I'm in need of a good homemade cornbread, yours looks wonderful. No butter goes into the actual cornbread? It's just used to crisp and spice up the bottom? Really interesting recipe, I may bring this to one of the three potlucks I have for over the next three weekends.

I love your recipes and your site so much that I created my own food blog: thecookingroom.blogspot.com thank you Heidi

Lots I like in this recipe, but I'll have to experiment to see if I can leave out the sugar. I'm from the deep South, and sugar or other sweeteners just don't fit in my family's idea of cornbread. The whole-wheat flour and the red-pepper flakes, those sound great!

adding smoked gouda!!! mmmmmm then it would be my perfect cornbread!!

I am in love with cornbread. It goes so well with stews or chilis- sort of. Here's the thing though... It always comes out so DRY. Maybe that's why it goes well with things that take some of the grit out of it. A friend recently suggested to me that it might be the cornmeal itself I am using and not so much the recipe. How does this recipe fair? Does it come out a bit more moist or kind of on the gritty side? HS: quite moist Karen. The instant cornmeal/polenta keeps the grit under control, and the buttermilk keeps things nice, moist and tender.

After years of doing (and not minding) the Jiffy box cornbread with a little doctoring here and there, this may be the welcome change. I like the contrast with the red pepper flake a lot.

This sounds great. I regularly add jalapenos in my cornbread because I like the kick.

I love a hint of heat and real corn in my cornbread -- there are so many possibilities with the stuff (and one of my favorite inspiration sources is Crescent Dragonwagon's Cornbread Gospels). Thanks for the veggie/vegan list -- I will make good use of it this holiday season.

Yum. This looks delicious. Have you thought of adding a little chipolte or ancho chili powder into the bread?

Mmm...spice maple syrup. You've got me thinking, indeed! I think that may be a go for the next batch of chili or black bean soup, neither of which can be that far off. I awoke to flurries in Wisconsin this morning! This desert rat will need lots of soup and spicy-sweet cornbread to make it through the next week!

I'm wondering about the instant vs. regular cornmeal as well. What's the difference? I don't think I've ever seen instant. Could this recipe work with the regular kind?

I have a cast iron skillet I keep around just for making cornbread in. The heavier weight works better than a lighter pie pan would. I make cornbread from scratch all the time and I must say I've never used instant corn meal. It's usually regular polenta, as that's what I can get here (as opposed to corn meal). My grandmother would spin in her grave if Iever bought the instant ;-) And really, I've tasted it, it's not worth the money.

yeast risen cornbread! I'd better dash off that post immediately.....

This is my first time responding! This recipe looks like just the thing for a day like today. Here in Delaware the skies are gray and we have snow flurries gently drifting down. I'll pair this with vegetarian chili. My family will be warm and toasty tonight! I just want to say that I enjoy this feed. There are very few people in my area that really cook and bake from scratch. I am proud to say that all my children (2 boys and 1 girl) are all tremendous cooks. I've been using vegetarian recipes since the mid-70's (Laurel's Kitchen) and we've been organic gardener's since that time. I will continue to enjoy your recipes.

Can you use cornmeal flour in place of instant cornmeal? I never seen instant cornmeal. I buy it in the Italian section of various grocery stores. My sense is that you could substitute a very fine grain corn meal and it would be no problem - a bit different, but would still work. If you do the substitution please report back (even better if you can send me a picture), and I can update the post.

wow - this looks amazing! Cornbread that has some spice, can't wait to try it!!

Both my husband and father in law love cornbread with a kick! I will have to try your recipe (with gluten free flour of course). Thanks :)

This is an exciting recipe....like the red peppers. I will definatly try this one soon, have always been a big fan of cornbread even though we don´t have a tradition for making them in iceland :-) ....but made them now an again. It´s nice to see that you have used whole corn to give a bit of texture. Thanx for this really cool recipe. best regards Gudmundur Palmason www.icelandicchef.blogspot.com

This sounds SO good! Cornbread is a real favorite at this time of year - I always make a big batch and save half to crumble into a Thanksgiving-style dressing. Curious, though - is there really such a thing as 'instant' cornmeal?

{gasp}... oh... is it true...? am I first? do I really get to be first? wow, what an honor! I'm so excited about being first! I'm even more excited to try this cornbread! I love love love cornbread... being raised in KY. I love all things cornmeal: polenta, grits, cornbread, especially that sweet cornmeal mushy stuff that Chevy's and some mexican restaurants serve as a side called tamalito. Now that I live in Jersey, Amish country isn't too far away and there are several varieties of stone ground corn meal that are fantastic. A trick my mom used to use is to heat up a cast iron pan on the stove top for a min with some oil and throw in a handful of corn meal and let it cook until slightly brown; then add your batter. This will give a great sandy, crunchy crust to the bottom of the finished product. I've done this with the course ground meal and it's perfection!