These Are The Only Boxed Cornbread Upgrades You'll Ever Need

Sometimes you're craving cornbread but you don't have the time — or ingredients — to make it from scratch. For these ocassions it's not a bad idea to have a box of cornbread mix on hand (especially if it's one of the top choices from our ultimate ranking of cornbread mixes ). Of course, it's not going to taste quite the same as made-from-scratch cornbread, but there are upgrades you can make to get it a little closer.

To find out the best upgrades, Daily Meal spoke with an expert: Cookbook author Dan Pelosi , known as "GrossyPelosi" on his blog, who has partnered with McCain Foods to promote regenerative farming . If you want to upgrade boxed cornbread, you must first decide if you want to go the sweet or savory route because, according to Pelosi, both are great options. Pelosi says, "You can take some blueberries or some raspberries and toss them in flour so they don't sink to the bottom and fold them into the [cornbread] batter, [to] make a nice, delicious fruit loaf or muffin.



" Of course, feel free to swap out the blueberries or raspberries for another type of fruit — perhaps blackberries or cranberries. Pelosi also likes to pair cornbread with homemade honey butter, a simple compound butter of just honey and butter. So, you can easily whip that up to add an extra sweet touch to your cornbread slice.

Or, simply spread regular butter, then drizzle honey over the top. What can you add to make boxed cornbread savory? If you prefer your cornbread more savory than sweet, there are plenty of other options when upgrading boxed cornbread. Dan Pelosi suggests, "You can go cheese, jalapeño, [and] bacon, [to] make [it] really savory.

" Again, feel free to pick and choose which of these savory items you'd like to include in your cornbread. And if you need a recipe to follow, you can look to our recipe for cast-iron jalapeño cornbread or bacon cheddar cornbread . Another idea is to add one or two of your favorite herbs — perhaps thyme and rosemary or parsley and chives.

The herbs can be used in combination with other add-ins, such as cheese or bacon. And speaking of bacon, you could swap that out for another meat for a more unique version, such as chopped up sausage or even hot dogs. Once the cornbread is baked and ready to be eaten, you can make the cornbread a savory-sweet combination by adding that honey butter when you serve it — which would be especially delicious with spicy jalapeños.

.