This sourdough cornbread has great cornbread flavor with just a little sourdough pizzaz. Baked in a cast iron skillet, this sourdough cornbread has a crisp crust with a tender, moist, center without being too “cake like”. It is the perfect pairing with soups, stews, and chilis, and anything else you want to pair it with.
I feel like we are finally mostly settled into our new house. The boxes, with an exception of 3 stashed into the guest room closet, are unpacked. Art and photos are hung on the walls. I think I have finally stopped fiddling with the built in book shelves surrounding the living room fireplace (who ever would have thought that making a bookshelf look pretty but still containing the vast majority of you obsessive book collection would be so hard?!). I have figured out how to drive to most places, and where most items are in the utterly massive grocery store.
Next up: making friends! I always struggle with this, as I am not really the most outgoing person. I am perfectly fine to be quiet and don’t feel the “need to lead”. But I am also not ok not having friends. I know that social interaction is something I need, not only for friends but so we don’t go totally stir crazy staying at home all the time. And so, I force myself to be outgoing and attempt to make friends. I relied heavily on my MOPS mamas in Marietta, and found not only playdates and wonderful meetings to help me grow as a mom, but I found some amazing, wonderful friends. I have found two groups here that I am checking out and hope to be finding some beautiful new friendships soon! (uh..anyone in Des Moines wanna be my friend? Haha)
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Sourdough Cornbread Recipe:
This might be one of my new favorite ways to use cornbread. Ever.
This sourdough cornbread recipe is so quick to throw it together in the morning, let it sit all day, and then have a delicious cornbread for dinner that night. It is nice and moist, without being too “cake like”.
The sourdough flavor here is slightly more than subtle, but not overpowering. It still tastes like cornbread, but with a bit extra pizzaz.
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Yield: 8 Servings
Sourdough Cornbread
This skillet cornbread has great cornbread flavor with just a little sourdough pizzaz. It is nice and moist, without being too "cake like".
Prep Time
8 hours
Cook Time
35 minutes
Total Time
8 hours 35 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup unbleached flour
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix together the starter milk, cornmeal and flour.
- Cover and let sit on the counter for 8-24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, eggs, melted butter, and sea salt.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the soured batter.
- Sprinkle the baking powder and baking soda over top and stir well to incorporate.
- Pour the batter into a greased 8″ cast iron skillet (or 12 muffin pans, or 2 5″x9″ bread pans).
- Bake 35 minutes (or 15 for muffins).
- When golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 328Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 79mgSodium: 624mgCarbohydrates: 44gFiber: 3gSugar: 6gProtein: 7g
Looking for other awesome Sourdough Recipes? Check out my Sourdough Archives HERE for over 60 recipes using Sourdough!
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That looks amazing! I hope mine looks as good when it comes out of the oven.
Jenni, yum, skillet corn bread slathered with butter! I have no doubt you will make many friends in your new home, enjoy the journey!
Looks tasty- and a great twist on corn bread.
Hooray for being more settled and meeting people and all the FUN parts of moving! And that cornbread looks outstanding. I love the maple syrup in there – DELICIOUS!
Skillet Cornbread is the best!
I love how simple this is to throw together.
I have been moving home a lot, and the hardest part was always leaving the people you love behind while trying to make new friends! Baking and sharing made it a bit easier – I never made skillet cornbread, looks lovely – I got so many great ideas from this challenge!
Sourdough cornbread was the best I've ever had!
What temp. to bake?
Hello! Bake this at 350 F!
Should the Starter be active?
You can use your discard without feeding it in this recipe, since you will feed it and let it sit all day!
Does it matter what hydration the starter is at?
Hello! Yes, this recipe uses 100% hydration starter.
I'm assuming the sourdough should be pretty active???….
I just found out your sourdough cornbread recipe in Pinterest. I'm so happy to see that it can be used the sourdough starter to make the cornbread. To be honest, I never taste the cornbread before. So that why I really want try to make it. I have already put my soured batter on the counter for almost 4 hours and also the size expanded double already. The room temperature is 34C in my kitchen room. Is it enough? Can I go to next step to stir the wet ingredient into the sores batter?
that’s really hot. yes, that’s enough! be careful, yeast will stop working around 35 C. May want to let it sit at night instead, when it’s cooler. adding salt to the batter that sits out will slow the growth a little.
Jenni, sourdough cornbread is really yummy! This is my first time to taste a cornbread. I really want to try to make it before. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
How coarse/fine should the cornmeal be for this?
An average grind should be just fine! If you use a course or fine grade, it will still turn out well, but a fine grind will yield a more delicate and cake-like bread and the course will be grittier and more rustic.
