This sweet potato cornbread is moist, tender, and packed with cozy flavor from sweet potatoes and classic cornbread ingredients. If you’re looking for a cornbread recipe that feels a little more special for holidays, chili night, or barbecue, this sweet potato version delivers both texture and flavor.
Texture & Flavor
This sweet potato cornbread lands right between classic Southern cornbread and a lightly sweet quick bread. The cornmeal gives it that familiar hearty crumb, while the mashed sweet potato keeps it soft and moist. Cinnamon and allspice add warmth without making it taste like dessert.
Why Cook Cornbread in Cast Iron?
There are many benefits to making your cornbread in cast iron. Of course, use a casserole dish or glass pan if you have it available. Do not use a glass pie dish for this recipe, it won’t be large enough!
Cooking cornbread in a cast iron skillet is a popular and traditional method that offers several benefits:
- Even Heat Distribution: Cast iron skillets are known for their excellent heat retention and even distribution. It becomes very hot and maintains a consistent temperature, which helps bake cornbread evenly throughout and keeps it warm while serving. Just don’t touch the pan!
- Crispy Crust: The preheated cast iron skillet creates a sizzling effect when the cornbread batter is poured in, resulting in a crispy and golden crust. Coupled with the shortening, it is superb!
- Natural Nonstick Surface: Over time, a well-seasoned cast iron skillet develops a natural nonstick surface. This means that the cornbread is less likely to stick to the skillet, making it easier to remove slices without breaking them apart. I still use some shortening because of the high smoke point.
- Flavor Enhancement: Cooking cornbread in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet can impart a subtle, pleasant flavor that comes from the seasoned layers of oil on the skillet’s surface.
- Aesthetic Appeal: Cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet often has a rustic and charming appearance, which can enhance the presentation when serving.
- Cultural and Historical Connection: Cooking cornbread in a cast iron skillet has deep historical and cultural roots, especially in Southern and Appalachian cuisines. It’s a tradition that has been passed down through generations.
Gather This
The ingredients required for this perfect Sweet Potato Cornbread recipe are easy to find and easy to put together. A full list of ingredients with measurements for this recipe is available in the printable recipe card below.
- Sweet Potatoes: A root vegetable with a sweet flavor and vibrant orange color. Adds moisture, natural sweetness, and nutrients to the cornbread. I generally use fresh sweet potatoes and then cook them, but if you want to use canned sweet potatoes, yams or sweet potato puree for ease, go ahead!
- Vegetable shortening
- Yellow cornmeal
- All purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Coarse Kosher salt
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground allspice
- Eggs
- Plain yogurt
- Buttermilk
- Butter
- Dark brown sugar
How to Make Sweet Potato Cornbread (Step-by-Step)
Making this cornbread is super easy- less than 10 minutes to make the batter and then pop it in the oven.
- Cook your sweet potatoes. Make sure you have cooked sweet potatoes- either leftover, canned or make sweet potatoes in the microwave. Mash them really well so there aren’t any large chunks.
- Prepare oven and pan. Preheat the oven and lightly grease a 10-inch cast iron skillet with vegetable shortening or vegetable oil. I prefer using one of these two because of the smoke point. Butter has the tendency to burn.
- Dry ingredients. Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a large mixing bowl, this ensures equal distribution.
- Wet ingredients. Beat together the sweet potato mash, eggs, yogurt, dark brown sugar and butter in a large bowl.
- Combine. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the wet ingredients until fully mixed. Do not overmix the sweet potato mixture, this overworks the gluten and can make your bread dry and rubbery. The sweet potatoes may still be a little chunky, that is fine!
- Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared cast iron skillet. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Test using the toothpick test. Top with butter, honey or agave nectar.
Perfect Pairings
I like to serve Sweet Potato Cornbread with Cinnamon Honey Butter or Molasses Butter and then a drizzle of honey, maple syrup or even agave nectar. Doing it that way makes a wonderful breakfast for a crowd or sweet treat alongside a spicy chili recipe or BBQ pulled pork. Here are a few of our favorites:
Leftover cornbread also makes for an excellent stuffing base and can even be cut in half and used in my Chicken Enchilada Casserole, the perfect way to hide veggies from kids!
