Move Over, Jiffy Mix — You Can Make A Fresh Batch Of Cornbread With Fall Flair In About 30 Minutes

When the nights get longer and the air gets crisp, home bakers start craving cornbread once again. The cozy, versatile, sweet-hearty loaf is a longstanding pillar of fall baking. No shade to Jiffy cornbread mix, but nothing hits like homemade — especially when it's infused with all the fall flair of our pumpkin brown butter cornbread recipe. This tender loaf comes together in right around 30 minutes (which includes making the brown butter), not a far cry from Jiffy corn muffin mix, which takes 15 to 20 minutes to bake. Adding a few fall-inspired ingredients is all it takes to give basic cornbread an autumnal twist.

This festive cornbread gets infused with cinnamon, honey, and pumpkin puree for major fall flavor, but the pièce de résistance is the browned butter. For the unacquainted, brown butter (aka "liquid gold") is a simple yet wildly transformative take on regular unsalted butter. To make it, butter gets gently cooked over low, slow heat until its hue darkens and its flavor intensity amps up into a rich, nutty taste that can take any baked good to the next level. In our pumpkin-cinnamon cornbread, that brown butter lends depth and counterbalance to the bouquet of earthy, autumnal flavors and baking spice. Perhaps best of all, whipping up a transformative batch of brown butter doesn't require any extra ingredients, simply making the most out of a silky, aromatic kitchen staple.

This impressive loaf's straightforward assembly makes this cornbread approachable for beginner home bakers. It's accessible for foodies at the end of the pay period, too. The recipe consists mostly of long-lasting pantry staple dry goods: All-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cornmeal, salt, and cinnamon. Beyond the butter and eggs (which might already be stocked in your fridge), the only extra elements in the mix are honey, buttermilk, and canned pumpkin puree — all baked to golden-brown perfection.

Pumpkin brown butter cornbread is a crowd-pleaser at holiday parties and potlucks. It also makes an ultra-portable dish to share; wrap the loaf pan in a breathable linen towel and bring it to tailgates all football season long. This fall-inspired cornbread can also offer a thrifty way to use up any canned pumpkin puree leftover after making pies for Thanksgiving dinner, minimizing food waste.

To complete the meal, serve this pumpkin brown butter cornbread as part of a festive brunch alongside a cast iron skillet of red flannel hash. A hot mug of hazelnut coffee would further emphasize the nuttiness from the brown butter. Or, this versatile cornbread could also be served for dessert after a harvest-themed dinner party. It'd pair especially well with maple-roasted butternut squash and these elevated pan-seared pork chops with parsnip-apple purée. Bonus points if you swipe each slice of this dimensional, pumpkin-rippled cornbread with an herbaceous sage compound butter for even more seasonal flavor.