This Loaf Pan Cornbread, made in a loaf pan, is light, fluffy, slightly sweet, and uses a few simple tricks including one surprise ingredient to avoid a dry crumbly loaf. It is quick to throw together and with a shorter baking time, it’s ready to eat in under an hour.

A loaf of cornbread on a large white plate with three slices cut along with a nearby knife with butter and honey and yellow lillies.

I have been documenting my attempts at making the perfect sweet cornbread for almost 10 years. I have notes that compare many, many test runs using different leavening agents, different amounts of cornmeal and flour, and different types and amounts of wet ingredients.

All this recipe testing and frustrating failures have helped me develop a few simple tips for making light, fluffy, and flavorful cornbread, rather than one that is dry, dull, and crumbly. Plenty of cornbread recipes dump in heaps of sugar to mask their otherwise bland flavor. This cornbread is the best cornbread recipe. It is sweet, but not too sweet, and the flavor of the corn stands out with the help of other subtle inputs, like an extra egg yolk, whole milk, and vanilla extract.

Jump to:

🪄 Four Tips for Baking the Perfect Cornbread
🔎 Recipe Testing
🌟 Why You’ll Love This Loaf Pan Cornbread
🌽 Choosing Cornmeal
🛒 Ingredients:
📝 How to Make Loaf Pan Cornbread
🍴How to Serve, Store, and Reheat
💖 If You're Interested in More Sides You May Love These:
Loaf Pan Cornbread

🪄 Four Tips for Baking the Perfect Cornbread

Cornmeal is a very dry and dense ingredient. There are a few ways to counteract this in order to achieve a light and fluffy cornbread loaf.

Corn Flour: While you can make this recipe with cornmeal, I find the best way is to use corn flour which creates a much lighter texture without sacrificing flavor. This is the secret ingredient that makes such a huge difference. However, using corn flour creates a very fine, homogeneous texture, rather than the grittier texture that is prominent with cornmeal. If you prefer that classic cornmeal texture, use medium grind cornmeal.
Ratio of Flour to Corn: Because cornmeal, or even corn flour, can be dense, use a sizeable amount of all-purpose flour in relation to the amount of cornmeal or corn flour. I developed this recipe to have ⅔ cup of all-purpose flour to 1 cup of corn flour or cornmeal.
Extra Leavening: To create a fluffier, less dense loaf use an entire tablespoon of baking powder.
Extra Egg Yolk: Adding an extra egg yolk adds color, but more importantly it adds extra fat which means extra flavor. (This is also helpful in lots of lemon desserts like Lemon Meringue Pie Cookies.)

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

🔎 Recipe Testing

Below you'll see a sampling of the dozens of loaves of cornbread that I made when testing this recipe. This is only one set of recipe testing, but it gives you a glimpse of the depth of work that went into this recipe over many years.

I've also made this same recipe in a cast iron skillet with ¼ cup of browned butter. While it does give you nice crispy buttery edges, the butter doesn't add all that much in terms of flavor to the whole cornbread. You'd have to add quite a bit more than ¼ cup of butter to get a more savory, buttery cornbread.

You could also use this same recipe to make cornbread in mini loaf pans for mini cornbreads, or 5-inch loaf pan by simply adjusting the cooking times.

🌟 Why You’ll Love This Loaf Pan Cornbread

Loaf Pan: It’s made in a loaf pan for a taller, fluffy loaf, just like this Monkey Bread, this Easy Sour Cream Coffee Cake, or this Loaf Pan Irish Soda Bread.

Not Crumbly, but Light, and Flavorful: Using my four tips for making cornbread, this loaf is lighter and fluffier than typical rather than dry or crumbly.

Easy: It’s in the oven in less than 15 minutes without the need to pull out a mixer or any special equipment and it has a relatively short baking time.

🌽 Choosing Cornmeal

There are lots of different options when it comes to choosing cornmeal from how finely it is ground, how it is treated, what company sells it, etc. Here's an overview of three options:

A comparison of three different types of Cornmeal: Bob's Red Mill Medium Grind Cornmeal, Bob's Red Mill Masa Harina Golden Corn Flour, and Anson Mills Cornmeal.

