Add This Savory, Buttery Topping To Your Cornbread And Thank Us Later

Cornbread is one of those timeless sides that pairs exceedingly well with hearty dishes like beef chili, roast turkey, and vegetable soup. However, given the simplicity of this staple, you may be wanting to upgrade your traditional cornbread recipe with a bit more flavor. Sure enough, whether you cook cornbread in a cast iron skillet or glass baking pan, there are certain ingredients you can use to upgrade the texture and flavor of this age-old snack.

Apart from the unconventional ingredients you can add to cornbread such as hot dogs and ranch dressing, for a more simple, crowd-pleasing topping, use garlic butter. Unlike regular salted butter, garlic butter gives your cornbread a more savory and complex taste. Since most varieties contain not only granulated garlic but extras like grated Parmesan cheese and dried herbs, your cornbread will have a new and improved taste everyone will enjoy. Better yet, you can incorporate this garlicky spread in more ways than one.

If you've made cornbread before, you already know melted butter gets mixed into the batter right before baking. Therefore, instead of only using garlic butter as a veritable topping, whisk some directly into your batter. Then, once cooled, feel free to add extra. The end result will be a tasty herb-studded bread that is sure to satisfy your tastebuds. That being said, the best part about incorporating flavored butter into your cornbread is that you can use many more ingredients besides garlic.

Now that you've swapped out conventional butter for garlic butter, feel free to imbue your cornbread recipe with even more unique toppings. For example, use our recipe for sweet and savory upside down cornbread as inspiration to add your own blend of toppings that pair well with garlic butter. Some tasty options may include sun-dried tomatoes, chopped olives, or artichoke hearts.

Once you've exhausted all the different ways to make cornbread with garlic butter, feel free to make another compound butter with a range of sweet and savory extras. Since compound butter is the secret ingredient to more flavorful corn on the cob, incorporating another tasty variety into your next pan of cornbread is sure to yield delicious results.

If you're unfamiliar, compound butter is softened butter that has been enhanced with a variety of extra ingredients. Apart from classic garlic butter, feel free to make a spicy version with lime and jalapeños, or chipotles in adobo. You can also make a more herb-focus butter with fresh herbs like chopped chives, thyme, rosemary, and basil.

Conversely, for a sweeter tasting bread, mix butter with cinnamon and maple syrup or try another variety with orange zest and honey. Next to using compound butter as a delicious topping, keep in mind, if you plan on adding some to your batter, you may need to adjust the suggested ratios of salt or sugar in your recipe before baking.