Traditional Cornbread Recipe
Old Fashioned cornbread recipe! Remember those golden squares with crisp corners that everyone reached for first? This moist cornbread brings back that kitchen memory, baked in a big pan just like mom did. A traditional cornbread recipe with yellow cornmeal and real butter that is warm, tender, and pure comfort.
If you’re craving that classic, old-fashioned cornbread just like Grandma used to make. A moist, slightly sweet cornbread that is baked in a big 9×13 pan for plenty of those coveted crispy corners. This Traditional Cornbread Recipe is pure comfort food nostalgia. Made with simple pantry staples like yellow cornmeal, buttermilk, and a touch of sugar for extra tenderness, it’s perfect alongside beans, fried potatoes, or even crumbled into milk for a sweet treat!
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Did you grow up with eating squares of cornbread, oh my goodness, we certainly did? We ate this traditional cornbread with everything but mainly with beans, fried taters, and canned tomatoes and macaroni. And we really didn’t appreciate it as much as we do now. Isn’t that just the case?
And this traditional cornbread recipe was cooked in mom’s large baking pan and we always fought over the corners. This moist cornbread is exactly how mom made it We grew up on this down-home traditional cornbread along with other simple but wholesome recipes like these Texas Pinto Beans and Baked Glazed Ham .
Traditional Cornbread Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 2 ½ cups yellow cornmeal
- 2 cups of flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup melted butter
Equipment needed:
- 9 X 13 Baking Pan
- Mixing Bowls
🥣 Recipe Tips
- Preheat your pan for extra-crispy edges — Place the empty greased 9×13 pan in the oven while it preheats to 400°F. When you pour in the batter, the hot pan will immediately start crisping the bottom and sides—perfect if your family fights over those crunchy corner pieces like mine did!
- Don’t overmix the batter — Stir just until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and no flour streaks remain (a few small lumps are fine). Over mixing can make the cornbread tough instead of tender and moist.
- Make your own buttermilk substitute if you’re out — Mix 2 cups of regular milk with 2 tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice and let it sit for 5–10 minutes. Or, for an even richer version, use 1 cup sour cream + 1 cup milk
How to make this old fashioned cornbread recipe:
- Preheat your oven to 400°F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan generously with butter or nonstick cooking spray (or try the hot-pan trick from the tips for extra-crispy edges!).
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal and flour.
- Add the sugar, baking powder, and salt to the cornmeal-flour mixture. Whisk the dry ingredients together until evenly combined.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter, buttermilk (or milk), and eggs.
- Gently stir the mixture, starting from the center and working outward, just until everything is combined and no streaks of dry flour remain (a few small lumps are perfectly fine—don’t overmix!).
- Pour the batter into your prepared 9×13-inch pan (if you preheated the empty pan for extra-crispy edges, be careful—it’ll sizzle!).
- Bake in the preheated 400°F oven for 20–25 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the top is golden brown, the edges have pulled slightly away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or with just a few moist crumbs).
- Remove from the oven, let cool for a few minutes, then cut into 15 squares. Serve warm with plenty of butter, honey, or alongside your favorite soup, chili, or beans!
This an old fashioned cornbread recipe for a bigger pan because mom always made extra because Dad used to eat the leftovers. The next day he crumbled it in a cold glass of milk, it was like dessert to him. And we always use this traditional cornbread recipe for our amazing Cornbread Dressing or Stuffing at Thanksgiving. Isn’t it crazy how traditional cornbread tastes better than it did when we were kids and had it every day?
There you have it—this simple, old-fashioned cornbread recipe has been a staple in kitchens for generations, and once you try it in that big 9×13 pan with those irresistible crispy edges, you’ll understand why! Whether you’re serving it with a steaming bowl of pinto beans, chili, or just warm with butter and honey, it’s guaranteed to bring smiles and empty plates.
🥣 Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 ½ cups cornmeal
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups buttermilk or milk
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan generously with butter or nonstick cooking spray (or try the hot-pan trick from the tips for extra-crispy edges!)