Thanks for the advice
I just finished getting this ready for the oven. I decided to make it as muffins. I wound up with 24 muffins, not 12. There is no way this batter would have fit into my 8 inch skillet. Just sayin’….
I am glad you wound up with so many muffins!
Hi Jenni,
Would it be okay to use buttermilk? It’s already cultured so I’m thinking it should’ve be a problem. Looking forward to making this cornbread in a couple days.
Hi Matt!
Sorry it took me a few days to answer – we were on vacation and I left my computer at home! You could most definitely use buttermilk as well! 🙂
Made this today, muffin form. We loved it! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
I would really like to try your recipes , but you don’t give your starter recipe. I wish you would share that. Thanks
Hi Jenny! I have information on feeding and starting a sourdough starter on this post: https://thegingeredwhisk.com/sourdough-starter/ I hope that helps!
I made muffins with this recipe. I like the springy texture and the sweetness from the maple syrup. I used starter straight from the fridge and only had 6 hours for the fermentation on the counter but it seemed sufficient.
Can I substitute honey or molasses for the maple syrup? Or would pancake syrup be better?
Hi Sherrie! I have not tried it, but I would suggest honey over molasses. Molasses will definitely give it a lot of the molasses taste. Pancake syrup would not be a good choice here.
Could I use buttermilk instead.of regular milk?
Hi! I have not tried buttermilk specifically, but I bet it would work just fine! Let me know how it goes!
Hi, thank you so much for sharing this recipe – I am so glad that I can finally use up some of my sourdough starter discard for it! However, I do not have any maple syrup or butter and was wondering if I could use vegetable oil and sugar to substitute?
Thank you again!
This cornbread is delicious! I used kefir instead of the milk, which gave it a nice texture. My starter is whole wheat so the resulting bread was hearty and I’m sure, really healthy.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
This recipe was great. I love sweet cornbread but its nice to have a more savoury version for a change. You can definitely tell its sourdough and I love that.
I used 3/4c. all-purpose and 1/4c. wholewheat as I wanted to give my starter a little extra to rise better as I only had about 5.5 hrs until baking.I also used soya milk and an alternative sunflower based spread for the butter as I’m dairy free which both worked well.
Hi Jenni! This morning I thought “Are there cornbread recipes for starter discard?” and right away I found yours! Will make it next time I have enough unfed discard. My question is, should I heat the cast-iron pan in the oven first? Other recipes say to do this, and the cornbread turns out great!
Hi Nancy! You bet you can do that!
I heated skillet first no sticking at all. only had a ittle before but this is better. Also Lodge writes to warm skillet slowly so this is good for that too. I put it in oven when 1st turned it on and left until 350
Wonderful skillet sourdough cornbread recipe. Substituted to make vegan,whole grain, no fat, sugars, salt. Applesauce for butter, water for milk, egg replacer, whole wheat and whole grain cornmeal, did not have soda in house My starter whole grain rye. Came out wonderful light texture and great flavor. Plan to make rye and buckwheat versions also Thank you
I made this to use in Belgium waffles, I was also going to make 1/2 doz muffins, both for a mini chili bowls with cornbread. Started with the waffles because they required attention (oops) and they came out beautiful. The first was a little scant but the next 3 were perfect. I used a mixture of honey, maple syrup, sugar and molasses for a less sweet more subtle taste and they browned up real good in the waffle iron. The muffins were a different story. As I put the last waffle in, I had already heated my oven and I put 6 muffins in with timer set for 6 minutes to rotate. they were very pale and hadn’t risen much at all. At 15 minutes they were pale on top and felt dense when poked with toothpick. another 15 min and slight golden top and I was afraid the bottom was overdone so I took them out. After getting 1 to pop loose I realized the bottoms were very pale as well, so I quickly put them back in for 15 more, and even then they were only kind of light golden bottoms. Turns out the type of sugar can affect browning in different ways. Also my waiting 20 minutes while 4 waffles cooked first allowed the rise in the batter to deflate some, which changed how they would rise in the oven, and being dense and more moist kept them from browning well. Next time I’m using the heated cast iron skillet method and I’ll start that first, as the waffle iron heats up. Very good flavor. Keeping this recipe in my rotation…
Baking science question please. Why do you add ha king soda and baking powder to the recipe. won’t the discard/starter feeding & fermenting create enough rise?
Tried using buttermilk as some had suggested. Flavor was bland, not horrible tasting but would definitely not make that again. Will use regular milk next time. Love all of your sourdough recipes for discard….eventually I’ll make my way through them all, new to sourdough, it’s fun learning new things with each recipe! Great hands on science experiments for 3 kids I homeschool!