Sour Cream Cornbread

Forget dry, crumbly cornbread! Sour cream and a can of creamed corn keep this one moist and tender, with crisp buttery edges from a hot cast iron skillet. Five ingredients, one bowl, and no added sugar!

Before You Get Started

This is a short recipe with very little room for error, but three things decide how the pan turns out:

1. Use self-rising cornmeal mix. Plain cornmeal has no leavening or salt in it, so the bread bakes up flat and bland.
2. Preheat the skillet with the butter in it. That hot, buttery pan is what gives you the crisp golden edges.
3. Reach for full-fat sour cream. The fat and acid are what keep the crumb tender instead of dry and crumbly.

How to Make Sour Cream Cornbread

This recipe is adapted from an old one I came across in The Junior League Celebration Cookbook. It lands somewhere between Northern and Southern cornbread: there is no added sugar, so it stays savory enough for a pot of beans, but the creamed corn gives it just a hint of sweetness. 

The sour cream stands in for the buttermilk you would use in a classic Southern recipe, and because it is thicker, you end up with a creamier, richer, more tender pan of bread.

Step 1: Melt the Butter in the Skillet

Heat the oven to 350°F and put a whole stick of salted butter in an 8-inch cast iron skillet. Slide the skillet into the oven and let the butter melt while you mix, about 7 to 8 minutes. 

Heating the pan and the butter together handles two jobs at once: it greases the skillet and gets it hot enough to start crisping the batter the second it hits.

Step 2: Whisk the Batter

In a large bowl, whisk together the self-rising cornmeal mix, the creamed corn, the sour cream, and the eggs. The batter will be thick and a little lumpy, and that is exactly right.

⇢ Don’t drain the creamed corn. All that liquid goes straight into the batter. It is where a good bit of the moisture and corn flavor comes from.

Step 3: Butter the Pan and Finish the Batter

Pull the hot skillet out of the oven and swirl the melted butter so it coats the bottom and up the sides. A pastry brush helps if the sides look bare. 

Then pour whatever butter is left in the pan into your bowl of batter and whisk just until it comes together.

⇢ Stop stirring as soon as it comes together. Overworking the batter develops the flour and gives you a dense, dry loaf.

Step 4: Bake Until Golden

Spread the batter into the hot buttered skillet and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

It is done when the top is deeply golden and a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Baking times shift with the pan and the oven, so start checking at 35 minutes.

Let it cool in the skillet for a few minutes before slicing. It firms up as it rests, so it cuts cleanly instead of crumbling, and the skillet gets easier to handle. It is good warm or at room temperature.

⇢ It won’t stick to a seasoned skillet. Between the seasoning on the pan and all that butter, the bread lifts right out.

⇢ Want muffins instead? Divide the batter into a greased muffin tin and bake at 375°F for 15 to 18 minutes.

Serve It With

A bowl of chili or a pot of beans is the most obvious choice alongside a skillet of sour cream cornbread, and the sturdy crumb holds up to sopping. 

For breakfast or an afternoon snack, all it needs is a pat of butter, a drizzle of honey, or a spoonful of my Crockpot Apple Butter.

Cozy dinners that go with a pan of cornbread:

• Slow Cooker Chili
• Appalachian Soup Beans
• Southern Collard Greens
• Southern Crispy Fried Chicken
• Crockpot Brunswick Stew
• Southern Meatloaf

Storage, Freezing, and Make-Ahead

Cornbread is best warm from the oven, but it keeps well and it does not mind being made early.

Make ahead: Bake it up to 8 hours in advance and leave it on the counter until you are ready to serve.

To store: Cover tightly or move to an airtight container. It keeps at room temperature for 1 to 2 days, or in the fridge for up to 1 week. This is where the sour cream really shows off, since the extra fat keeps the crumb from going dry overnight.

To freeze: Wrap tightly and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter or in the refrigerator.

To reheat: Wrap in foil and warm in a 325°F oven for about 10 minutes. Individual slices go in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds, just until warmed through.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use plain cornmeal instead of self-rising cornmeal mix?

Not on its own. Self-rising cornmeal mix already has flour, salt, and leavening stirred in, and plain cornmeal has none of that. If plain cornmeal is what you have, make your own mix by whisking together 1 cup cornmeal, 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, 1½ teaspoons baking powder, and ½ teaspoon salt. That gets you the 1 cup this recipe calls for.

Can I bake this in a regular pan instead of a cast iron skillet?

Yes! An 8-inch round or square baking dish works, and so does a 9-inch cast iron skillet if that is what you own, though the wider pan gives you thinner slices. Preheat the pan with the butter in it either way. You will lose a little of the crust with a glass or ceramic dish, since cast iron holds heat better than anything else, but the bread itself will still be moist and tender.

Why did my cornbread turn out dense or gummy?

Almost always overmixing. Whisk only until the ingredients come together and then put the whisk down, even if the batter still looks a little lumpy. The other common culprit is a cold pan. If the skillet and butter are not hot when the batter goes in, the bottom steams instead of crisping and the whole loaf turns heavy.

Can I double this recipe?

Yes, and it scales cleanly. Double everything and bake in a 12-inch cast iron skillet or a 9×13-inch baking dish. Add about 10 minutes to the bake time and start checking with a toothpick around 45 minutes, since the deeper pan takes longer to set in the middle.