Cornbread Gluten-Free/Gluten-Full
Everyone likes cornbread…well maybe not everyone but I sure do, especially hot out of the oven and served with melting butter on top. I used to make it regularly for suppers when my family was young but as my household got older and smaller, and I became an empty nester, I made it far less often. It simply was so good that I knew I would eat it all up, so I just didn’t make it too much. Then the day came in 2006 that I found out that I could no longer eat flour, one of the key ingredients in all my baking up until then, because I had been diagnosed with celiac, and had to stop eating flour altogether. Big bummer!
Just recently I decided to haul out my cornbread recipe for one of the Pie Camp lunches and see how it fared with the gluten-free flour mix I make. I mean, if this mix works for pie, why not for cornbread. Right? Well, lo and behold, it makes a mighty tasty cornbread. I don’t think anyone at camp even knew it wasn’t made with traditional All Purpose Unbleached Flour.
Now as you know, or maybe you don’t and it will surprise you, I’m pretty loosey-goosey with my baking so you’ll have a lot of room for variation and creativity in this cornbread. That uptight has-to-be-perfect-chemistry way of baking has just never been one I had enough time or energy to bother with which probably had a great deal to do with first learning to bake without measuring cups and spoons but with handfuls, coffee-cupfuls, and plops and pours of this and that when I was a little girl. I still bake like that a lot of the time…that is when I’m not writing out recipes for a cookbook. Those recipes are tested, tested, and tested!
This cornbread version is slightly moist which for me means that it’s not going to dry out just a few hours after dinner but will still be yummy the next day. I have been known to pour warm milk and maple syrup over it in the morning and have it for my breakfast. Try it. It’s really good!
The only difference between the gluten-free and the gluten-full version is which flour you use. It’s great with either one. If you like the recipe alot, you might bag up a double mix of all the dry ingredients and have them ready at hand so you can quickly bake up a batch when you need some cornbread to serve along with a yummy black bean soup or chile like I did last night. I shared some with my friend Kathi before we went to a concert. There was some left so I wrapped the leftover pieces in foil when I got home, and this morning when my friend Susan came out to Pie Cottage from Seattle for brunch, I heated the package up in a 300F oven while we chatted and I made a little omelet with goat cheese, avocado, and red peppers to serve with it. There was still a piece or two left when she departed this afternoon, but…well, I ate it all up for a snack as evidenced by the baking dish below. See, this really is why I don’t make this cornbread often.
Yup, it was good.
Anyway, please forgive me that there is only a photo of the crumbs. I didn’t think to take one yesterday when it came out of the oven. I’ll make another batch soon and update the blog post, I promise. But, can someone please come over to share it with me?
P.S. Here’s the recipe you asked for Kathi. 😉
Kate’s Cornbread Gluten-Free or Gluten Full
Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal (use gluten-free cornmeal if needed)
1 cup AP gluten-full flour or 1 cup gluten-free flour mix
4 tablespoons sugar (my son Duncan likes it sweeter so put more in if you like)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of sour cream, or plain unsweetened yogurt
1/4 cup milk, 1/2 and 1/2, or even whipping cream if that’s what you have on hand
2 eggs, beaten well with a fork
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Procedure
Preheat the oven to 425F
Butter a standard square 9×9 baking dish or something close to that size
Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them well.
In another bowl, mix together the sour cream or yogurt, the milk or cream, eggs, and butter.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until it just comes together.
Fold into the greased baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes.
Let cool a bit and then cut into whatever size you deem fit for a serving.
A little slathering of butter on top is nice, too.
- 1 cup cornmeal (use gluten-free cornmeal if needed)
- 1 cup AP gluten-full flour or 1 cup gluten-free flour mix
- 4 tablespoons sugar (my son Duncan likes it sweeter so put more in if you like)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of sour cream, or plain unsweetened yogurt
- 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 and 1/2, or even whipping cream if that's what you have on hand
- 2 eggs, beaten well with a fork
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- Preheat the oven to 425F
- Butter a standard square 9x9 baking dish or something close to that size.
- Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them well.
- In another bowl, mix together the sour cream or yogurt, the milk or cream, eggs, and butter.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until it just comes together.
- Fold into the greased baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes.
- Let cool a bit and then cut into whatever size you deem fit for a serving.
- A little slathering of butter on top is nice, too.
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