- To find my new favorite side, I tried five cornbread recipes from celebrity chefs.
- Hall’s was by a slight margin the best because it was perfectly browned and delicious.
- The most impressive recipe by Yearwood was actually the simplest, with only three ingredients.
Cornbread is a fairly simple staple to make at home — and if you’re tired of grabbing the premade mix at the store, you can rely on a celebrity-chef recipe to help you prepare the delicious side dish from scratch.
To find the best cornbread recipe, I tried five recipes by famous chefs Carla Hall and Trisha Yearwood, Alex Guarnaschelli and Alton Brown.
See the results!
Hall’s Southern cornbread recipe can be described as a straightforward and easy version.
Hall’s Southern cornbread recipe is a classic. Her grandmother’s recipeThis is a more savory version of the sweeter Northern varieties.
This recipe requires only seven ingredients. You can make your creamed corn from scratch or use a canned one. I chose the latter to save some time and money.
My skillet was not hot enough for me, but I tried my best.
Making this cornbread was easy. I combined the dry and liquid ingredients in two bowls. Then, I mixed them together to create a thick batter.
I warmed a cast iron skillet in the oven while I was making the batter. Once the oven was at the temperature I removed the skillet and added canola oils. I then poured in my batter.
The recipe explains that the batter should sizzle in the oil when it’s first poured — mine did not. I believe I didn’t test the oil to make sure it was hot enough.
The oil pooled at the top of my cornbread, but it turned out okay.
This cornbread was delicious and fluffy.
After 25 minutes, the cornbread was ready to be toasted.
The top of the bread was golden and crackled in places where oil had pooled. The bread also gained much height during baking.
The flavor was incredible — despite there being no butter in this recipe, the cornbread was buttery and the flavor of the sweet corn really came through. It was light and fluffy.
The easy-to-follow directions, the texture and the variety of this recipe were all great.
Although it is not a very savory bread, it can be paired with honey, butter, and my favorite chili.
Yearwood’s buttermilk Cornbread recipe is made with just 3 ingredients
Yearwood has by far the easiest of all of them These are the recipes.
Self-rising cornmeal is the only ingredient required. It was not readily available at my local grocery, but I did find it online. To make my own self rising base, I added about 1 teaspoon of baking powder to each cup of cornmeal.
You can also use corn oil or bacon grease in the recipe. I can’t eat bacon so I went with the first option.
In no time, the recipe was ready.
The batter was easy to prepare.
The recipe calls for 2 to 3 cups of buttermilk and says the consistency should be quite thick but still easily pourable — my only challenge was trying to strike that right balance.
I used 2 1/2 cups buttermilk, and the mixture looked a little too thin in my bowl.
But when I poured it into the hot cast-iron skillet, I quickly realized it was too thick … but it was also too late to do anything about it since the batter was already sizzling in the pan.
I cooked the cornbread batter over the stove for about one minute, then transferred it to the oven for 22 additional minutes.
It turns out that looks can deceive,
It smelled great and looked amazing when I took it out of oven.
The top was slightly golden with a few darker brown spots and crisp edges. When I took a bite, however, I was overwhelmed.
This cornbread came out dry and dense. It tasted almost like eating cornmeal.
To pinpoint the problem, I reviewed the recipes. But, the majority of people who tried this recipe felt it needed eggs to enhance the texture. It might be worth adding a little sugar to enhance the flavor.
Guarnaschelli’s cornbread calls instead for butter
Nearly every recipe I tested required oil. Guarnaschelli’s cornbreadButter is required
The swap was nerve-wracking for me. Butter has a lower smoking point that oilI didn’t want to end with burnt cornbread.
Apart from the possible butter disaster, I couldn’t find the coarsely-ground cornmeal that this recipe required at the grocery store so I used regular yellow Cornmeal.
I nearly burnt my cornbread with the butter, even though I didn’t actually burn it.
Like the other recipes, it was quite simple. I added 1 tablespoon butter to the bowl. Next, I combined the dry and wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
The mixture was slightly thickened and could be poured easily.
However, the biggest problem was the way the butter began to pop and sizzle when I put it in the cast iron skillet I had just heated in the oven.
To avoid getting splattered by the butter, I had to work fast and keep my distance.
I followed the recipe and then reduced the oven temperature to 375° Fahrenheit. The cornbread was baked for 25 minutes.
This cornbread was, unsurprisingly, super buttery
The cornbread was golden on the top and crisp on the bottom.
The texture was soft and spongy while the center was buttery. It was not surprising, considering that the entire recipe called for butter.
This cornbread can be made even more delicious with some honey.
Brown’s recipe was simple and used pantry staples.
Brown is well-known due to his curiosity and knowledge of the science of cooking. Brown’s recipes can sometimes be complicated, but he is a skilled cook. His cornbread recipeIt was quite simple.
Most of the ingredients required are pantry staples, such as canned creamed popcorn.
This was another simple recipe you could make.
Brown’s cornbread recipe: I mixed the dry ingredients separately and then combined the wet with the dry.
After warming the skillet in a preheating oven I carefully swirled the canola oils in the pan before pouring in the batter. It was ready to go in the oven for 23 minutes.
As I did with all the recipes, the pan was not turned while it baked. It didn’t really matter for most recipes. However, this one made me notice that one side was more golden than another.
Brown’s cornbread balances sweetness and savory perfectly
Except for the uneven topping, the cornbread turned out great. The bottom was well browned, but not burned. The texture was light and fluffy, but it held together well due to the crispy bottom.
I found the cornmeal to have more savory flavors that complimented the sweetness of the creamed sugar and creamed corn.
Fuller’s recipe spices things up with a bit of jalapeño
That was a great idea! Fuller’s recipe added jalapeño to the mix. It required 10 ingredients total, which included frozen corn and lots of sour cream.
For this recipe, my best friend was a food processor
Without a food processor, this recipe would probably be tricky — but with one, making this batter was easy.
I blended the corn and eggs together, added in the rest of the ingredients (minus the butter and jalapeño), and warmed the butter in the cast-iron skillet.
Once the butter had melted, I carefully poured it into the batter and folded in the chopped jalapeño.
This recipe was simple, even though there were more steps than others. The cornbread was baked in the oven for approximately 25 minutes.
Fuller’s jalapeño cornbread tasted better than it looked
While the cornbread was not as golden on top, it smelled delicious when it came out from the oven.
Fuller’s recipe came out great. Although the texture was a bit dense, it was still very soft and moist.
There was a pretty strong corn flavor, but the jalapeño added a nice contrast and just a slight amount of heat.
This cornbread would be great with some butter and hot honey.
Nearly all these recipes I would make again.
It was hard to choose one favorite as most recipes were simple and quick.
Hall’s cornbread won my heart by a narrow margin. It was light and fluffy with a slightly savory texture that could be topped with honey, butter or some soup or chili.
For me, Yearwood’s recipe was just OK — it needed something else to help soften the texture and give it a little more flavor. Other than that, I’d happily make any of the other recipes again.
Click to view the other celebrity-chef recipe we’ve compared.