Also use it to make cornbread croutons, cornbread salad or can be used as the base for a cornbread casserole! And, it is traditionally served with southern black eyed peas for New Year’s.
Chef Tested Notes
- What the batter should look like: The batter should be thick but scoopable, similar to a slightly loose muffin batter, with no dry streaks and only a few small bits of sweet potato left for texture.
- What overmixing does: Overmixing the batter can overdevelop the gluten in the flour, which turns this cornbread from tender and moist into dense, tough, and just plain rude.
- How to tell when the center is done: You’ll know the center is done when the top is set and lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter.
- How canned puree changes texture: Canned sweet potato puree works beautifully here, but because it is usually smoother and a bit denser than fresh mashed sweet potato, the final cornbread can bake up slightly tighter and more uniform in texture.
- Whether this is sweet or savory: This sweet potato cornbread leans lightly sweet thanks to the sweet potato, brown sugar, and warm spices, but it still plays very nicely with savory dishes like chili, barbecue, or holiday ham.
- How to store, freeze, and reheat without drying it out: To keep it from drying out, store the cornbread tightly wrapped at room temperature for a day or refrigerate for longer storage, then reheat slices covered with foil or with a little butter so they stay soft and tender instead of sad and crumbly.
Commonly Asked Questions
There is about 3/4-1 cup in a medium sweet potato. We used 2 medium sweet potatoes for 1 1/4 cups mashed sweet potato. You don’t have to be exact and can use anywhere between 1-1 1/2 cups for this recipe.
In some cases, like larger sweet potato chunks, soaking can prevent them from becoming mushy by pulling out the starch, however for this recipe and other mashed sweet potatoes, it is not necessary.
In the South, the caramelized spuds were used to replace sugar. However, this recipe uses both sweet potato and molasses laced brown sugar to bring flavor to this moist cornbread recipe.
We have only tested this recipe in a 10-inch cast iron skillet, which 3 quarts. I would venture to think any 3-quart casserole dish, baking dish or square pan will be fine as long, but the baking time might vary so keep a close eye on it.
More Cornbread Recipes
Grab a bowl of chili and choose one of our delicious cornbread recipes!
Sweet Potato Cornbread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening , or vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon optional
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 1/4 cups sweet potatoes , skins removed, cooked and mashed
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 2 tablespoons butter , melted
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a large cast iron skillet with 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt , 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or large mixing bowl, blend together the cooked and mashed 1 1/4 cups sweet potatoes, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup plain yogurt, melted 2 tablespoons butter and 1/2 cup dark brown sugar.
- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and 1 cup buttermilk until fully mixed. Do not over mix. The sweet potatoes may still be a little chunky.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cast iron skillet. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Test using the toothpick test.
- If you've tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or star ratings!
Notes
Nutrition
This was delish! Moist with a little sweetness..just really good!
Gave this a try with dinner last night and it was a savory success! Turned out light, fluffy and moist; easily, a new favorite recipe!
This was so good! It was so moist and I never would’ve thought to bring sweet potato to corn bread, so I’m so glad I stumbled upon this recipe.
Hey, stumbled upon your Sweet Potato Cornbread recipe and it’s a total winner! The sweet, moist goodness of sweet potato combined with the cornbread is a match made in comfort food heaven.
Perfect side dish for thanksgiving! Bookmarking it!
This was so great – we loved every bite!
I can’t wait to try this
I am excited about baking this recipe but reluctant because you say to serve it immediately. I often must cook and bake the night before or the morning before. What probelm will I have with this cornbread if I do not serve it immediately?
I will go back and look at that- you can certainly make it ahead of time 🙂 I think in my head it just didn’t need resting time, but I see how it could be interrupted.
I love sweet potatoes, and I love cornbread! I’m so excited to try this recipe. I can almost taste those beautiful flavors right now. Yum. Yum!
I love cornbread and am always looking for good new recipes! This is absolutely delicious!