful cornbread muffins!! I love that you topped them with honey and made them nice and moist :)