Sweet Potato Cornbread bakes up a deep gold that plain cornbread never quite reaches, and the cinnamon and nutmeg fill the kitchen about fifteen minutes into the bake. On top of that, you get crisp buttery edges, a tender middle, and a brown butter maple glaze poured over the top while it is still warm. If you have been hunting for a sweet potato cornbread recipe that can hold its own next to a pot of chili, this is the one.
If you already make my Southern Cornbread, this is the same skillet, the same method, and a whole different flavor. And if you like a fall spin on it, my Pumpkin Cornbread does the same trick with pumpkin.
Quick Look at this Recipe
- ✅ Recipe Name: Sweet Potato Cornbread with Brown Butter Maple Glaze
- 🕒 Ready In: About 55 minutes (15 min prep, 10 min rest, 25 to 30 min bake)
- 👪 Serves: 8 to 10 people
- 🥣 Main Ingredients: Sweet potato, cornmeal, whole milk, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, cinnamon
- 📖 Dietary Info: Vegetarian. Contains dairy and gluten
- ⭐ Why You’ll Love It: Crisp cast iron edges, a tender sweet potato crumb, and a brown butter maple glaze that soaks right in
Summarize and Save the Recipe
Jump to:
- Quick Look at this Recipe
- Why You’ll Love This Sweet Potato Cornbread
- What Makes This Sweet Potato Cornbread Different
- Ingredients for Sweet Potato Cornbread
- How to Make Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Variations
- Expert Tips for the Best Sweet Potato Cornbread
- What to Serve With Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Sweet Potato Cornbread FAQs
- More Delicious Recipes
- Get the Recipe
Why You’ll Love This Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Crisp edges, tender middle. The preheated skillet does all the work.
- No buttermilk run to the store. Whole milk plus a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar does the same job.
- That brown butter maple glaze. Two minutes of extra effort for a nutty, toasted finish.
- Sweet or savory, your call. Dial the sugar up, or drop the spices and fold in cheddar and jalapeño.
What Makes This Sweet Potato Cornbread Different
The Skillet Goes in the Oven Empty
The skillet preheats along with the oven, and once the oven hits 375°F it sits in there another full 10 minutes. Cast iron holds heat the way a thin pan simply cannot, so when the butter goes in and the batter follows, the outside edge starts cooking on contact instead of slowly warming up. In other words, that is what builds the crust. In contrast, a room temperature pan gives you a pale, soft edge every time. Watch for the cue: the butter should foam and hiss the second it hits the pan. If it just sits there and melts slowly, the skillet is not hot enough yet. It is the same trick that makes every one of my cast iron skillet recipes work.
Why 375°F and Not 425°F
Most cornbread recipes run 400°F to 425°F. This batter carries brown sugar, maple syrup, and sweet potato, so there is a lot more sugar in it than in a plain Southern cornbread, and sugar browns fast. As a result, at 425°F the top darkens before the center is set. At 375°F the center sets evenly and the top stays golden instead of turning bitter.
The 10-Minute Batter Rest
This recipe runs a full 1 ½ cups of cornmeal, more than most. Cornmeal is a hard grain, so it absorbs liquid slowly. Give the batter 10 minutes on the counter and the cornmeal hydrates before it ever hits the heat. Otherwise, you get that faint grittiness people usually blame on the brand of cornmeal. The best part is that the rest happens while the skillet is preheating, so it costs you no extra time.
Ingredients for Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Sweet potato. One large potato gives you about ¾ cup mashed. Get it smooth. Stringy puree is the number one complaint in this whole recipe category.
- Whole milk plus apple cider vinegar. This is the no buttermilk workaround. Stir them together and let them sit 5 minutes. It curdles slightly, and that is exactly right.
- Cornmeal. Medium grind. The 1 ½ cups is intentional, and it is why the rest matters.
- Maple syrup. Real maple, not pancake syrup, in both the batter and the glaze.
- Butter, divided. 6 tablespoons total for the batter. 4 go into the wet mix and 2 go into the hot skillet.
- Brown sugar, flour, leaveners, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Simple pantry ingredients, nothing you need to hunt for.
See the recipe card below for exact measurements. One medium sweet potato also delivers more than a full day of vitamin A, according to the USDA FoodData Central database.
