Soul Food Sweet Potato Cornbread
This Homemade Sweet Potato Cornbread is made using a classic recipe with buttermilk, roasted sweet potatoes and drizzled in either maple butter or cinnamon honey butter. This is a must for any spread including Sunday Dinners, holidays, and Thanksgiving.
Servings 16 slices
Calories 131kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups yellow cornmeal
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ cup brown sugar or sweetener Optional. Omit if you don't like sweetened cornbread. See notes.
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk See notes for substitution.
- ¼ cup unsalted butter ½ stick, melted, measured solid.
- 1 ½ cups sweet potatoes Cooked, mashed (or pureed), and cooled. See notes.
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter Used to grease the skillet/pan.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Add the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar or sweetener, and salt to a mixing bowl. Stir to combine.
- In a separate bowl, add the eggs, ¼ cup melted butter, buttermilk, and pureed sweet potatoes. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine. Be sure not to over-mix the batter. Only mix well enough to combine the ingredients. Over-mixing will dry out the texture of the finished dish.
- Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet on medium heat (alternatively you can use any baking dish you wish and skip this step). Add 1 tablespoon of butter. Allow it to melt and then grease the entire skillet including the edges.
- While the skillet is hot, pour the cornbread mixture into the cast iron skillet.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and return clean. Mine takes 30 minutes.
- Allow the cornbread to cool completely prior to slicing. I let it cool for at least 20 minutes.
Video
Notes
- For a smooth batter, puree your sweet potatoes using a hand blender or high powered blender.
- You can substitute brown sugar or sweetener for regular sugar if you wish.
- The taste of this cornbread isn't overly sweet. I love to serve it with Maple Butter or honey which adds sweet flavor. If you want really sweet cornbread, add additional sweetener or sugar, such as ¾ - 1 cup.
- You can use any oil instead of butter if you wish.
- To get a really crispy crust, be sure to add your batter to a piping hot, buttered skillet.
- Every oven cooks at varying speeds. I often have to rotate the placement of foods in my oven halfway through the cooking process because the area facing the back of the oven cooks at a faster pace.
- You can substitute/make your own buttermilk if you wish by combining milk and vinegar (or lemon). Get instructions on How to Make a Buttermilk Substitute here. Buttermilk is a soured product so will be more acidic than milk. This will react with any rising agent such as baking powder used in the recipe and give a better rise to the product.
- Do not simply substitute milk alone in this recipe. Milk is used in baking recipes for thinning the batter. That's not what we want here. Milk does not lower the pH of the cornbread and is therefore very different from buttermilk.
- Be sure not to over mix the batter when you combine the dry and wet ingredients. This is a common baking rule of thumb. Over-mixing will lead to large cracks in the crust and a lot of crumble. Only mix well enough to combine the ingredients. If your cornbread does not hold or falls apart, this is where you went wrong.
- You can still use this recipe without a cast iron. You will likely need less than ¼ cup of butter to oil your pan. Use your judgment. You can use an 8x8 baking dish/cake pan. You may have to adjust your cook time. Keep a watchful eye and test using a toothpick.
- Cornbread is best served hot and fresh, but can be made up to 8 hours ahead of time.
- Macros assume zero calorie monkfruit is used. Feel free to use the macros calculator of your choice to calculate accurate macros utilizing the branded ingredients you use in the recipe.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 131kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g