Do you ever feel bad for food. Like as if they had feelings or something?
No really! Sometimes I feel bad for those poor little foods that get a bad wrap. Half the time it’s not their fault, we just don’t know how to cook them right.
Well that’s how I feel about cornbread.
So much can go wrong with cornbread. It can be dense, heavy and dry.
But so much can go right with cornbread! It can be light, tender, sweet and moist. You can add a touch of honey to the batter to make it sweet. You can add cheese and jalapenos to the batter to make it savory and spicy.
Yes, cornbread can be really amazing if done right. And trust me, with the lack of bread in this house, there is nothing like a bit of cornbread to go with your meal.
Since gluten free goods can tend to be dry and crumbly, I chose to use buttermilk as my liquid in this recipe. The extra fat gave these muffins the richness they needed and seemed to hold the muffins together better than regular milk.
I also chose to use half cornmeal and half corn flour in my dough. The corn flour gives a more tender crumb than the traditional cornmeal and makes for a smoother outcome. If you have difficulty finding corn flour, you may be able to substitute all cornmeal, but I have not tried it myself.
I also decided to bake the muffins at 350 degrees instead of the typical 400 degrees for muffins. The gluten free flours need a lower temperature to rise adequately and shape nicely.
It only took an extra 2 minutes or so of baking time with a lower oven temperature.
These cornbread muffins were the perfect side to my Roasted Red Pepper and Jalapeno Cream Soup that I had made for dinner. Nothing can replace the fun of dunking something in soup, whether it be a warm roll or a freshly hot cornbread muffin. That’s some southern goodness right there!
How do you jazz up your cornbread recipes?
- ½ cup corn flour (or sorghum flour)
- ½ cup cornmeal
- ¼ cup almond flour
- ½ cup potato starch (not flour)
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease around the tops of a 12 count standard muffin tin and fill holes with paper liners. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk together corn flour (or sorghum flour), cornmeal. almond flour, potato starch, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt.
- In a larger bowl beat eggs. Add sugar and milk and beat until sugar is dissolved. Add melted butter.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. MIx until combined. Beat an additional minute.
- Fill muffin liners ⅔ way full with batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until golden and tops bounce back with touch of a finger.
- Cool on cooling rack until ready to serve.*
Hannah coffey says
Hi Miss Breezy, would this recipe still work if I have to sub the buttermilk? I am Severely allergic to all dairy so is there an alternative I could use that could still achieve a good result? I often sub dairy with coconut yoghurt but in subtly flavoured recipes sometimes it overpowers with coconut flavour. I also bake with almond milk but in many cases it is too light to achieve that desired texture.
Hannah
Brielle says
Hannah, I haven’t experimented with non dairy buttermilk replacements, but in subbing for regular buttermilk I have used 1/4 full fat yogurt or sour cream to 3/4 milk. I wonder if you could use 1/4 coconut yogurt to 3/4 almond milk. Also, I have a more recent cornbread recipe that I shared on another site. It tastes a bit more like traditional cornbread to me. Here is the link if you are interested. http://www.kristendukephotography.com/gluten-free-honey-cornbread-muffins/
Hannah coffey says
Hi Brielle, just reporting back that I subbed the buttermilk with whole Goats milk and 1 1/4 tsp cider vinegar and these were AMAZING! The one thing that puts me off cornbread is its over density, lol these had a lovely lightened texture and a great taste I wasn’t even expecting. Thankyou so much for your work on this recipe to share it with us, we really enjoyed it…who knew a corn muffin could be so good!
Brielle says
This makes me so happy Hannah! I love that you were able to sub according to your needs. You do most the work, I only provide the recipe. Yay!