Gluten- and Dairy-Free Crisp Cornbread

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As I mentioned in this post, I’ve lately made an effort to prepare meals for special diets. I feel I should be more familiar with preparing and tasting gluten-free, dairy-free, low carb, etc. dishes, being a dietitian and all. The last thing I want is for an exchange like this happen:

Client: You say eating gluten-free can be tasty and baking gluten-free is totally do-able. How do YOU know? Have you ever baked gluten-free bread?

Your Excellent RD (YERD): Oh, you know, things mutter mutter stuff gibble wibble not quite yet …

Ouch.

Well, last Saturday provided the opportunity to practice! As promised, my gluten-free corn bread recipe is below.

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In terms of baking gluten-free, this recipe is a baby step. It replaces regular all purpose flour, which typically makes up at least 50% of the “flour” in the type of cornbread our palates are used to (the remaining “flour” is cornmeal), with a gluten-free flour mix. I used Bob’s Red Mill bread mix. Unsweetened almond milk makes up the bulk of the liquid ingredients, while honey is used as a sweetener, as one of our guests had an intolerance to cane sugar.

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The final result? The cornbread is a little denser than one made with regular flour, but the taste is superb. Best of all, it still has that crisp browned top I love so much and sometimes eat, leaving the bottom behind (but you didn’t hear it from me).

P.S. To make this recipe vegan-friendly, use maple syrup as the sweetener and replace the egg with 1 tablespoon ground chia seeds soaked in 3 tablespoons of water for 20 minutes.

Gluten- and Dairy-Free Crisp Cornbread

  Prep Time: 10 minutes

  Cook Time: 25 minutes

  Keywords: bake bread gluten-free dairy-free vegetarian

Ingredients (16 squares)

  • 1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour mix (e.g. Bob’s Red Mill)
  • 3/4 cup cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond or soy milk
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 egg or 2 egg whites, beaten

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Stir in honey, almond/soy milk, canola oil, and egg, and stir until dry ingredients are just moistened.

Pour batter into greased pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and serve warm.

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Stay tuned for gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin custard on Friday. Enjoy the rest of your week, dear reader!

9 Comments

  1. The cornbread sounds good!

    I don’t bake much, but a friend of mine does a lot of gluten-free baking. She now even makes gluten-free croissants. She said there was a lot of trial and error to get the “consistency” of things right.

    1. Wow, I’d love to see your friend’s recipe for gluten-free croissants! 🙂

    2. Gluten free croissants would be a recipe I would love!

  2. Haven’t had cornbread in a while! Thanks for posting the GF recipe…

  3. I feel the same way!! Like, how can I ever tell anyone else that eating a particular diet is “easy” and “doable” if I’ve never done it. Your cornbread looks awesome! I do love that crispy top as well.

  4. I think even for people who don’t have food allergies, using various grains and not always relying on wheat can be really great. Having said that, gluten-free and dairy-free baking seems quite daunting! It’s great to see your successful and delicious looking results 🙂

    1. Great point, Lucy – variety is the way to go! 🙂

  5. You’ve finally crossed over to the other side…how exceptional you are to be so caring and responsible for your clients. They’ll now know that you get the sacrifices they need to make in order to adjust to a new way of eating. Brava Jessie ;O)

    BTW…one small suggestion…if possible, try to stay away from these ‘prepared’ GF mixes because there’s xanthum gum and other stabilizer that may be harmful in the long run. Just my two cents worth ;o)

    Have a fabulous weekend.
    Claudia

    1. Hi Claudia, thanks for the suggestion and your sweet words! I plan to sample and bake with all kinds of flour and prepared mixes, particularly ones that my clients often use, so that I can discuss them with some knowledge 🙂 Have a great day!

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