How to Make Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Step 1: Cook and Mash the Sweet Potato. Fork score a large sweet potato, microwave it 5 to 6 minutes, cool, peel, and mash it smooth. Measure out ¾ cup.
- Step 2: Whisk the Wet Ingredients. Soured milk, sweet potato puree, brown sugar, maple syrup, and 4 tablespoons of melted butter.
- Step 3: Whisk the Dry Ingredients. Cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a second bowl.
- Step 4: Fold, Then Rest. Combine gently with a spatula until the flour disappears, then let the batter sit 10 minutes.
- Step 5: Preheat the Skillet. An empty 10-inch cast iron skillet goes in the oven for 10 minutes once it reaches 375°F.
- Step 6: Butter and Pour. Swirl the last 2 tablespoons of butter around the hot pan, then pour the batter straight in.
- Step 7: Bake 25 to 30 Minutes. Start checking at 25. A toothpick should come out with a few moist crumbs, not clean.
- Step 8: Brown the Butter and Glaze. Cook the butter past melted until it smells nutty, whisk in maple syrup and salt, pour it over warm.
Brown Butter Maple Glaze
Melt the butter over medium heat and then keep going past melted. After 2 to 4 minutes, the milk solids at the bottom of the pan turn golden and the smell shifts to something nutty and toasted. That is the whole trick to brown butter. Pull it off the heat the moment it smells right, whisk in the maple syrup and salt, and pour it over the cornbread while both are still warm so it soaks in instead of sitting on top.
Variations
- Cinnamon Sweet Potato Cornbread. Increase the cinnamon to 1 ½ teaspoons for a stronger warm spice flavor.
- Maple Pecan. Stir ½ cup of chopped pecans into the batter.
- Jalapeño Cheddar. Drop the cinnamon and nutmeg, then add 1 to 2 finely diced jalapeños and ½ cup of shredded sharp cheddar. If savory is the direction you are headed, my Skillet Creamed Corn Cornbread is worth a look too.
- Cheddar. Drop the warm spices and fold in ¾ cup of shredded sharp cheddar.
- Honey Butter Version. Swap honey for the maple syrup in the glaze and finish with honey butter.
- Sweet Potato Cornbread Muffins. Divide the batter into a 12-cup muffin pan and bake 18 to 22 minutes.
Modifications
- Sweeter. Increase the brown sugar to ½ cup.
- Less sweet. Drop the brown sugar to ¼ cup and leave the maple syrup out of the batter.
- More tender crumb. Replace ¼ cup of the whole milk with heavy cream.
- Thicker cornbread. Use a 9-inch skillet and add about 5 minutes to the bake. Watch the center closely.
Expert Tips for the Best Sweet Potato Cornbread
- Get the puree smooth. Mash it well, or give it a few pulses in a food processor. Strings in the batter show up as strings in the crumb.
- Do not overmix. Stop as soon as the flour disappears. Overmixing develops gluten and turns tender cornbread dense.
- Do not skip the 10-minute rest. With this much cornmeal it is the difference between tender and gritty.
- Preheat the skillet, every time. There is no shortcut here, and it is the same habit behind my Dutch Oven Bread Recipes if you want more cast iron baking.
- Let it cool 10 to 15 minutes before slicing. The crumb is still setting when it comes out of the oven. Cut it hot and it falls apart.
- Glaze it warm, not hot. Straight out of the oven the glaze runs right off. After 10 minutes it soaks in.
What to Serve With Sweet Potato Cornbread
Cornbread this sweet wants something with heat or salt sitting across from it. For example, a bowl of chili is the obvious answer and the right one. Similarly, greens, beans, and anything smoky work just as well. It also earns a spot on the Thanksgiving table, where the maple glaze does a lot of heavy lifting next to the usual sides.
- Vegetable Turkey Chili for a weeknight bowl that is not heavy.
- Dutch Oven White Chicken Chili when you want something creamy against the sweet.
- Southern Style Creamed Corn to double down on the corn.
- Dutch Oven Ham for the holiday table.
Sweet Potato Cornbread FAQs
Ingredient and Substitution Questions
You can. Stir about ½ cup of smooth mashed sweet potato into a box of Jiffy along with the egg and milk it calls for, and add ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. It works, and it is fast. However, what you give up is the crumb. A boxed mix is built around a fixed ratio of flour to cornmeal, so it cannot carry the extra moisture the way a from scratch batter can, and you will not get the crisp cast iron edge or the brown butter maple glaze. If you have 15 minutes of prep in you, make it from scratch.
