This one here is the best-ever sweet potato cornbread recipe you will swoon over! It’s so incredibly moist and tender, flavorful, laced with a touch of warm spices, and loaded with an abundance of sweet potato goodness. Go ahead and enjoy this cornbread right along with your favorite main entrées, cozy soups/stews, and more!

honey stick drizzling honey over sweet potato cornbread slices stacked on top of each other

Cornbread is my jam, y’all. When it comes to side items, a good slice of cornbread or a hot, buttered biscuit just does it for me. Listen, I like to use my cornbread as a vessel to sop up whatever I’m eating with it. For example, cornbread for stews or serving alongside meaty dishes with gravy to soak up, whew. Yesss friends, not enough people talk about the magic that is cornbread and I’m sick of it, ha! Today we’re getting into this sweet potato cornbread!

Sweet Potato Cornbread (Get Into It, Yuh!)

If you’re new here, you should know how I love me some sweet potato anything. I’ve got a buttermilk cornbread recipe that is a lovely classic, however, this sweet potato one is oh-so-dreamy! The sweet potato flavor adds an unbeatable richness as well as an intensity in flavor. It’s also lush, ultra-moist, and so freakin’ delicious, peeps! Obsesseddd.com, so excited to share with ya.

⇢ Sweet potato fiend? Holla at these sp biscuits, this pound cake, these pancakes, sp dumplings (yes plz!), classic pie, and these cinnamon rolls.

sweet potato cornbread with two pats of butter in white baking dish

What You’ll Need For This Recipe

(Note: the full ingredients list, including measurements, is provided in the recipe card directly below.)

  • Cornmeal: I use fine yellow cornmeal and it gives the perfect texture. If you like coarse grind corn meal, feel free to use that in place of.
  • Flour: All-purpose flour is my go-to for cornbread. However, you can easily swap with cake/pastry flour or gluten-free flour if you need to.
  • Brown sugar: Love this for some sweetness and because all baked goods with sweet potato should pair with brown sugar. Either light or dark packed brown sugar is good! Great substitutes include coconut/maple sugar or pure honey or maple syrup. Also, alaga/sorghum syrup (Southern cane syrups) 👌🏾.
  • Baking powder + baking soda: Leavening agents to add structure.
  • Salt: Helps to balance out all the flavors.
  • Spices: I use a pinch of both cinnamon and nutmeg; I find that they add the slightest hint of depth and a warm note to this sweet potato cornbread.
  • Eggs: Most baked goods need eggs for a sturdy structure, fresh!
  • Buttermilk: In my humble opinion, cornbread needs buttermilk. This contributes to flavor and ensures a sexy, moist, and tender crumb.
  • Sweet potatoes: I swear by using *garnet yams* whenever I make sweet potato baked goods. They have a dark purple-red hue with a rich, moist orange center. However, use any kind of accessible sweet potatoes for this recipe.
  • Butter: A cornbread recipe without butter is just offensive, y’all.

⇢ What pairs well with this sweet potato cornbread? We love serving this alongside my beef chili, def these collard greens, cozy smothered pork chops, my fave braised short ribs, and this homey meatloaf or delicious gumbo.

raw sweet potato cornbread batter in white bowl with silver whisk
raw sweet potato cornbread in white baking dish with brown linen on the side
sliced sweet potato cornbread with two pats of butter in white baking dish
slices of sweet potato cornbread on brown parchment paper

How To Cook Sweet Potatoes 🍠

⇢ There are three ways to cook your sweet potatoes for making this cornbread:

  • Boiling: This is the method that I almost always go for. A lot of people think boiling sweet potatoes will create waterlogged potatoes, but I never have this issue. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Then place your peeled and quartered sweet potatoes in. Boil them until fork tender. Here’s what I do to make sure there is no water logging issue >> drain the potatoes completely and then add them back into the same pot and mash them up. The residual heat in the pot will cook off/out any remaining moisture, tadow.
  • Roasting: A bit more time consuming but great! Preheat the oven to 425°F. Rinse and scrub the potatoes clean and pat dry. Then use a fork to prick them all over a few times to aerate. Rub a touch of oil all over the potatoes. Place them onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake them for 35-45 minutes or until fork-tender. Once cooled, slice open and spoon the flesh out.
  • Microwaving: Rinse and scrub the potatoes clean and pat dry. Then use a fork to prick them all over a few times to ventilate. Place the sweet potatoes on a microwave-safe plate/paper towel and microwave for 5 minutes, then turn them over and microwave once more for another 5 minutes. Check and make sure that they’re fork tender. Note: larger potatoes will need to cook for longer, 1 minute more. Be mindful not to overcook!