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal and flour.
- Add the sugar, baking powder, and salt to the cornmeal-flour mixture. Whisk the dry ingredients together until evenly combined.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter, buttermilk (or milk), and eggs.
- Gently stir the mixture, starting from the center and working outward, just until everything is combined and no streaks of dry flour remain (a few small lumps are perfectly fine—don’t overmix!).
- Pour the batter into your prepared 9×13-inch pan (if you preheated the empty pan for extra-crispy edges, be careful—it’ll sizzle!).
- Bake in the preheated 400°F oven for 20–25 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the top is golden brown, the edges have pulled slightly away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or with just a few moist crumbs).
- Remove from the oven, let cool for a few minutes, then cut into 15 squares. Serve warm with plenty of butter, honey, or alongside your favorite soup, chili, or beans!
Nutrition
Click HERE to save this Cornbread Recipe to Pinterest
Post updated on 09/10/2020
You really have no idea what my obsessed with cornbread is like. LOL DROOL! 🙂
Thanks for sharing
Hi Evelyn, OMG this looks so good! I pinned this and will try it out for the holidays. Julie at julieslifestyle.blogspot.com
OMG, that looks so delicious! I did not grow up with cornbread, but I wish that I did. I can't wait to give this a try Evelyn. 🙂
Corn cake looks yummy!! By seeing itself i feel to eat…
YUM!
Yummy! I'm going to try this recipe Evelyn. Thank you for sharing.
Oh! I forgot to tell you that I'm following you via Bloglovin'. Please follow me back. Have a great day!
I need this recipe. I love cornbread – but grew up on Jiffy…gasp! Pinning for sure!
No more boxed corn bread for me! Looking forward to trying this recipe, thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this. We love us some cornbread with our chile in the cold months and it's been a long time since I've had a good recipe for it.
I love cornbread with just about anything, certainly honey butter, apple butter or regular butter. My favorite dressing/stuffing is definitely cornbread!
This looks so amazing!! Just in time for Thanksgiving. I love cornbread!!
Yummy!!! Thank you for sharing with Random Recipe Roundup! I *LOVE* cornbread!!!
This sounds so delish!! I've never been good at making cornbread, for some reason it just never rises appropriately. I would use the Quaker cornmeal & recipe on the back of the container, but I was recently told to try self-rising cornmeal. Does your recipe call for regular yellow cornmeal or self-rising? Also, I wonder if adding some honey butter to your recipe mixture will affect the outcome of the cornbread? What do you think? Can someone please help me?
This is a regular cornmeal recipe but adding the baking powder makes it rise. Not sure about the honey butter but if you try it please let us know how it works for you.
Do you have to put sugar in it, I don’t like sweet cornbread
We do not like sweet cornbread either and this amount of sugar will not make it sweet. Sugar attracts and retains water, thus serving as a moisturizing agent. Harmful bacteria avoid sugar so it’s anti- bacterial and prolongs shelf life. It’s also a colorant as at 320° it begins to brown. But if you would like, you can lessen the amount of sugar or you could try it without sugar.
In making this recipe the batter seemed really thick so I added an extra 1/3 C of milk. Also, I wanted to use buttermilk rather than plain milk but had to improvise because I didn’t have any buttermilk. Instead I used 1 C sour cream and 1 C milk. Also, my oven doesn’t go any higher than about 375, so I had to cook it a bit longer. That’s a lot of improvising. However, it turned out pretty good. Next time I will add an extra 1/2 C of milk instead of 1/3 C. I like a sweeter cornbread so I will increase the sugar to 3/4 C and decrease the cornmeal by 1/2 C. The nice thing about your recipe is that it’s very basic and allows for improvising. Also, I recently moved to Brazil and am learning how their ovens work (or don’t!), what ingredients they don’t carry, etc. It’s an adventure.
Great recipe! Definitely a keeper. Love that it’s made in a 9×13