Sweet potato cornbread with a honey-butter brown sugar glaze ♡

Today, we’re making sweet potato cornbread with a honey-butter brown sugar glaze ♡

I wanted this recipe to be really balanced – so even if sweet potatoes aren’t your favorite, I truly believe you’ll still love it. There’s just the right amount of sweet potato flavor, but not so much that it overpowers the cornbread. It’s still very much a classic cornbread, with just the right amount of added flavor in the batter. The batter itself isn’t too sweet either, so our glaze can perfectly complement it instead of overpowering it ❤︎

Few tips:

• Main and most important tip: use a food scale to measure your ingredients, especially the sweet potato! Too much or too little of anything can mess with a baking recipe, but with sweet potato in specific – If you add less, you won’t taste the sweet potato at all, and the cornbread could turn out dry since you’re skipping out on the moisture it brings. Add too much, though, and it won’t be fitting with the other measurements , leading to a super dense cornbread that probably won’t be as good.
• I mashed my sweet potato by hand with a simple potato masher, but if you want your sweet potato to be super fine in your batter, you can use a mixer or food processor to whip it. Personally, I enjoyed the small chunks of sweet potato in the batter!
• I say this in every baking post, but it’s important, I promise! When you fold the wet ingredients into the dry, be careful not to overmix. Overmixing can activate the gluten in the flour and make your cornbread dense.
• If you don’t have sour cream, plain Greek yogurt works as a great substitute. 
• When I was testing this recipe, I ran out of butter, and buttermilk always seems to be sold out at my local grocery store—but I did have a carton of heavy cream in the fridge. If you also find it hard to find buttermilk, whip some heavy cream for about 15 minutes in your stand mixer—you’ll end up with homemade butter and buttermilk!
• Make sure to poke small holes all around your cornbread with a toothpick as soon as you take it out of the oven. Since I made this recipe less sweet with the intention of letting the glaze bring in the sweetness, we want the glaze to be able to melt in and soak right into the cornbread.
• Important: For your glaze, make it right before your cornbread comes out of the oven. As soon as you poke the holes, pour the glaze right on top while it’s still glossy and warm. You do not want your glaze to cool down, or it will become clumpy and won’t reheat to a smooth consistency.

Process:

Sweet Potato Cornbread

Sweet potato cornbread with a honey-butter brown sugar glaze ♡

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Prep Time 25 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 55 mins

Course Appetizer, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Ingredients

  

Cornbread batter✮⋆˙

• 180 grams fine cornmeal 1 1/2 cups
• 190 grams all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp fine kosher salt
• 100 grams granulated sugar 1/2 cup
• 75 grams dark brown sugar 1/3 cup, packed
• 75 grams vegetable oil 1/3 cup
• 55 grams unsalted butter, melted 1/4 cup
• 2 large eggs
• 470 grams sweet potato
• 60 grams sour cream
• 4 oz buttermilk

Honey-butter brown sugar glaze✮⋆˙

• 110 grams brown sugar 1/2 cup
• 170 grams butter 3/4 cup
• 85 grams honey 1/4 cup
• 1/8 tsp fine kosher salt

Instructions

 

First things first✮⋆˙

• Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 9×9-inch baking pan or a cast iron skillet.

Next✮⋆˙

• Peel, wash, and cut 470 grams of sweet potato. Boil it in a pot of water until tender (about 15 minutes). Drain, then mash until smooth—set aside to cool.

Now for our batter✮⋆˙

• in a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, Set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine together the sugars, vegetable oil, and melted butter until smooth. Then whisk in one egg at a time – add the sweet potato purée, Whisk in your sour cream and buttermilk, stirring until fully combined.
• Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. Avoid overmixing to keep the cornbread tender.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan or skillet, smoothing the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes (mine took 30 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden.

10 minutes before your cornbread is done baking✮⋆˙

• In a small saucepan, add your butter and melt it down on low heat.
• Add your honey and brown sugar, continuing to stir over low-medium heat until all of the brown sugar dissolves, then add your salt.
• This should take about 10 minutes.

Take cornbread out of the oven✮⋆˙

• Remove your cornbread from the oven, and poke tiny holes all around with a toothpick so the cornbread can truly soak up the glaze. Since I made this recipe less sweet with the intention of letting the glaze bring in the sweetness, we want the glaze to melt in and soak right into the cornbread.
• Pour the smooth glaze over the hot cornbread—you want to make sure to do this when the cornbread is still fresh out of the oven and while the glaze is still warm and silky.
• You don’t want the glaze to cool down, or it will become clumpy and won’t reheat to a smooth consistency.

Lastly✮⋆˙

• Let the cornbread rest for 5-10 minutes after adding the glaze on top, then you're ready to enjoy!

Keyword cornbread, sidedish, sweetpotato