⇢ Pro-tip: While any cooking method above will do the trick, there’s one more thing. Real, mashed sweet potato will contain their stringy fibers and such. Thus, I always recommend giving it a quick pulse in a food processor to achieve a nice, silky-smooth puree! This will ensure that your cornbread has the best texture.

I find that one good-sized, medium to large, sweet potato will give you enough for one cup (mashed). That’s enough for sweet potato flavor to ring through this cornbread beautifully, yum. *Cooked and mashed sweet potato is preferred* for this cornbread recipe, but canned sweet potato purée can be used in place of.

slices of sweet potato cornbread on brown parchment paper

Tips + Tricks For Recipe Success, Alternate Baking Variations, & More Recipe Notes

  • Use fresh ingredients. Make sure that all your recipe ingredients are super fresh, and that nothing is stale from way back in the pantry/fridge!
  • Wanna make muffins? I’ve made this sweet potato cornbread into muffins for little individual servings! This recipe will make about 12 of them. Additionally, you can also make this recipe using a mini loaf pan as well if you’d like. I’d say go ahead and check for doneness at around 25-30 minutes.
  • Bake it in cast iron! Empty this sweet potato cornbread batter into a buttered, cast iron skillet. The cornbread will have even crispier edges!
  • Salty cornbread fan? I’ve written this recipe to include 1 tsp of salt, however, if you prefer a saltier cornbread, I recommend adding 2 teaspoons in this recipe. Or you can use 1 tsp of salt and salted butter, whichever you prefer. There is a good amount of sweetness called for here, so just a heads up!
  • Buttermilk notes: It’s important to note that there is no buttermilk replacement other than using buttermilk powder, plain kefir, or a homemade buttermilk remedy such as this one for reference.

Why You’ll Adore This Cornbread ♡

…Or maybe why team BBR adores this sweet potato cornbread recipe 😆:

>> Sweet potato fanatics and stans rejoice! This vegetable is wildly popular in the South and a big favorite in the Black community. I love the twist on traditional cornbread by incorporating this sweet tater, it’s so good.

>> She’s moist and tender af! Listen, there is nothing that irks my soul more than a dry ass baked good, y’all. You’ll find that this sweet potato cornbread is hella moist with an extra tender crumb. Aside from the sweet potato, buttermilk is the plug here to ensure that this cornbread is without a dry crumb in sight.

>> Cornbread texture is A1! I love the texture of this cornbread so much. It’s got a cake-like, fluffy texture that’s not dense or crumbly at all. Amen 🙌🏾

honey drizzling down two slices of sweet potato cornbread stacked on top of each other

Y’all are gonna loveee this sweet potato cornbread. It’ll be the perfect companion to nearly any main entrée! Don’t forget to tag @butterbeready in all your recipe remakes, love to see it when you do. Until next time 🤟🏾

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honey stick drizzling honey over sweet potato cornbread slices stacked on top of each other

Sweet Potato Cornbread

★★★★★ 5 from 10 reviews
  • Author: Quin Liburd
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 9 1x
  • Category: Sides
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: Southern
Print Recipe

Description

This one here is the best-ever sweet potato cornbread recipe you will swoon over! It’s so incredibly moist and tender, flavorful, laced with a touch of warm spices, and loaded with an abundance of sweet potato goodness. Go ahead and enjoy this cornbread right along with your favorite main entrées, cozy soups/stews, and more!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup fine yellow cornmeal
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups whole buttermilk
  • 1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

for serving

  • pats of butter, honey or alaga/sorghum syrup, for drizzling

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Then line a 9×9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper or generously coat the pan with baking spray. Note: you can also use a large (at least 10-12 inches) cast iron skillet or a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Then set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk the cornmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Whisk thoroughly to fully combine and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, buttermilk, and mashed sweet potato/puree together until fully combined. Then pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to fold everything together until just combined.
  4. Lastly, pour in the melted butter and fold it within the batter until combined. Empty the batter into the prepared baking dish and use an offset spatula to smooth out the top, if necessary.
  5. Bake the cornbread for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean. Allow the cornbread to cool down for 10 minutes before cutting into.
  6. Slice the cornbread into wedges and serve immediately with extra pats of butter, drizzled honey or alaga/sorghum syrup, if desired. Enjoy!

Notes

  1. Please read the blog post in its entirety for more tips + tricks.
  2. Cooked and mashed sweet potato is preferred for this cornbread recipe, but canned sweet potato purée can be used in place of.

Keywords: sweet potato cornbread, sweet potato bread, cornbread