This easy sweet potato cornbread is a delicious crumbly treat that pairs beautifully with all your favorite soups, stews, and chilis. It’s incredibly moist and tender and infused with the most amazing fall spices. Enjoy it as a cozy side dish or all on its own with a little butter and honey!
Why You’ll Love This Sweet Potato Cornbread Recipe
If you are looking for a cozy and comforting treat to enjoy with your favorite fall dishes, you’ll love this sweet potato cornbread with a tender crumb. Here are a few reasons why:
- Simple Ingredients: If you do any baking at home, you likely already have everything aside from the mashed sweet potatoes that you need for this skillet cornbread.
- Flavorful: Made with sweet potatoes and warm spices, this sweet potato cornbread is moist and tender with lots of Fall flavor.
- Perfect for Any Occasion: The mix of sweet and savoriness makes this cornbread really easy to pair with so many different recipes. It’s a great side for a cozy dinner, festive brunch, or potluck.
- Freezer-Friendly: You can make a big batch and freeze it for later. Just wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. You can reheat it in the oven or the microwave and it will still be soft and delicious.
If you love cornbread, try out our classic homemade cornbread or easy and cheesy Jiffy cornbread!
What You’ll Need
Pantry staples are the name of the game with this sweet potato cornbread. For full ingredient amounts, scroll to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Corn Meal: We recommend using finely ground yellow corn meal.
- Flour: All-purpose flour works great here.
- Brown Sugar: We like the mellowness of brown sugar and think it pairs really well with the sweet potatoes.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Yes, you need both!
- Spices: You’ll want to grab salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger.
- Sweet Potatoes: You’ll need cooked and mashed sweet potatoes. Check out how to make air fryer sweet potatoes or instant pot sweet potatoes for an easy option.
- Milk: Whole milk or buttermilk both work.
- Unsalted Butter: If you use salted butter, reduce the added salt by 1/4 teaspoon.
How to Make Sweet Potato Cornbread
Here are the quick and easy steps to make this cornbread recipe. Scroll down to the recipe card to see detailed step by step instructions.
- Prepare: Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Dry Ingredients: Add all the dry ingredients to a medium bowl and whisk them together. Set aside.
- Wet Ingredients: Stir all your wet ingredients – including the sweet potato – together in a large bowl.
- Combine: Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring as you go. Once all the dry ingredients have been added, stir again until the batter is just combined.
- Assemble: Pull out your skillet from the oven and melt some butter in the bottom. Pour in the cornbread batter and spread it evenly. Drizzle the top of the batter with more melted butter.
- Bake: Place cornbread in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Serve: Let cornbread rest for 5 minutes, then slice and serve! Top with more butter and honey if desired.
Tips for Success
Here are some helpful tips on making this sweet potato cornbread as amazing as possible.
- Make Your Own Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk at home, don’t worry! It’s super easy to make some. All you need to do is whisk together 1 cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of vinegar (or lemon juice) and let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Don’t Skip Preheating Your Skillet: Preheating the cast iron skillet gives the cornbread edges a nice crispy crunch.
- Make Muffins: Feel free to make this recipe into sweet potato cornbread muffins! Just make sure and adjust the cooking time. We recommend checking for doneness starting around 12 minutes.
- Smooth Sweet Potatoes: If the sweet potatoes are stringy (sometimes they are) use a food processor, or an immersion blender to puree them. You can also used canned sweet potatoes, just make sure they do not have any sugar added and drain them well.
How to Serve With Sweet Potato Cornbread
When it comes to cornbread recipes, we think pretty much anything makes a good pairing! But here are some of our favorites:
- Chili: It’s no secret that cornbread and chili pair well together! Choose from our 30 minute stovetop easy chili, crockpot chili, or crockpot turkey chili.
- Soup: We love it paired with slow cooker ham and bean soup, cozy crockpot butternut squash soup, or crockpot beef stew.
- BBQ: We always crave sweet potato cornbread when we have BBQ! Try this as a side to our country style ribs, best pulled pork, with some easy southern baked beans.
Can I Store and Reheat Leftovers?
If you happen to have leftovers, the great news is that they’re easy to store and reheat. Here’s how:
- Fridge: Store leftovers wrapped tightly in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Reheat: Serve at room temperature or gently reheat a piece in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds, until just warmed through.
- Freeze: Freeze individual portions by wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and then storing in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months. We recommend thawing it overnight in the fridge before serving, for best results.
More Easy Side Dish Recipes
- Crockpot Cheesy Potatoes
- Beer Bread
- Homemade Garlic Bread
- Herb Drop Biscuits
- Air Fryer Crescent Rolls
Yield: 8 slices
Sweet Potato Cornbread
This sweet potato cornbread is a delicious crumbly treat that pairs beautifully with all your favorite soups, stews, and chilis. It's incredibly moist and tender and infused with the most amazing fall spices. Enjoy it as a cozy side dish or all on its own with a little butter and honey!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups fine yellow corn meal
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
- 1 cup buttermilk, or see notes below to make buttermilk
- 5 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for buttering the dish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. If you are using a 10-inch cast iron skillet set it in the oven while preheating. If you are using a 9×9 casserole dish, generously butter the bottom and sides and set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk to combine the cornmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, stir to combine the sweet potatoes, buttermilk and 4 tablespoons melted butter. Add the dry ingredients into the sweet potato mixture a little at a time, stirring after each addition. Stir until just combined, do not over stir.
- If using a cast iron skillet remove from the oven and add enough butter to cover the bottom and sides of the skillet. Pour in the sweet potato cornbread mixture, use a spoon to spread the batter evenly in the skillet. If using a 9×9 dish add cornbread mixture spreading the mixture evenly.
- Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and pour over the top of the cornbread mixture.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until cooked through and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let the cornbread rest for 5 minutes before cutting. Serve warm with butter, honey or maple syrup on top.
Notes
Store: Store leftovers wrapped tightly in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Reheat: Serve at room temperature or gently reheat a piece in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds, until just warmed through.
Freeze: Freeze individual portions by wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and then storing in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months. We recommend thawing it overnight in the fridge before serving, for best results.
Make Your Own Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk at home, don’t worry! It’s super easy to make some. All you need to do is whisk together 1 cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of vinegar (or lemon juice) and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Don’t Skip Preheating Your Skillet: Preheating the cast iron skillet gives the cornbread edges a nice crispy crunch.
Make Muffins: Feel free to make this recipe into sweet potato cornbread muffins! Just make sure and adjust the cooking time. We recommend checking for doneness starting around 12 minutes.
Smooth Sweet Potatoes: If the sweet potatoes are stringy (sometimes they are) use a food processor, or an immersion blender to puree them. You can also used canned sweet potatoes, just make sure they do not have any sugar added and drain them well.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 slice, Calories: 295kcal, Carbohydrates: 46g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 0.3g, Cholesterol: 22mg, Sodium: 687mg, Potassium: 223mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 9g, Vitamin A: 2628IU, Vitamin C: 0.4mg, Calcium: 143mg, Iron: 2mg
