An easy, fast, no-fail recipe for tender honey cornbread muffins. These golden muffins have whole corn kernels & sweet honey in each bite to please a crowd.
There is something about freshly baked corn muffins that makes me smile. Do you feel the same? I crave those sweet tender corn cakes. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner, there’s never a bad time for cornbread. When feeding a crowd, especially for a busy holiday feast like Thanksgiving, individual servings are the way to go. I pop these into the oven about 30 minutes before serving so that that they are served nice and warm. Oh honey cornbread muffins, I need you so bad. Let’s do this!
The first time I ever had cornbread muffins was in second grade, am I weird for remembering that? My class was having a Thanksgiving party, and I vividly recall someone’s mom dropping off a platter of cakey golden squares. My eyes turned to saucers, and I couldn’t wait to try it. It happened to be the recipe from the back of a Jiffy box, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve been recently enjoying them crumbled on top of some turkey chili!
Each sunny muffin is packed with sticky sweet honey. This makes the flavor even more delicious and the cake super moist. This is my absolute favorite cornbread recipe, and I’ve made it countless times. Although this time, I decided to experiment with a gluten-free recipe using Cup4Cup flour as the base. I swear you can barely notice the difference in textures compared to wheat flour. Tender muffins with just the right amount of sweetness. Cheers!
Tiny pieces of yellow corn meal provide a nice crunch and are a welcomed contrast to whole pieces of sweet corn. Why add more corn to the batter? Because it screams “corn is awesome,” now take another bite!
If you are looking for a simple, quick no-fail recipe for savory honey cornbread muffins, you need to give this recipe a try. To make the muffins even more interesting, try adding some rosemary, thyme or even grated citrus peel. Make sure to let some butter come to room temperature, and get ready to drizzle that sweet honey on each wonderful bite.
What makes these cornbread muffins so light and tender?
Cornmeal is dried kernels of corn that have been ground down to be used in various cooking applications. But if you notice, it’s pretty dense. To make these muffins cakey and moist add flour and eggs to the base. This will help give the muffins structure from the protein. The honey and sugar not only sweeten the muffins but tenderizes them as well. Using a leavening agent like baking powder (sodium bicarbonate and cream of tarter) helps the muffins to rise. The acid and base in the baking soda react in the presence of water to create gas bubbles. When baked in the oven, the carbon dioxide formed gets trapped as the heat helps the batter set. You know what I’m talking about, those cute little muffin tops.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup reduced-fat milk or whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3/4 cup yellow corn kernels cooked
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In a large bowl mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, butter and honey.
- Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed. Gently fold in the corn.
- Lightly spray the muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray. Skip this step is using paper liners. Fill the muffin tins 2/3 full with the batter.
- Place the muffin tin on a sheet pan and bake in the center rack of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden and toothpick inserted in the center, comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, and then transfer to a cooling rack. Do not leave the muffins in the tin longer than 5 minutes. Otherwise, they will become soggy as it cools.
Yup, I’m pretty much powerless in the face of a plate of fresh, sweet cornbread, and these muffins are no exception! Their color is practically mesmerizing!
Thank you CakePants! Yes, these muffins get a nice golden brown. I think these will definitely be on the thanksgiving menu this year 🙂
Hi Jessica..thanks for sharing your recipe and just in time for Thanksgiving! These look delicious and I also love the addition of honey. Curious…would a light brown sugar work in this recipe and can the recipe work as mini-muffins if I reduce the time? Thanks for any tips : )
Hi Lainey! Yes you can use light brown sugar too. I have made them as mini muffins, I would try one small batch first and check after 6 minutes. It may take between 6 and 8 minutes. I would keep checking every minute after 6 minutes in case you need longer time. Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes in the pan instead of 5 minutes. Let me know how they turn out!
Jessica…they came out just perfect and I used 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar (I may reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon on my next batch). This will be my cornbread recipe of choice this year for thanksgiving! Thanks again for the inspiration!
Yay Lainey! So happy to hear they turned our great 🙂
Cornbread and corn muffins are my weakness. No–they are what gives me STRENGTH to be awesome. And these look particularly awesome – love the niblets of corn. Yumz.
I love it Cakespy! Cornbread does make you AWESOME 🙂
I made this recipe a week ago and the muffins were delicious. I froze the leftovers and used them tonight with beef chili. They stayed moist and were almost as good as last week. My muffins were a little too dark on the sides although the tops were perfect. I’ll try to take them out of the oven a minute or two sooner next time. I’ve been looking for a good corn muffin recipe and I think I’ve found it! Thank you.