Homemade Jiffy Cornbread Mix for easy cornbread anytime
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This homemade Jiffy cornbread mix is here to save you mega time helping you make cornbread, corn muffins and a whole lot of other things with better ingredients than what you can get in the box. Is there really anything better than a bowl of chili with a buttery chunk of fresh cornbread?
We didn’t have many baking mixes in my house growing up. Still, when we wanted cornbread, Jiffy cornbread mix was easily found in my Mom’s pantry. I think it was a convenience factor; we didn’t eat a lot of cornmeal, so it never made sense to have a lot of it around. After the corn muffins were eaten, there would be no cornmeal hanging around a lonely corner of the pantry for an unspecified time thereafter.
In college, I relied on Jiffy cornbread for parties because I didn’t have a kitchen. On a rare trip to the store, it was easier for me to pick up a box and then make it at a friend’s house who wouldn’t mind lending me the milk and egg than to buy all the normal pantry things you need to bake with. I once made a pan of habanero cornbread for a party and painfully ate the leftovers for breakfast because it was too spicy for everyone! Live and learn.
Still, cornbread mix you make at home has a lot of advantages the box doesn’t have. So pass on the box, and let me show you how to make cornbread mix.
Homemade Jiffy Cornbread Mix
Why bother making cornbread mix when the box is so cheap?
- Better ingredients: since you’re making the cornbread mix, you can customize what’s in it. Swap out organic flour and cornmeal for the enriched definitely not organic ones in the mix. Use homemade lard instead of the shelf-stable stuff, or choose coconut oil for a vegan version.
- Make it less sweet: the box is pretty sweet in my memory. While it’s certainly far from the worst packaged food, I like being able to lower the sugar content.
- Better for families: 1 box of Jiffy doesn’t make too much, which is fine for a small family or a single person, but not so great for families. With your homemade mix, you can easily make what you need without having to remember to buy a ton of boxes.
- So so easy: I don’t take a lot of shortcuts in my baking, but even I was impressed with how fall-off-a-log easy and time saving it is to just measure out the mix, add an egg and buttermilk and be on my merry way. This mix is definitely going into the camping rotation for my boys!
Ingredients in the box vs. ingredients in homemade Jiffy cornbread mix
Box cornbread mix
- WHEAT FLOUR,
- DEGERMED YELLOW CORN MEAL,
- SUGAR,
- LARD (HYDROGENATED LARD, BHT AND CITRIC ACID PRESERVATIVES),
- BAKING SODA,
- (baking powder): TRICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE,
- SALT,
- (vitamins to enrich the flour): NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID,
- WHEAT STARCH.
Homemade cornbread mix
- Cornmeal (preferably organic)
- Flour (preferably organic, could use gluten-free if desired)
- Lard (preferably homemade lard, but could use butter or coconut oil)
- Sugar
- Baking soda
- Salt
Jiffy is not as bad as you would think, but still I choose homemade
I gotta say as far as processed foods go, Jiffy is far from the worst. The unpronounceable ingredients are functioning as the baking powder. Good on them for not using aluminum-based baking powder!
Still, choosing organic to avoid the GMOs in corn and pesticides in the wheat is enough for me to want to make my own. And I also feel better using my own fresh rendered lard in the mix because I know where my pigs come from.
How to store your homemade Jiffy cornbread mix
Freezer Storage: Because I choose to use my fresh rendered lard for its neutral flavor, I need to store the mix in the freezer. This is hardly a problem for me as I’m used to thinking of my freezer as an extension of my pantry.
How to make your homemade mix shelf-stable: If you need to have a shelf-stable cornbread mix, simply use coconut oil. The cornbread you make from it will be delicious, and you can pop your mix in a jar in your pantry.
Simple ways to mix up your cornbread mix
- Swap your flour: while all-purpose flour is an easy choice, feel free to swap out a gluten-free all-purpose flour.
- Swap your fat: Lard has a nice neutral flavor, but choose butter for a richer taste or coconut oil if you’re wanting to make a vegan version.
- Add in flavor: Add in some BBQ seasoning, granulated garlic, or ranch powder for some added spice. If you’re in for a sweet cornbread, add in pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, or chai spice blend.
What can you even use cornbread mix for?
- Cornbread (duh)
- Muffins
- Pancakes
- Cobbler
- Drop biscuits
- Shortcakes
- Dumplings
- Croutons
- Hushpuppies
Even as I thought through this list, I was surprised at how versatile this humble baking building block can really be. Never doubt the power of baking building blocks, my friends!
Print
Homemade Jiffy Cornbread Mix
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 8 cups 1x
Description
Make up a quick batch of cornbread mix, and you’ll have enough to make several rounds of cornbread whenever the mood strikes. Mix and match your ingredients for your specific dietary needs and you’ll have a perfectly customized mix that would be hard to find at the store.
Ingredients
- 4 cups cornmeal (624 g)
- 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (195 g)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 cup lard, preferably homemade lard (170 g), or butter (best flavor) or coconut oil (for vegan cornbread mix)
Instructions
- Mix everything but the lard in the bowl of a stand mixer.
When the dry ingredients are well distributed, add in the lard. 
- Beat the lard into the dry ingredients until it resembles wet sand. There should be no visible lumps of lard anywhere.
- If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can cut the lard in with a pastry cutter or use a food processor.
- Package up the mixture in a plastic bag for freezer storage (if using lard or butter), or pack it into a glass jar for the pantry (if using coconut oil). Use either the freezer or pantry batch up within a couple months for the best results.
Notes
Make it vegan: to make the mix vegan, choose coconut oil over the lard. The coconut oil has the added advantage of being shelf-stable, so you can store this at room temperature in your pantry.
Make it gluten-free: swap out an gluten-free all-purpose flour like King Arthur’s measure for measure for the all-purpose flour.
*Nutrition data was calculated if the mix was used to make 4 dozen muffins. This does not account for the added ingredients for the muffins, just the dry mix itself.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Baking Building Blocks
- Method: Mixer
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/48 of the mix
- Calories: 88
- Sugar: 2.2 g
- Sodium: 190.3 mg
- Fat: 3.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 12.9 g
- Protein: 1.2 g
- Cholesterol: 3 mg
