Lemon Blueberry Cornbread (simple summer baking!)

This lemon blueberry cornbread recipe is a true labor of love that is years in the making.  I have wanted to create this recipe for years but blueberry season is so short and I knew I wanted the texture to be absolutely perfect.  So after many fails last summer, I went at it again.  I have been testing this recipe for months!  And it is finally perfect – just ask my in laws, I’ve been forcing all the edible iterations on them so I am not stuck with 8 batches of cornbread.

Lemon and blueberry is my favorite summer flavor combo  – it’s sweet and sour and when it’s mixed with the light and crumbly cornbread  – it combines all the right things for a light and refreshing summer snack!

Let’s talk about cornbread for a second

Cornbread can be a pretty polarizing food.  The sweet vs. savory debate is always on-going.  The dense vs cakey debate exists as well.  Then you can get into the mix-ins: jalapeno, cheddar, cinnamon sugar swirls, fruit, canned corn, the list goes on.

Don’t even get me started with toppings: plain, with butter, with honey…

All this to say clearly cornbread can be one of those foods that falls into a personal preference category.

Traditionally cornbread is baked or fried.  Though sometimes you can also find it steamed into a corn pudding type dish.  More than likely the cornbread you are most familiar with is the baked variety but they are all unique and delicious in their own way!

Despite the MANY varieties and preferences when it comes to cornbread, most recipes all have a few common things:

1. They all contain some cornmeal.  This may feel like an obvious one but you might be surprised how little cornmeal many recipes actually include when you compare to the ratio of all purpose flour.
2. They are generally leavened with baking powder.  Baked goods like cakes and breads need a leavening agent to get that nice rise.  Typically cornbread recipes use baking powder though some may use a combination of baking powder and baking soda.

What makes this cornbread special?

Texture: This lemon blueberry cornbread is the perfect balance between cakey and dense.  It is light but still has plenty of that chewy cornmeal texture.  Plus when you add in the burst of the sweet blueberries in every bite, it’s really just perfect.

Sweetness: This cornbread is also not overly sweet.  There is a little sugar, there is the natural sweetness from the cornmeal and then there is a sweet and tangy glaze that soaks right into the bread while it is warm and in the skillet!

Lemon/Blueberry Combo: Nothing screams summer to me more than the combination of lemons and blueberries.  It’s the perfect sweet and sour combo and it complements the cornmeal SO well.

Baked in a skillet: You can use any oven safe skillet for this recipe but I HIGHLY recommend using a 10 inch cast iron skillet if you have one.  They get nice and hot so the cornbread will cook evenly and the cornmeal in the batter will crisp up and get a nice toasty sweetness on the edges.

It’s make ahead! While I love a nice warm slice of cornbread with melty softened butter, this recipe isn’t that.  It is truly at it’s best several hours to 1 day after baking.  The blueberries soften perfectly, that lemon glaze penetrates the entire crumb and it’s just incredible.  I promise you it will be worth the wait, plus now you can make it and enjoy for a few days! Or make it the day or two before you want to serve it so it’s just done already.  Super easy.

Baking with fruit tips!

Baking with fresh vs frozen fruit

This is a common question with fruit recipes because let’s be honest, getting great tasting, fresh fruit all year round is not realistic in most places.  Fortunately, in a lot of recipes fresh and frozen fruit can be used pretty interchangeably – but you may need to make a few adjustments to account for the extra moisture.  Have you ever thawed frozen fruit and seen all the liquid that is released?  This is due to the water in the fruit expanding and contracting from freezing and thawing.  Since most fruits are at least 90% water, the amount of moisture released can be significant.

For this particular recipe, you can use frozen blueberries but I recommend thawing and draining them first for the best result. You can use them straight from frozen, but do know that the blueberry juices will likely bleed throughout the cake so the coloring may change.  It also may end up a bit more crumbly from the extra moisture so I would definitely let it sit and cool for a few hours before slicing and removing from the skillet.

Baking with lemon

Baking with lemon can be tricky.  There are two main ways to get that intense lemon flavor: through the zest and the juice. However, if you try and bake with the lemon juice mixed into the batter, it can get pretty bitter and the acid could mess with the texture.  In some cases, you just totally lose the lemon flavor completely! Cooked lemon juice is unpredictable in baking.

So, the key to getting that punchy lemon flavor in this recipe is by using the zest in the batter to bring out that sweet lemon flavor and then by using the juice (mixed with powdered sugar) as a glaze or a “soak” for the cake.  Doing it this way, not only imparts that zingy tang of the lemon but also help keep the cornbread moist for days!