Although most of my family looks forward to the side dishes more than the turkey on Thanksgiving (especially this healthy sweet potato casserole—it tastes like pumpkin pie!), the exact opposite scenario occurs with our main entrée at Christmas. Nearly every year, we purchase a honey baked ham from a specialty shop in town, along with an assortment of chutneys and stone ground mustards.
We typically cut a few slices to serve the day before as part of celebrating my grandparents’ wedding anniversary (yes, they were married on Christmas Eve!), but we save the majority of the ham for our regular Christmas dinner. Everyone reaches for those thick, juicy slices first, as well as the condiments, before turning their attention to the platters of sides.
Even with everyone sneaking into the fridge for a few extra nibbles in between meals throughout the next few days, licking the sweet honey evidence from their fingers to avoid getting caught, we still end up with leftovers. However, Mom always plans ahead and buys a special artisan package of dried beans from the store when she picks up the ham.
When everyone proclaims they’re done, she adds the rest of the ham to a big pot, along with the contents of the package and an ample amount of water, to make ham bone and bean soup. While it simmers, it fills the house with the coziest savory smell, causing everyone to ask, “Is it done yet?”
Occasionally, Mom whips up a batch of cornbread while the soup cooks. She usually follows the directions from one of our old well-worn cookbooks or on the back of the box of cornmeal, both of which depend on large amounts of oil and sugar for their moist texture. It’s a good thing we usually finish off the pan before New Year’s Eve… We need come up with resolutions to burn off all those calories!
With the holidays quickly approaching (how is it that Thanksgiving is right around the corner already??) and chilly fall weather fully upon us, I suggested that we make this Ultimate Healthy Cornbread instead this year. After their first bites, both of my parents’ eyes lit up, just like five-year-old children’s on Christmas morning, and they immediately agreed… While reaching for a second slice, with the crumbs of the first still lingering on their lips!
They quickly deemed it the best cornbread they’d ever had—and I definitely agree!
For the base of this healthy cornbread, you’ll use a combination of cornmeal and white whole wheat flour. White whole wheat flour is made by finely grinding a special type of soft white wheat, which has a lighter taste and texture very similar to that of all-purpose flour. This gives your cornbread the perfect tender texture, while still letting the comforting corn flavor shine!
Whereas the recipes my mom typically turned to all used oil, I actually prefer butter in this recipe! It gives the cornbread an extra cozy-comfort-food richness, especially when paired with vanilla extract. I know it sounds crazy… Vanilla extract? In cornbread?? Trust me—you do not want to skip it! Vanilla actually enhances butter’s flavor, so it makes this recipe taste just as indulgent as traditional ones!
However, unlike traditional recipes with around ½ cup of oil, you’ll only use 1 tablespoon of butter. (Or coconut oil… It also works, but it doesn’t have the same rich flavor!) Instead, the rest of this cornbread’s tender texture comes from Greek yogurt! It’s my favorite ingredient in healthier baking for a reason… It adds the same moisture as extra butter or oil for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your cornbread a protein boost, too!
Finally, you’ll mix in just a hint of honey for sweetness. Because my family often eats their cornbread warm with a drizzle of honey (and a small pat of butter that melts into all of the crooks and crannies), we prefer our cornbread on the not-so-sweet side. You could easily substitute a little extra honey for some of the milk if you prefer!
And there you have it! The best healthy cornbread—perfect for serving with soups, chilis, game day spreads… Or any time you’re just craving comfort food—but not the guilt! 👌🏻 And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 😊) I’d love to see your cornbread and feature it in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| The Ultimate Healthy Cornbread | | Print |
- 1 ¼ cups (150g) finely ground cornmeal (measured like this)
- ½ cup (60g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (120g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp (30mL) honey
- ¼ cup (60mL) nonfat milk
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and coat an 8”-square pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the Greek yogurt, mixing until no large lumps remain. Stir in the honey. Alternate between adding the cornmeal mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the cornmeal mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the cornmeal mixture in 3 equal parts.)
