Easy Gluten Free Cornbread

In the winter when I was growing up, my family would eat a version of chili on a weekly basis. Back then, we also ate thin and flat texture-less sandwich bread with our meal slathered with country crock.

These days, I really love a thick piece of dense cornbread that I can dunk in my chili. This recipe I wrote is a combination of a few different versions. I used gluten free flour because my household is eating a low carb diet this season. I really liked this version of gluten free flour from Pillsbury. It is a combination of rice and potato flour along with xanthan gum included.

It is important to point out that this flour, and ingredients for this recipe were inexpensive. I found the GF Flour at my regular grocery store for just over $4. The bag is 2lbs. This will last me awhile as each cornbread recipe didn’t use more than a cup of flour each time. The corn meal was just over $2 for about the same box size as the flour. I enjoyed not only the flavor of this flour but the texture was not grainy like some GF mixes can be. I also liked that this flour blend is an exact 1:1 substitute meaning one cup of this mixture is equal to one cup of all purpose flour.

This recipe couldn’t be more simple. I did find that it’s important to add the butter last into the batter as the last ingredient before baking to avoid the batter from clumping. In this recipe, you will start by adding the dry ingredients together in one bowl. After I did this, I stirred the dry ingredients together with a spatula really well because I didn’t have a good flour sifter. The reason for sifting the flour and dry ingredients together is to make sure all of the ingredients are blended together. You want all of the salt, sugar, baking soda, corn meal and flour to be incorporated all through the bread in equal parts. This ensures the quality throughout the whole product.

Another product of note that was also inexpensive is a sugar substitute I used. Instead of white granulated sugar, I substituted organic coconut sugar in this recipe. Coconut sugar has a low glycemic index this not spiking the blood sugar the way white sugar does. I tested more than one sweetener in my cornbread and this is the one I like the best. Second, I liked honey although you would have to test the amount because of it’s flavor. I would recommend less than a tablespoon per recipe. You can always add more honey to the top of the bread if you like your cornbread sweeter. The coconut sugar is not a 1:1 substitute for white sugar. Coconut sugar is much less sweet than granulated cane sugar.

After you’ve made up your batter, don’t forget to spray down your baking dish with cooking spray. I use an inexpensive organic canola oil spray. I like to use pie dishes for baking cornbread because personally I like the shape of the tall wedge. My pie pans average 9 in. in diameter. You could also use a 6 x 8 square baking dish too. This batter will rise a bit so using a deeper baking pan is recommended. At a minimum, you should use a pan that is 1 1/2 in. deep.

The day I made this cornbread, my boyfriend purchased more jalapenos than he needed for our chili. I then decided to bake one of the extra jalapenos into the top of one of the cornbread batches. I also happened to melt some of the coconut sugar and glazed the top of that loaf. I like the flavor of the jalapenos on here. The look made this cornbread a bit artisan looking.

Here is the plain cornbread recipe. Be sure to also pop back into Emerald Menus this week for a really delicious chili recipe to go along with this cornbread. These two were a match made for each other. Enjoy!