OMG, y’all. Stop everything. This is important. I knew I loved cornbread, but I didn’t know I could love it this much. I decided to add some sweet potato mash to my Everyday Cornbread, plus a couple of spices and sour cream for richness and… WHOA. It took everything in me not to eat the entire pan of this Sweet Potato Cornbread.
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This recipe is a hybrid between my Everyday Cornbread and these amazing Sweet Potato Corn Bread Muffins from the New York Times. The NYT’s addition of cinnamon and nutmeg was absolutely spot on and gave the cornbread an amazing aroma. Since I had already bought some sour cream to top my chili, I decided to incorporate that into the batter, like this recipe from Leite’s Culinaria. Neither of those recipes used nearly enough sweet potato for me, though, so I upped mine to 1.5 cups. I didn’t want to waste that lovely sweet potato!
What Does Sweet Potato Cornbread Taste Like?
This cornbread is definitely on the sweeter side as far as cornbread goes, but it also has a good amount of warm, aromatic spices to keep it from being too dessert-like. It pairs well with both sweet and savory flavors. The texture is rich and thick, so one piece will definitely add a lot to your meal!
What to Serve with Sweet Potato Cornbread
The subtle sweetness of this sweet potato cornbread pairs absolutely perfectly with the warm spices of a bowl of chili, pumpkin soup, chorizo stuffed bell peppers, or anything BBQ, like this BBQ Cheddar Baked Chicken, but I also have to say, it’s awesome with coffee. I’ve also been eating it for breakfast with a thick pat of butter and with a fried egg on the side.
How to Store the Leftovers
Make sure you allow the cornbread to cool completely to room temperature before placing the leftover pieces in a resealable container and storing in the refrigerator. This cornbread also freezes quite well! I suggest wrapping each piece in plastic or waxed paper, then storing all of them in an air-tight freezer bag or freezer-safe container. You can thaw them at room temperature or with a quick zap in the microwave.
Sweet Potato Cornbread
Servings 8Ingredients
- 1 lb. sweet potato ($1.56)
- 1.5 cups yellow cornmeal ($0.36)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour ($0.13)
- 1/2 cup sugar ($0.40)
- 1 Tbsp baking powder ($0.12)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg ($0.05)
- 2 large eggs ($0.52)
- 1/2 cup sour cream ($0.47)
- 3/4 cup milk ($0.23)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 1/2 Tbsp cooking oil for the skillet ($0.02)
Instructions
- Peel the sweet potato and cut it into one-inch cubes. Place the cubes in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil the potatoes until they’re tender and fall apart with pierced with a fork (about ten minutes). Drain the potatoes and set aside.
- Coat the inside of a 10" cast iron skillet with cooking oil. Place the skillet in the oven and begin to preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well mixed.
- Mash the drained sweet potatoes until fairly smooth. Transfer 1.5 cups of the mashed potatoes to a large bowl. Add the sour cream, milk, and 2 Tbsp oil, and whisk until combined. Add the eggs and whisk until combined again.
- Pour the sweet potato mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir the two together just until combined and no dry mix remains on the bottom of the bowl. It’s okay if the mixture is a little lumpy, just be sure not to over mix.
- Carefully take the hot skillet out of the preheated oven and scoop the batter into the skillet. Smooth out the top of the batter until it's even, then return it to the oven. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the center is puffed, the top is golden brown, and it's slightly cracked around the edges. Remove the cornbread from the oven, cut into eight pieces, and serve (preferably with butter).
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Equipment
- Cast Iron Skillet
- Mixing Bowls
- Whisk
- Liquid Measuring Cup
Nutrition
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How to Make Sweet Potato Cornbread – Step by Step Photos
Peel a 1 lb. sweet potato and cut it into one-inch cubes. Place the cubes in a pot, cover them with water, and bring the pot up to a boil over high heat. Let the sweet potatoes boil until they’re soft and fall apart when pierced with a fork (about 10 minutes). Drain the sweet potatoes and set them aside.
Once the sweet potatoes are done boiling, get the skillet ready and begin to preheat the oven. Rub about 1/2 Tbsp of oil inside a 10″ cast iron skillet, place it in the oven, then set it to preheat to 425ºF.
While the potatoes are boiling (or after they’ve drained), combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, stir together 1.5 cups yellow cornmeal, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Stir them together until they are very well combined.
Mash the sweet potatoes until they’re fairly smooth. Transfer 1.5 cups of the sweet potato mash to a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup sour cream, 3/4 cup milk, 2 large eggs, and 2 Tbsp cooking oil.
Whisk the ingredients together until fairly smooth. You may still have a few small chunks of sweet potato, but that’s okay.
Pour the sweet potato mixture into the bowl with the mixed dry ingredients and stir them together just until mixed. It’s okay if it’s a bit lumpy, just don’t over mix it. The sweet potato cornbread batter will be fairly thick.
Carefully take the preheated skillet out of the oven, scoop the batter into it, then spread it around until it’s smooth on top. Return it to the oven and bake for 22-25 minutes.
Or until it’s puffed in the center, golden brown on top, and cracked around the edges. Cut the sweet potato cornbread into eight pieces and enjoy!
