Brown Butter Cornbread with Cranberry Butter.

This brown butter cornbread is tender and fluffy with an incredible savory, caramelly flavor. Top it with salted cranberry butter for the perfect combination!

Every Thanksgiving table needs rolls or cornbread… or both. 

My brown butter cornbread is easy and delicious, with a tender crumb and incredible sweet flavor. This cornbread is fluffy and perfect for topping with softened butter. I like to think of it as a side dish!

I didn’t grow up having cornbread at Thanksgiving (or anytime, really!). Now, it’s a staple for us. But here’s the thing: we love having regular dinner rolls (like buttery cloverleaf rolls or parker house rolls) AND cornbread. Yes, both! 

Prove me wrong: there is definitely room for both at the Thanksgiving table. Oh and for leftovers, especially. 

So this is my plea to make some brown butter cornbread! Or heck, just make it for dinner tonight.

This cornbread recipe is based off of my skillet cornbread. I like to make this one in a 9×9 inch baking dish because it’s a bit easier, especially on a day when a million things are happening in the kitchen. 

Now I really love fresh cornbread, so the earliest I will prep this is the night before. I let it cool completely and then cover it (don’t cut yet!) and keep it in the dish until the meal. It’s perfect this way! 

A few reasons I love this cornbread:

The brown butter, of course. My love language. Adds a savory yet caramely flavor to just about anything.

The corn! You can use fresh, frozen or canned corn for this but the chewy bits make for the perfect texture in the cornbread. 

The greek yogurt! This keeps the cornbread moist and tender. You can use sour cream instead if you’d like. 

The cornbread isn’t the only thing to love about this recipe. We still have THE BUTTER. 

I love love love the cranberry butter for this. We’re doing double duty here too. Now I almost ALWAYS make my cranberry sauce a day or two ahead of time. Since it’s ready, I like to take two or three tablespoons of the sauce and stir it into my butter with some kosher salt.

Then we have salted cranberry butter and holy smokes, it is delicious. It’s easy and simple but seems fancy. It also really elevates the Thanksgiving table!

This combination is lovely!

I like to reheat the cornbread then slather it with the butter and watch the cranberry bits melt into the crevices. Dreamy!

We can all agree that cornbread is practically cake, right?

Brown Butter Cornbread with Cranberry Butter

Brown Butter Cornbread with Cranberry Butter

Yield: 8 people

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 1 hr

This brown butter cornbread is tender and fluffy with an incredible savory, caramelly flavor. Top it with salted cranberry butter for the perfect combination!

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Ingredients

• ¾ cup unsalted butter
• 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups finely ground cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cups sweet corn, fresh or frozen is fine
• ⅓ cup plain greek yogurt or sour cream

cranberry butter

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 to 3 tablespoons whole berry cranberry sauce
• pinch of kosher salt

Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9x9 baking dish with nonstick spray.
• First up, brown the butter! Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Whisk and stir continuously while the butter bubbles. Whisk as brown bits appear on the bottom and remove the skillet from the heat - you don’t want it to burn.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornbread, baking powder and salt.
• In a small bowl, stir together the brown butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until combined, so it’s almost like the texture of sand. (Most of the sugar will be absorbed by the butter!)
• Add the eggs, corn and yogurt to the butter mixture. Whisk until combined (it won’t be smooth).
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until they are just incorporated. Don’t overmix! Pour the mixture into a 9x9 baking dish.
• Bake the cornbread until golden and set in the center, about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.. Let cool slightly before serving with the cranberry butter.

cranberry butter

• Stir together the butter and cranberry sauce until combined. Stir in a pinch of salt. Enjoy!

Course: bread, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Author: How Sweet Eats

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Definitely cake.