Hot Honey Butter Cornbread for a Sweet New Year (with a little kick)

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Here you’ll find easy-peasy sweet and savory (thanks to my new cookbook Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes) snackable bakes! These are recipes with pantry-friendly ingredients and short instructions, that can be assembled in 20 minutes or less, with nothing more than a bowl, a whisk and a spatula.

In short, this newsletter (delivered monthly) is always filled with easy-peasy delicious treats that anyone can make.

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Now let’s get snackable.

Hello my lovely peeps and Happy New Year! Hope you all had utterly wonderful holidays and are not too upset to be back at it again, now that January is (kind of) in full swing. I, for one, feel rested and ready. The fall was intense with the launch of Salty Cheesy, and the subsequent tour. And although the first two weeks of December included a book-related event or two, by mid-month things were slower and remained that way until now.

This month I am focusing on freelance recipe development work, my podcast and my social media accounts (the last being a necessary evil for cookbook writers/podcast hosts/recipe developers) and it feels kind of nice to not be book-focused. I will likely get the book bug again, maybe even sooner than I think, but for right now I am not jumping into anything. And am instead doing a little wistful remembering of the fun I had with my favorite peeps over the break (see below) as well as looking forward to focusing on more than cookbooks.

In podcast news, Cherry Bombe just released the top ten 2024 episodes of She’s My Cherry Pie, and it is always such a treat to see what listeners gravitated towards . . . and - big surprise - Claire Saffitz was at the top of the list. She came on the pod last winter to chat chocolate soufflé with me and we had the best chat. The list of the other top episodes of 2024, plus the links to listen to them, are below - so if you missed any, please give them a listen (and subscribe and like and review and all the things - IF you feel so inclined). Prue Leith’s episode made the list (natch) and in honor of it and her. I am sharing the pic we took together after we recorded. Gosh, was that ever a treat to meet her IRL . . . ❤️

List of the Top 10 She’s My Cherry Pie Episodes of 2024

1. Claire Saffitz Is Back & Talking Chocolate Soufflé

2. Making Cinnamon Rolls With Sally McKenney Of Sally's Baking Addiction

3. Tres Leches Cake With Camari Mick of The Musket Room & Raf's

4. The Cake Bible's Rose Levy Beranbaum & Her Favorite Yellow Cake

5. David Lebovitz Talks Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

6. Zoë Bakes Shares Her Chocolate Chip Smash Cookie Recipe

7. Alexandra Stafford Teaches Us How To Make Pizza At Home

8. Quarter Sheets' Hannah Ziskin & Her Princess Cakes

9. The Great British Bake Off's Benjamina Ebuehi on Fruit Cobblers

10. Dame Prue Leith of The Great British Bake Off

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And without further ado, this month’s recipe. It is from Salty Cheesy and it is in the “Sliceables” chapter of the book, a chapter of tea loaves, snacking breads, etc. and I adore it. I recently made it (and you can watch me do so here) with Kerrygold Butter, and I highly recommend you do so, as well. Yes, Kerrygold sponsors my podcast, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love their butter any less genuinely. The inspiration for the recipe comes from a BBQ joint in my neighborhood, called Hometown, as they make an awfully mean honey butter cornbread. My version fires things up a bit by calling for hot honey, but you can 100% leave out the heat, if that is how you roll.

One note: the recipe in the book calls for an 8-inch pan and the slices are super tall and the top tends to crack a little as it rises, gorgeously, I might add.. In the recipe below, however, I am calling for a 9-inch pan, as I would love to see what the bread looks like when it has a little bit more room to spread out (hint hint please send me pics if you make it).

A recipe for Hot Honey Butter Glazed Cornbread from Salty Cheesy!

Sweet, hot, moist and toothsome, this utterly gorgeous and flavorful bread is literally the stuff of which cornbread dreams are made. Once I learned how easy it is to make hot honey from scratch - one of my all time fave condiments - I have never looked back. And saturating your cornbread with it post-bake is just pure magic.

Want to print this recipe? Click here.

Makes one 9-inch round cornbread

Active time: 10 minutes

Bake time: 25 to 30 minutes

For the Bread:

1¼ cups (162 grams) all-purpose flour

1 cup (145 grams) medium-grind cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup (100 grams) packed light brown sugar

1 cup (227 grams) buttermilk

¼ cup (56 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

¼ cup (50 grams) vegetable oil

2 large eggs

For the Glaze
¼ cup (84 grams) honey

¼ cup (56 grams) unsalted butter

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 teaspoons hot sauce, such as Cholula or Franks, or to taste

Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease an 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a large bowl. In a 2-cup glass measuring cup, if you have one, or a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, butter, oil and eggs. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and gently fold with a flexible spatula to combine just until the last streak of flour disappears.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with a moist crumb or two.

While the cornbread bakes, make the glaze. Combine the honey, butter, red pepper flakes and hot sauce in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Once removed from the oven, immediately run a butter knife around the edge of the cake pan. Pour the glaze over the pan of hot cornbread, coaxing it with the back of a spoon, if needed, to evenly cover the surface. Let it sit about 5 to 7 minutes until the glaze is completely absorbed. Serve wedges warm straight from the pan.

Want to know more about what I’m reading, streaming and listening to in 2025? We’re moving those conversations to my paid newsletter this year. Do you subscribe? Please consider doing so - it means the world.

See you in February for (some extremely fun) and delish Valentine’s Day content - and be well.

P.S. Speaking of easy-peasy bakes…

❤️ Meet my new cookbook Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes

It’s filled with easy-peasy crackers, quick breads, hand-pies, brunch, lunch and dinner items and my viral magic melted pie dough.

Order on: Amazon | Oblong Books | Kitchen Arts & Letters | Bookshop

And if you have already ordered a copy, thank you!!! I would be so terrifically grateful if you would leave a review on Amazon, here. Even if you did not buy the book on Amazon, you can still leave a review and it really helps the book get into lots of people’s hands.