Yes. Use ¾ cup of canned puree in place of the fresh. However, make sure it is plain sweet potato and not sweet potato pie filling, which already has sugar and spice in it and will throw the whole balance off.
No. Stir 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar into 1 ¼ cups of whole milk and let it sit 5 minutes. Then it will curdle slightly, which is what you want. The acid reacts with the baking soda for lift and tenderizes the crumb the same way buttermilk does. If you already have buttermilk in the fridge, use 1 ¼ cups of it and skip the vinegar.
Troubleshooting and Make-Ahead Questions
Four, in order of how often they happen. Overmixing the batter, which turns the crumb dense instead of tender. Skipping the 10-minute rest, which leaves the cornmeal gritty. Baking too hot, which browns the sugary top before the center sets, and is why this recipe runs 375°F instead of the usual 425°F. And slicing it straight out of the oven before the crumb has finished setting, which is the most common reason cornbread crumbles apart.
Usually one of three things. It was overbaked, so start checking at 25 minutes and pull it when a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs rather than clean. It was overmixed. Or it was cut too soon. The sweet potato and whole milk in this recipe keep it moist, so if it is coming out dry, the oven is the first place to look. For this reason, an oven thermometer is worth the five dollars.
Yes. Bake it up to a day ahead and keep it tightly covered at room temperature. Make the glaze fresh before serving, warm the cornbread for 10 to 15 minutes in a 300°F oven, and pour the glaze over it then. In addition, it keeps 2 days at room temperature, 5 days in the refrigerator, and 3 months in the freezer wrapped slice by slice.
More Delicious Recipes
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Sweet Potato Cornbread
Equipment
- 10" cast iron skillet
- Large mixing bowl
- whisk
- rubber spatula
- Measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ¾ cup mashed sweet potato puree about 1 large cooked sweet potato
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 ½ cup cornmeal
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter divided
Brown Butter Maple Glaze
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoon maple syrup
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Carefully score a large sweet potato with a fork. Cook in the microwave for 5 to 6 minutes, until tender. Let it cool, remove the skin, and mash until smooth. Measure out ¾ cup.
- Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 375°F. Let the skillet heat for at least 10 minutes once the oven reaches temperature.
- Stir the apple cider vinegar into the milk and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
- Melt 6 tablespoons of butter. Set it aside to cool slightly so it is warm but not hot.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the milk mixture, sweet potato puree, brown sugar, maple syrup and 4 tablespoons of the melted butter.
- In another bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir gently with a spatula just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Let the batter sit for 10 minutes. This gives the cornmeal time to hydrate and makes the finished cornbread more tender.
- Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter and swirl to coat the bottom and sides. You should hear a gentle hiss when the butter hits the pan.
- Pour the batter into the hot, buttered skillet. Bake at 375°F for 25 to 30 minutes, checking from 25 minutes on, until the center is set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- Let the cornbread cool in the skillet for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing. This gives it time to finish setting.
Brown Butter Maple Glaze
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep cooking until the milk solids turn golden brown and the butter smells nutty, about 2 to 4 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and immediately whisk in the maple syrup and salt. Drizzle over the warm cornbread just before serving.
Notes
- Get the puree smooth. Mash it well, or give it a few pulses in a food processor. Strings in the batter show up as strings in the crumb.
- Do not overmix. Stop as soon as the flour disappears. Overmixing develops gluten and turns tender cornbread dense.
- Do not skip the 10-minute rest. With this much cornmeal it is the difference between tender and gritty.
- Preheat the skillet, every time. A room temperature pan gives you a pale, soft edge instead of a crisp one.
- Let it cool 10 to 15 minutes before slicing. The crumb is still setting when it comes out of the oven. Cut it hot and it falls apart.
- Glaze it warm, not hot. Straight out of the oven the glaze runs off. After 10 minutes it soaks right in.
Nutrition
Dutch Oven Daddy is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Edward says
Cornbread is my favorite and this is my new go to! I love the amazing flavor the sweet potatoes gives this recipe.