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Sweet Potato Cornbread

This Sweet Potato Cornbread is the perfect side dish to serve alongside soup, chili or to elevate a simple bowl of pinto beans.

easy-sweet-potato-cornbread

Easy Sweet Potato Cornbread Recipe

Cornbread is a regular on our menu year-round. Depending on what I’m serving, it can go from being fully loaded or stuffed to being filled with peppers, shredded cheese or sausage. It goes so well with a variety of entrées and firmly holds its place as one of the beloved house bread of the South. This cast iron skillet cornbread has a tender crumb and the batter is slightly sweet in keeping with the star ingredient. How to make simple Sweet Potato Cornbread: (Scroll down for full printable recipe.)

  • Prepare Skillet – Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 10 inch skillet or similar. Set aside.
  • Dry Ingredients – In a medium size mixing bowl, use a whisk to sift together cornmeal, flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
  • Wet Ingredients – In a separate bowl, whisk together mashed sweet potato, milk, sour cream and eggs. Mix well, then whisk in melted butter.
  • Combine – Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until fully moistened.
  • Transfer to Skillet – Pour evenly into skillet, Sprinkle top with turbinado sugar.
  • Bake – Bake per the recipe just until a toothpick inserted into the center comes back clean.
  • Serve with butter, drizzled with maple syrup or honey.
ingredients-to-make-sweet-potato-cornbread

How to Make the Best Sweet Potato Cornbread Recipe

We often hear the terms “yams” and “sweet potatoes” used interchangeably, but they’re actually quite different. Yams are starchy and have a rough brown exterior while sweet potatoes skin is reddish brown with a creamier more colorful orange interior. This easy cornbread recipe uses sweet potatoes, not yams. You can read more about the difference between yams and sweet potatoes here on Food and Wine.

  • What you’ll need to make homemade Sweet Potato Cornbread: Plain yellow cornmeal, all purpose flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice OR ground cinnamon, pureed sweet potatoes, milk, butter, sour cream, eggs, turbinado sugar or sugar in the raw for the top.
  • I highly recommend making this sweet potato cornbread in a cast iron skillet for even baking. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you can bake this in any similar size oven safe skillet or baking dish.
  • The sweet potato puree can be prepared in advance and chilled until you’re ready to make the cornbread. When doing so, bring it to room temperature before adding it to the remaining ingredients for the batter.
  • You can use cinnamon in place of pumpkin pie spice, if desired.
  • You can also adjust the amount of spice in the batter. Begin with 1/2 teaspoon, then taste it, adding more to suit your taste.
  • Serve sweet potato cornbread fresh from the oven slathered with butter and a drizzle of honey or pure maple syrup.
  • Store leftover sweet potato cornbread at room temperature or chilled for up to 3 days. Reheat gently in the microwave.
  • You can wrap and freeze leftover cornbread for up to one month.
southern-sweet-potato-cornbread

More Southern Style Sweet Potato Recipes to Make

Sweet potatoes are in season and harvested in September and October, but can add something special to the menu year-round. They reach their peak flavor after several weeks of curing which adds to their popularity for Thanksgiving. Why wait until then, there are so many tasty ways to make them! Other recipes you may enjoy:

how-to-make-southern-cornbread

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Sweet Potato Cornbread

Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Course: Bread, Breakfast, Side Dish
Cuisine: American, Southern
Keyword: cornbread-recipes, sweet-potato-cornbread, sweet-potato-recipes
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 317kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 cups plain yellow cornmeal
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
  • 1 cup pureed sweet potato see Cook's note
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted (plus additional to grease skillet)
  • 1 Tbsp turbinado sugar optional

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 10 inch skillet or similar. Set aside.
  • In a medium size mixing bowl, use a whisk to sift together cornmeal, flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together mashed sweet potato, milk, sour cream and eggs. Mix well, then whisk in melted butter. Once combined, add wet to dry ingredients, mixing until fully moistened.
  • Pour evenly into skillet, Sprinkle top with turbinado sugar.
  • Bake for 40-45 minutes just until a toothpick inserted into the center comes back clean.
  • Serve with butter, drizzled with maple syrup or honey.

Notes

To make sweet potato: Preheat oven to 425°F. Scrub skin of large sweet potato. Place on a pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserts easily into the flesh. Cool for 20 minutes, then peel and puree. Let cool.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 317kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 88mg | Sodium: 337mg | Potassium: 388mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 4875IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 109mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @melissassk or tag #melissassk!

14 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and I did not have whole milk so I used 2% mixed with half and half. I also cooked the sweet potato in microwave to make the sweet potato purée and used my immersion blender to mix the ingredients . Great recipe

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