Serve up a slice of cornbread with your chili….without the guilt! This healthy cornbread recipe is just as satisfying as traditional cornbread, and you can feel better about eating it.
About this healthy cornbread
I 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 (I’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!
More Quick Breads Using Whole Wheat Flour
I substitute whole wheat flour for white all purpose flour whenever I can. It’s much more nutritious and adds an extra layer of hearty flavor. Here are some of my favorite recipes:
- Pumpkin Streusel Bread
- Whole Wheat Banana Bread
- Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
- Whole Wheat Applesauce Bread with Walnuts
- Whole Wheat Biscuits with Cornmeal, Cheddar, and Black Pepper
Healthy Cornbread Recipe (whole wheat)
Ingredients
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 egg whites (or 1 egg)
- 1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 8- or 9-inch pie plate with nonstick cooking or baking spray.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together maple syrup, milk, olive oil and egg whites.
- On top of wet ingredients, add dry ingredients and whisk together until combined. Don’t overmix.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Notes
- if you prefer, substitute all-purpose flour for the whole wheat flour, or a combination of the two.
- Bread can be baked in a 8 inch square pan if you prefer.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
I made this recipe twice. The first time I did it as is, and it seems a little dry and crumbly. I made it a second time and used two eggs and it was perfect. Nice and moist and stayed together. The first batch I’m gonna throw into a cornbread dressing, it’ll be perfect for that. But overall, the flavor of this is nice.
Thanks for the feedback! We’ll probably retest this one to make sure it’s perfect!
I’m from and in Deep South. We don’t sweeten our cornbread. At all.
What do I replace it with, maybe more cornmeal?
I haven’t tested this without sweetener so I can’t guarantee it will turn out as sugar/honey can affect texture as well as taste. Let me know if you give it a try!
I can tell you how to make cornbread from scratch without being sweetened . All of my family made both cornbread and biscuits from scratch. They measured nothing except using their eyes. They got out the wet ingredients. They used as many eggs as they wanted. One, two, a dozen, a hundred, who cared? They didn’t. Although too many could get expensive. They got out oil. As much as they thought they needed to add to the egg/eggs. They added however much buttermilk as they thought was necessary. The thing about wet ingredient quantity was that it couldn’t add up to a quantity that was too large for the pan that would be chosen for this project.Smell and texture didn’t matter much because the end product was going to look, taste,feel,smell, sound and think just like cornbread when the self rising corn meal would be added then that was done. It only had to be moist enough to pour into the cast iron skillet. Then it was put into the oven and the baker waited for the end product to pull away from the skillet sides and be just the right shade of golden brown. No I’m not making this up. If cornbread was your favorite, it was wonderful .
I have been making this recipe for years now and it is hands down the best cornbread going! What’s not to like. Quick, easy, nutritious, and delicious. I do use the entire egg but find that the cornbread turns out just fine.
Thanks Rachel!
I’m so glad you like it! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review!