Quick breads
Lighter Cornbread Recipe (whole wheat)
This lighter cornbread recipe is just as satisfying as traditional cornbread, with a tender crumb and lightly sweet flavor, but a few straightforward swaps make it more wholesome than the classic.
Serve up a slice of cornbread with your chili….without the guilt! This lighter cornbread recipe is just as satisfying as traditional cornbread, and you can feel better about eating it.
About this lighter cornbread
We made some simple swaps to make this cornbread a little healthier than traditional cornbread.
- whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose
- maple syrup instead of granulated sugar
- olive oil instead of canola oil
Now, it’s not like you’re eating celery or anything, but it’s certainly a less indulgent way to enjoy cornbread. We hardly ever eat chili without cornbread, so it’s nice to have something a little lighter to accompany the chili.
If you don’t eat a lot of whole wheat flour and are not used to the texture and density of it, start off by using half whole wheat and half all-purpose, or use a white whole wheat flour.
You could also make this into muffins! Pour into a muffin pan and reduce baking time (we'd start with 15 or 16 minutes and go from there).
This would be great with jam, too! Try it with strawberry freezer jam or orange marmalade!
- Yield: 8
- Prep: 10 minutes
- Cook: 20 minutes
- Total: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 cup milk (we use 2%, any type is fine)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup cornmeal (fine ground, not coarse)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Method
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 8- or 9-inch glass pie plate with nonstick cooking or baking spray.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together maple syrup, milk, olive oil and egg whites.
- Add dry ingredients and whisk together until combined. Don’t overmix. Batter will be quite thin.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cut into slices or wedges and serve.
Notes
If you prefer, substitute all-purpose flour for the whole wheat flour, or a combination of the two. For a more traditional appearance, use white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour.
Maple syrup: Be sure to use pure maple syrup, not pancake syrup. You can substitute ¼ cup granulated sugar for the maple syrup, if you prefer.
Oil: If you use extra virgin olive oil, you can definitely taste it in the corn bread. If you prefer, vegetable or canola oil can be used instead of olive oil.
Bread can be baked in an 8 inch square pan if you prefer.