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350°F for 18-20 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden and the center feels firm to the touch. Cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving. (For the best texture, let it cool completely to room temperature.)
Whole wheat pastry flour, regular whole wheat flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the white whole wheat flour.
It’s very important to measure both the cornmeal and flour correctly, using this method or a kitchen scale. (I always use this kitchen scale because it makes sure my baking recipes turn out with the perfect taste and texture every time. It’s only $20!) Too much of either will dry out your cornbread, instead of the moist and tender texture it should have.
I know vanilla sounds like a strange ingredient for cornbread, but trust me! Vanilla enhances butter’s flavor, so it makes this cornbread taste just as indulgent as traditional recipes. (I highly recommend using butter instead of coconut oil, for that reason!)
Pure maple syrup or agave may be substituted for the honey. We prefer our cornbread on the not-so-sweet side since we usually serve it with a drizzle of honey (and a small pat of melted butter, if you’re feeling indulgent!). If you like sweeter cornbread, substitute additional honey, pure maple syrup, or agave in place of an equal amount of the milk.
Any milk may be substituted in place of the nonfat milk.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie, low sugar}
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You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♥ Spinach & Goat Cheese Cornbread Muffins
♥ Mini Cornbread & Black Bean Bites
♥ Quick Turkey Chili
♥ Spicy Black Bean Soup
♥ Roasted Bell Pepper Bread
♥ Rosemary & Garlic Bread
♥ Baked Spicy Cinnamon Sweet Potato Fries
This looks perfect for my cornbread stuffing! I’m always looking for ways to make it healthier without sacrificing the flavor my family loves. Can’t wait to try this!
It sounds like it was meant to be Kelly! It means a lot to me that you’d consider making your stuffing with my cornbread recipe. I’d love to hear what you think if you try it! 🙂
Cornbread came out extremely dry. Had little to no flavor. I guess there’s no excuse for not using butter and real corn for cornbread. I was really excited to share this with my wife and we both were disappointed. Threw it away. :/
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Mike! Let’s figure out what happened. 🙂 How did you measure the cornmeal and flour? Did you use a kitchen scale or measuring cups? If you used the latter, did you review the links in the Ingredients list on how to measure each? If the cornbread was both dry and bland, then it really sounds like there was too much of either (or both!). 🙂
Loving this cornbread recipe, and your Mom’s soup sounds so interesting!! Ham bone and beans? I’m intrigued! 🙂
Thanks Marina! I think she used a basic 13-bean soup mix. Bob’s Red Mill has one, I believe! 🙂
I swear you can read my mind. I was cooking dinner the other night and said to hubs “Remember that good cornbread we had at Kennys years ago? It would go great with this stew”…and BAM.. Amy to the rescue! Thank you so much! Have a beautiful Thanksgiving.
Oh my goodness, that’s so funny Lynn! Great minds think alike!! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you and your hubby think if you try the cornbread!
Bravo!! Had to bring cornbread to a potluck dinner. It’s not something I usually make so I made 3 different recipes. The winner-Amy’s cornbread!!! Thank you dear!!!
Oh my goodness Val, I’m completely touched!! Three different cornbreads, and mine was the winner? You’re such a sweetheart — that means the world to me! 🙂 I’m really glad you loved it!!
Bless you,Amy! Getting ready to make a whole bunch of it to take tonight. We are having a feast at church before we all praise the Lord together at midnight! Happy New Year to you, your family and your readers. And many thanks for all these healthy recipes! I think I’ll increase the honey just a bit to make it a little sweeter..
Aww Val, that means so much to me! Thank you!! 🙂 I hope you and your church family had a wonderful time at your New Year’s Eve get-together, and I hope your 2017 is off to a wonderful start!
Thanks so much! U too Amy!
