Healthy Cornbread Muffins

Homemade Healthy Cornbread Muffins are tender, fluffy, and naturally gluten-free. Crispy golden tops and lightly sweetened with honey, they’re the perfect side dish to any meal!

These are just like my healthy cornbread but in a muffin form.

Healthy cornbread muffins on a wooden board and with linen towel.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ingredients for Healthy Cornbread Muffins
How to Make Healthy Cornbread Muffins
Tips for Best Results
Variations
What to Serve with Cornbread Muffins?
How to Store and Reheat
FAQs
More Recipes to Try
Healthy Cornbread Muffins Recipe

I made these healthy cornbread muffins to go with my Instant Pot ham and bean soup but they’ll also deliciously soak up the juices of healthy turkey chili, buffalo chicken chili or even a cup of hot, freshly made chicken broth.

Serve a muffin with your favorite comfort meal and reheat any leftovers for breakfast or a healthy snack with a bit of honey drizzle. To-die-for!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

One bowl: My goal is to make healthy muffins recipes easy with minimal clean up. You can quickly whip up this batter with 10 minutes of prep using the same bowl.
Moist: We make muffins more wholesome without sacrificing the texture or flavor.
Simple ingredients: Although these corn muffins are made with almond flour, all other ingredients are kitchen staples.
Healthier: These healthy muffins are refined sugar free, 100% gluten-free, and contain healthy fats.

Ingredients for Healthy Cornbread Muffins

I created this healthy cornbread muffins recipe using everyday 10 simple ingredients, so you can bake a batch any time.

Almond flour, cornmeal, eggs, apple cider vinegar, baking powder, baking soda, honey, butter, milk, salt.

Eggs: You’ll need 3 large eggs to bind ingredients together.
Milk: I used whole milk, feel free to use your milk of choice to cut back on calories.
Butter: Melted butter is best for a buttery, moist crumb. You can also use coconut oil or any mild tasting oil. I also tried extra virgin olive oil with great results.
Sweetener: Choose from any liquid sweetener like honey, maple syrup or agave.
Vinegar and baking soda: Apple cider vinegar or white vinegar can be used. Vinegar together with baking soda create air bubbles which acts as a leavening agent and yields a better texture and crumb.
Baking powder: This baking staple helps the muffins rise and gives them an airy texture.
Yellow cornmeal: Make sure to use cornmeal and not corn flour. There are many brands that differ in texture, I prefer fine cornmeal but feel free to use your favorite.
Almond flour: Use super fine almond flour for best texture, my favorite brand is Kirkland. If you would like to make your own, here’s an easy almond flour recipe.
Salt: Needed to enhance and balance all other flavors.

How to Make Healthy Cornbread Muffins

Here’s a quick and easy overview of how to make healthy cornbread muffins from scratch.

There is a full recipe card below.

Step by step process how to make healthy cornbread muffins.

Start by preheating your oven to 400 F, line a muffin tin with parchment paper liners, and set aside.

Make the batter: To a large bowl, add eggs, milk, butter, maple syrup, and vinegar. Whisk until combined. Next, add baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then whisk until smooth.
Add cornmeal and flour: Use a spatula to gently stir in cornmeal and almond flour, just until combined.
Bake: Evenly scoop batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 7 minutes at 400 F, then reduce temperature to 350 F and bake for another 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool and serve: Let almond flour cornbread muffins rest for 5-10 minutes before serving with a bowl of soup, chili or as a side dish.

Tips for Best Results

Follow these tips and you’ll make the best cornbread muffins every time!

Don’t use other flours: You have to use cornmeal and almond flour. You might be able to use almond meal but muffins will be more dense. Any wheat flour, whole-wheat flour, coconut flour or gluten-free flour will not work.
Type of cornmeal to use: Any coarse, medium, or fine grind cornmeal will work, just be sure it is yellow cornmeal for the most corn flavor. A finer cornmeal will yield a tender crumb and still have that little bit of grittiness, which is my favorite.
Solidified butter is OK: Once you mix melted butter or coconut oil with other cold liquids, it will form into small pieces. That’s fine, it will melt during baking.
Whisk well: Be sure to whisk liquids until there are no small lumps of baking powder and baking soda are left. It will help the batter rise evenly and makes this one bowl recipe possible.
Use muffin liners: Unless you are 100% sure your muffin tin is non-stick, I highly recommend to use parchment paper liners or a silicone muffin pan. These muffins do stick!
Do not overbake: Remove muffins when toothpick inserted comes out clean and they still look light on top.

Variations

These delicious cornbread muffins are healthy, seasonal, with lots of great variations to try.

Dairy-free: Make dairy-free cornbread muffins using your favorite dairy free milk and coconut oil or vegan butter.
Add corn: Up the sweetness by adding up to 1 cup of fresh corn, drained canned corn, or thawed frozen corn.
Make them cheesy: Mix in some shredded cheddar cheese, or pepper jack cheese.
Add heat: Stir in diced jalapenos, green chilies, or add a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Breakfast muffins: Make savory muffins by adding bacon or enjoy a sweeter breakfast muffin with the addition of blueberries.

Cornbread muffin split in half and drizzled with honey.

What to Serve with Cornbread Muffins?

I love serving these craveable cornbread muffins at Thanksgiving alongside wildly popular boneless turkey breast, or paired with healthy soup and stew or healthy chili.

Here are our favorites, be sure to enjoy warm or hot, see below for reheating.

Breakfast: Warmed, cut in half, then spread with butter, honey, or jam.
Chili: Dipped into healthy white chicken chili, Instant Pot turkey chili or white bean pumpkin turkey chili.
Soup: With a bowl of Instant Pot stuffed pepper soup, vegetable beef soup or Instant Pot cabbage soup.
BBQ meats: To sop up the sauce of healthy crockpot pulled pork or crockpot BBQ pulled chicken.

How to Store and Reheat

Store: Allow muffins to cool completely and store them in an airtight container lined with paper towels on top and bottom. Here’s how to store muffins so they stay fresh and moist for 2-3 days. Irecommend to freeze them after to avoid mold build-up.

Freeze: You can freeze your muffins for up to 3 months, here’s everything you need to know on how to freeze muffins.

Reheat: It’s best to microwave these little breads in 15 second increments.

FAQs

Can I substitute the almond flour?

Unfortunately not. In order for this cornbread muffin recipe to work, almond flour must be used. You could try almond meal but muffins will be more dense.

Are cornbread muffins healthy?

Depending on the recipe, some cornbread muffin recipes can be less nutritious. My healthy cornbread muffins contain almond flour which is naturally gluten free and contains healthy fats, are lower in sugar sweetened with honey or maple syrup, and can be made dairy free.

How to keep cornbread muffins from sticking to the pan?

To avoid cornbread muffins sticking to the muffin tin, use muffin liners or a silicone muffin tin. If you are 100% sure in your non-stick pan (coating wears off with time), you can spray it generously with cooking spray.

How to prevent muffins from drying out?

To prevent your muffins from drying out, don’t over bake them and store properly. Also you know your oven better, so if it tends to cook faster than majority of other recipes, chances are you need to bake your cornbread muffins for shorter amount of time as well.

More Recipes to Try

Side view of cornbread muffins on a wooden board.