Old Fashioned Sweet Cornbread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between southern cornbread and sweet cornbread? ›

A quick Google search will tell you that Southern cornbread is oftentimes devoid of any sugar, while its Northern counterpart is light, sweet, buttery and cakelike.

Eggs are responsible for giving baked goods structure, which means the amount you use directly affects the resulting texture. Using too few eggs will make your desserts dense, but using too many will make them rubbery.

Sugar in the cornbread interferes with the flavor of the vegetables. Don't put sugar in your cornbread! Traditional cornbread isn't sweet, but many favorite recipes have sugar in them.

I love to bake from scratch, but I have often used packaged cornbread mix, adding a little extra something to the ingredients and making the finished product taste more homemade. My favorite thing to add is sugar—a hot topic for another conversation!

In the beginning – and for Twitty, that goes back further than Emancipation – no breads made with cornmeal were sweet, no matter who was making them. What we call cornbread today, puffy and leavened with egg, was corn pone. It originated with British colonists who adapted their baking to meal ground from white corn.

It is commonly called "cornbread" in the Southern United States and is not known by a different name in this region. Cornbread is a simple bread that is made by mixing cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, and milk to form a batter, which is then baked in the oven.

Heat and spices

You can stir in 1 cup of roasted chopped jalapeños or 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne into the batter. Or, you can mix in 3 tablespoons of your favorite chile paste. Fields also recommends trying a little NOLA flair by adding a rounded ¼ teaspoon Cajun spice blend to your cornbread mix.

Yes, but we recommend using an egg substitute, like applesauce. Eggs, or egg substitutes help add structure to the cornbread. Without an egg or substitute, the cornbread may crumble and fall apart easily.

She notes that Northern cornbread is sweeter, lighter, and more cake-like than Southern cornbread. Not surprisingly, it includes sugar (or molasses, in the earlier centuries), unlike traditional Southern cornbread.

Northern Cornbread

Indeed, colonial Americans made their cornbread with molasses to sweeten it. Also, Northern cornbread sometimes uses milk rather than buttermilk. It almost always includes significant proportions of wheat flour, and it is cooked in a baking pan instead of a skillet.

Do white people put sugar in cornbread? ›

To Sweeten or Not To Sweeten

According to Purvis, black people put sugar in their cornbread, as well as use yellow cornmeal. Whereas, white people do not put sugar in their cornbread and use white cornmeal.

Sugar Is Optional

The choice is yours as to whether or not to include it. (See this excellent article from Serious Eats on why traditional southern cornbread does not include sugar.)

For people who prefer cornbread without much sugar: Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix.

Southern cornbread has traditionally been made with little or no sugar and smaller amounts of flour (or no flour), with northern cornbread being sweeter and more cake-like. Southern cornbread traditionally used white cornmeal and buttermilk. Other ingredients such as pork rinds are sometimes used.

Real, traditional, Southern-style cornbread is savory, not sweet, and always has been.

In 1892, a Times correspondent, after enumerating the many types of corn-based breads eaten in Virginia, noted, "It will be observed that in none of them is sugar used. There are cornmeal puddings served with sweet sauces, but no Southern cook would risk the spoiling of her cornbreads by sweetening them."

While on its own, Southern cornbread may be underwhelming, it's neutral flavor and crumbly texture make it the perfect vessel to soak up liquidy foods, like cranberry sauce or turkey gravy. Or, it can be eaten on its own, perhaps mixed with gooey cheese or spicy jalapeños.

The Difference In Cornbread Lies In These Key Ingredients

Also, Southern-style cornbread should contain very little sugar and flour, and if you can, get your hands on stone-ground cornmeal. If you favor moist, sweet Northern-style cornbread, use flour and sugar liberally in your mix.