This tender, moist, ever-so-slightly sweetened whole grain cornbread is baked up into muffins for the perfect addition to chili and soups!
It’s mixed up in 1 bowl in under 30 minutes with wholesome pantry ingredients like whole wheat flour, cornmeal, olive oil, and maple syrup, so it’s quick + easy enough to make for a fun weeknight dinner addition!
**MARCH 2020 UPDATE**
This recipe was originally posted in February of 2016 as cornbread baked in a skillet; over the years we’ve found we much prefer to enjoy this recipe baked in muffin form over the 8-inch round, simply because it seems more functional to be able to grab individually portioned pieces of cornbread. Despite being one of my most-used recipes, I was never in love with the photos, so today I’m re-posting the recipe with a fresh set of photos, more streamlined recipe instructions, and updated bake time for muffins versus a skillet. This is our absolute favorite cornbread to serve with chili, and leftovers are great the next morning warmed in a pan with al little butter and a drizzle of honey.
Growing up, cornbread always came out of a little blue box. It was sweet, tender, fluffy- and not actually all that corny, come to think of it. But man, did I love it. Simple box mixes like that were some of the first things I ever learned to bake, and I was always happy to see a few boxes of it in the pantry at home when it was my night to make dinner, especially because my family loved them so much.
So, when I set out to perfect my homemade corn muffin recipe a few years ago, I knew it had to embody some of those classic boxed cornbread elements, albeit with a bit of an updated ingredients list.
After lots of fails (like so, so many), I finally landed on the cornbread of my dreams- it’s made with ingredients I always have on hand so it can be whipped up any night of the week, has lots of great texture from stone ground cornmeal, is sweetened- but not overly so- with maple syrup, and is just as welcome dunked into a bowl of chili as it is as an afternoon snack.
It has a slightly heartier whole grain texture compared to those original boxed muffins, but is every bit as tender and moist, and just as well-received (if not more so!) by my family.
I love overfilling the muffin tins to yield 8 plump, slightly domed muffins, but this recipe can definitely be stretched to make 9-10 decent sized muffins, or even divided among mini muffin tins for more like 25-30 bite-sized muffins. The choice is all yours, and I left bake times for all three options in the recipe notes, so you can feel free to bake these however you’d like.
If you make this recipe, let me know how it turns out! Leave a comment below, or take a picture of your cornbread muffins and share it with me on Instagram so I can see!
Maple Cornbread Muffins
Time: 25 minutes
Yields: 8-10 muffins
Ingredients:
- 1 cup milk (any unsweetened nut/seed/oat/dairy milk will work here)
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin tin with 8 paper liners or grease well with olive oil.
- Whisk milk, vinegar, oil, maple syrup, and egg in a mixing bowl.
- Add cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and stir to combine.
- Divide the batter evenly among all 8 muffin cups (I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to keep them all even) and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.
- Serve immediately, or let cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Leftovers also freeze well for up to 2 months!
NOTES: For slightly smaller muffins, divide batter among 9-10 cups, and bake for 15-17 minutes. For mini muffins, start checking them after 10 minutes as they cook quickly!
MAKE IT VEGAN: these muffins can easily be made vegan with a flax egg (1 T flax + 3 T water) in place of the chicken egg. They are a bit more dense than the originals, but still quite good!