A little melted butter takes sweet potato cornbread to the next level.
Yes. Just yes.
This was absolutely delish and easy.
This was so delicious! I subbed 1/2 cup of maple syrup for the sugar, otherwise followed the recipe as written. It was so tasty! Paired with the black-eyed peas recipes for New Year’s Day. Thank you for sharing this!
I didnt have any sweet potatoes on hand so I tried using cooked carrots I put through my potato ricer. Wasn’t the same but not bad either. I would continue to use the carrots if I didnt have any sweet potatoes on hand again.
You can just use cornbread mix and add the sweet potato turned out perfectly fine for me.. Yummy!
Beth, I am definitely going to try this. I have a question. I bake my cornbread in a cast iron skillet following the recipe I learned from my mom. I notice most cornbread recipes tell you to preheat your skillet to where it should be hot enough for the batter to sizzle when you pour it in. I preheat my skillet but my batter never sizzles. Can you give me a general rule of thumb for preheating your cast iron skillet? Thanks
Hmm, I don’t think I have any general advice for that. The amount of time needed is going to vary a lot depending on the size of the dish and the temperature that you’re preheating the oven to. I think as long as the skillet is pretty hot that should be good enough. The problem you’re trying to prevent is that cast iron can take a while to heat up, so if you put the cornbread in the oven with a room-temp cast iron skillet it will take forever to get hot and actually cook the bread. So the top of the bread, which is exposed to the hot air, will cook a lot faster than the sides and center. I hope that makes sense!
Would this work with masa instead of all purpose flour?
I’d need to test it to know how much that would affect the outcome.
Hi, big time lover of your recipes! I’ve recently made your chipotle sweet potato mash recipe and have leftovers. How much of that would you swap in to use with this recipe?
We made this into muffins rather than cooking it in a skillet, and it was delicious! The only adjustment we had to make was reducing cooking time by about 5 minutes. Will definitely make again!
This was sooo good. I used almond milk, light sour cream, and 2 tbsp applesauce instead of oil in the batter. I served with sautéed collard greens and bacon to balance out the sweetness.
My wife can’t have dairy. What should I use as a substitute for the milk and sour cream? I usually use oat milk and coconut milk or cream in recipes, but don’t know how those flavours would fare in cornbread.
Unfortunately, baking can be very finicky because it can rely on some pretty precise chemical reactions, so making two major swaps like that is a bit unpredictable. I’d need to do some testing to see if there are any adequate non-dairy substitutions before making any recommendations.
Ive had success with dairy free sour creams like kite hill and Forager and oat milk has also worked great as substitutions.
Can I make this the night before, put it in the fridge, and reheat it in the oven the next day? I love this recipe and want to make it for Thanksgiving this week.
I’ve never actually tried to reheat the whole thing in the oven. My only concern is that it would dry out or get too brown with the amount of time it would need to heat through. It might be possible, but I don’t think I can guess without actually trying it.
Okay – thanks for your expertise! I didn’t think about the drying out part. I’ll make it early, and then put foil over it to keep it warm for a long as possible.
This is SO good!! The spices are absolutely perfect, enough to get the flavor, but not overpowering at all. As another commenter suggested I did half the amount of sugar to roughly 1/4 C simply because I didn’t want it to be too sweet. I personally really enjoyed the sweetness level, but I think if you’re someone who enjoys a sweeter cornbread using the full 1/2 C would be great too. I used plain Greek yogurt with a high fat content instead of sour cream, because I always have that on hand. Also, I baked it in a round 9″ cake pan because I don’t have a cast iron skillet and it still turned out great.
That was really helpful because I don’t have cast iron either and prefer yogurt Thanks
Made this for supper last night. It was a big hit! I substituted gluten free flour and used plain yogurt instead of sour cream. I have almost the same cast iron pan which I love to make cornbread in. Love this site and recipes. Thank you!
Truly delicious. I made this recipe pretty much as written, except I used a bit of pumpkin pie spice instead of pure nutmeg (I didn’t have any). Turned out great!!
This is delicious! I served it with a white bean and vegetable soup tonight. The house smelled amazing while it was baking. I wound up using half yellow and half white cornmeal – the grocery I was in this morning did not have yellow, and I didn’t have enough yellow cornmeal on hand. I also reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup. I am from Georgia and sugar in cornbread is an abomination!! ;-) I was willing to let this cornbread be sweet but I didn’t want it to be overly sweet. I felt like I tasted the spices and the sweet potato more than ‘sweet’. My son just told me the recipe was a keeper and I agree. PS – I also cooked my sweet potatoes in the instant pot to save myself the trouble of peeling and cubing – I just scooped out what I needed from the skin.
I’m glad to see your comment, because your tweaks are exactly what came to mind after I read the recipe. Steaming the sweet potatoes in an Instant Pot will produce great results without boiling away nutrients. I might even reduce the sugar even more than you did, given how sweet the sweet potatoes are. I usually add yogurt to my cornbread, and I already have plain yogurt on hand, so will sub that for the sour cream. I might add chopped jalapeños to increase the savoriness.
I tried it with white cornmeal and it just didn’t taste right.