Thanks Val! 🙂
Just wanted to say I made this last night to go with my favorite sweet potato turkey chili and it was so so good. Also wanted to add- I realized halfway through making it that I forgot to get plain greek yogurt but I did have vanilla flavored “Siggi’s” yogurt (its an all natural icelandic style yogurt, a little thicker than greek yogurt.) I figured it might be ok with the vanilla flavor since there was also vanilla extract in the bread. All that to say- it worked like a charm and came out awesome! Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cornbread Jillian! That was so smart of you to use the vanilla Siggi’s, and you’re exactly right about it and the vanilla extract being good for the flavor! 🙂
Hi Amy,
I made this cornbread and it was very good. I used buttermilk instead of regular milk. I left it a little too long in the oven, but even with that it was still yummy. By the way, my batter was very thick, is it supposed to be like that? I enjoy your blog.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this cornbread Colete! Yes, the batter is supposed to be very thick. Most of my muffin, cake, and quick bread batters (cornbread falls under that last category) are very thick. 🙂 And thank you so much for your kind words about my blog. It means a lot to me!
Hi Amy, Just put this together and it seemed to be a very thick batter, not like any other cornbreads I have made before. I double and triple checked the recipe just to make sure I didn’t miss something. It almost made a dough ball that had to be literally spread out into the pan. No flow at all. Was wondering if this is normal for this recipe? It’s in the oven now. we’ll see how it turns out. OK just read a couple of the last post on this. I think maybe next ime I will put it in a muffin pan. Should be much easier.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe John! The batter should be thick, but not so much that it forms a ball. How did you measure the flour and cornmeal? Did you use measuring cups to scoop them directly from their containers? When measured like that, you can end up with 1.5 times as much flour/cornmeal as when you lightly spoon and level, and that extra flour/cornmeal will definitely cause the issues that you experienced! If you don’t own a kitchen scale, here’s what I recommend doing for measuring flour (and cocoa powder, oats, etc!): use a fork to “scoop” up flour from the container, and lightly shake the fork back and forth over the top of your measuring cup to transfer the flour into it. Once there’s a small mound of flour extending past the rim of the measuring cup, then place the flat back of a knife against the top of the measuring cup, and gently scrape it across the top to get rid of the excess flour. Never “pat” the flour down with the knife or fork. This fork method acts like a sifter (without dirtying another dish!) and guarantees you’ll add less flour/cornmeal to the batter, so you’ll end up with moist and tender cornbread. Does that make sense? 🙂
This is my new cornbread! My family loves it. I only changed the honey because I used Greek Noosa yogurt with honey already in it. Thank you for making our eating so much healthier.
Oh my goodness, I’m truly honored Mary! That means so much to me that this is your new favorite cornbread — thank you! 🙂
Hi there, thanks for the great recipe! I actually used this for a tamale pie… it’s one of my favorite dishes but the cornbread always makes it a high-calorie option.. until now! I halved the honey and spread out the normal recipe’s worth of batter over my 9×13 pan to top my tamale pie mix (basically chili!) and it worked beautifully. I am so happy to have a healthier way to eat one of my favorite comfort foods!
I’m so happy you enjoyed this cornbread Erin! That sounds like such a delicious idea to spread it over your tamale pie — I’m really glad that worked! 🙂
Making these tonight! Do you think this recipe will work in a muffin tin?
Yes, it definitely should! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the cornbread Lauren! 🙂
What a fantastic recipe! I used almond milk instead of milk and it turned out great. The texture is wonderful and it browned nicely at 20 minutes. My hubby and I like cornbread a little sweeter than this recipe so I drizzled honey over top after taking out of the oven, and it was perfect.
Thank you so much, Amy! This one’s a keeper.
I’m so glad you and your husband enjoyed this cornbread Frances! That means so much to me that you’d call it a keeper — I’m truly touched! Thank you! 🙂
This is delicious cornbread! I am so impressed. Will make all winter for soups and stews.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this cornbread Leigh! I’m honored that you plan on making it all winter — that’s the best kind of compliment! Thank you! 🙂