Bob's Red Mill Medium Grind Cornmeal: This is a standard medium, somewhat coarse grind cornmeal. It will yield a cornbread that has that classic gritier texture that is typical of cornbread.
Bob's Red Mill Masa Harina Golden Corn Flour: This is finely ground corn flour that has been nixtamalized or treated with lime and is typically used to make corn tortillas It is easier to find than straight corn flour and works super well in cornbread. It will yield a much softer, lighter loaf of cornbread than using medium grind cornmeal and it has a smooth and even texture.
Anson Mills Cornmeal: This is by far my favorite. Despite being labeled as cornmeal it has a very fine texture. If you were to pick up a pinch of Anson Mills cornmeal and Bob's Red Mill Masa Harina you would be shocked (I was) at how much softer the Anson Mills cornmeal is. It is 10x softer and lighter than even the masa harina corn flour. The downside is that it has to be specially ordered from Anson Mills directly, which is not hard to do, but you can't just go down to the local grocery store and pick it up. It will result in a super soft, light, and flavorful loaf. If you feel like trying something new and don't mind waiting for it to be delivered, this is the way to go.

🛒 Ingredients:

Below are the ingredients needed to make this Loaf Pan Cornbread, including an overview of cornmeal vs. corn flour: a key distinction.

Corn Flour or Corn Meal: Corn flour is the secret ingredient for a lighter and fluffier loaf of cornbread. It can be hard to find straight corn flour at the grocery store, but yellow golden masa is fairly easy to find, which is corn flour that has been treated with lime and is typically used to make corn tortillas. Bob’s Red Mill makes Golden Corn Flour, Masa Harina, which is a great option for this cornbread. I’ve also used a specialty yellow cornmeal from Anson Mills. It uses organic Sweet Heirloom Carolina Corn and is available for order through their website.
Flour: Use all-purpose unbleached flour.
Sugar: Use granulated sugar, only ½ cup so that the cornbread is not overly sweet. If you like a sweeter cornbread you can increase this amount to ¾ cup total.
Baking Powder: A whole tablespoon for extra leavening.
Salt: To bring out flavor.
Vanilla Extract: Adds extra flavor and oomph to this cornbread.
Whole Milk: Whole milk has a higher fat percentage compared to 1 or 2%, but if you don’t have it on hand 1 or 2% will work fine.
Vegetable Oil: Helps the cornbread to stay moist.
Egg and Egg Yolk: The extra egg yolk adds extra fat, which means more flavor.

📝 How to Make Loaf Pan Cornbread

Below are the step-by-step instructions and photos for how to make Loaf Pan Cornbread.

Note: The recipe card with instructions, ingredient list, and quantities is included further below these step-by-step photos.

A prepared loaf pan that is buttered and floured and a large white mixing bowl with they dry ingredients.

Step 1. Prep: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter and flour a loaf pan. You can use either a ceramic or a metal loaf pan. See further below for the baking time for each type of pan.

Step 2. Dry Ingredients: Combine the corn flour (or cornmeal if using), flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

The mixing bowl with the wet ingredients added and after they have been combined with the dry ingredients.

Step 3. Wet Ingredients: Add the vanilla extract, whole milk, vegetable oil, egg, and egg yolk and combine with the dry ingredients. It's helpful to have the milk and eggs at room temperature, but don't worry if you didn't take them out to warm up in advance.

The loaf pan with the cornbread batter before and after being baked in the oven.

Step 4. Bake: Pour the cornbread batter into the prepared loaf pan.

If using a 9-inch ceramic loaf pan bake at 375°F in the preheated oven for 35-38 minutes.
If using a 9-inch metal loaf pan bake at 375°F in the preheated oven for 26-30 minutes.

The loaf should have a golden brown domed top when done. Ensure that a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the cornbread loaf to cool slightly before slicing.

🍴How to Serve, Store, and Reheat

To Serve: I think this homemade cornbread is best while still slightly warm and served on its own. However, you can also serve this with butter and/or honey or maple syrup drizzled on top.
To Store: Keep the remaining cornbread in the loaf pan and cover with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. It is best the same day but it can be reheated the next day too.
To Reheat: Toast leftover cornbread slices or warm gently in the microwave at a lower power level for a short amount of time. Too much and it will dry out. It's best served with butter the next day to help soften the cornbread.

💖 If You're Interested in More Sides You May Love These:

If you've tried this Loaf Pan Cornbread or any other recipe on my site, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

Loaf Pan Cornbread