Gluten Free cornbread (becomes sausage, apple, herb stuffing. next post)
One of my November 2011 recipes for National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, now Beyond Celiac. This and other recipes in my ebook, Delicious Gluten Free Cooking.
Thumbnail photos and list of contents at http://royaltemptations.com/delicious-gluten-free-cookbook.html
CORN MUFFINS/BREAD/TOASTER CAKES ETC - about 10-12 muffins/muffin tops or 1 x 8 x 8 pan
About 1+1/2 lbs total weight cooked.
Being British, I didn’t grow up on corn bread. In fact in about 3rd or 4th grade, I actually bought regular corn muffins from Costco’s for my son to take into school for some Thanksgiving thing, since I didn’t have a recipe at my fingertip. Now that my son is gluten intolerant (actually CD and CF) I had to have a corn bread recipe since I like to make a corn bread stuffing for turkey, as well as corn bread for chili. I do tend to make the Northern style that is slightly sweet. This is a King Arthur regular flour recipe that I adapted. They call them toaster corn cakes, and use some special pan. I like to make my breads in muffin top pans (Cuisinart 6 cup muffin top pan, model CUI AMB-6MTP, $15.95, also available and other brands at Amazon $12.74 Prime, November 2017. In NE they were $9.95 Fall 2010, Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 in Christmas Tree Shops). I find that in muffin top pans they cook quicker and more evenly than in a muffin pan. Also since they have the shape of a mini focaccia bread or the wheat flour sandwich thins, they can be easily packed or eaten as an open sandwich. As well as an 8x8 for corn bread. I make half a batch (6 muffin tops) at a time just for one person for the week. I keep them in freezer and toast them fresh from frozen as I want one. And to be good, I use eggs and egg substitute and olive oil not butter. Helps a bit. I even take these on the plane for a sandwich style meal.
Some points to note. Nuke them or toast them to bring back that just out of the oven taste and softness. They are very tender and break easily if you take them out of the pans while still hot. Also there is a great difference in the gluten free corn meal/corn flour available. Bobs’ Red Mill gluten free corn meal is stone ground which means it remain quite gritty and coarser than I like, and BRM corn flour is too fine for me, but it’s up to your preference. I use Arrowhead Mills gf cornmeal (normally from Hannafords) which is far finer and more like Quaker Oats cornmeal (which I always used to cook with) but Quaker say they can’t call gluten free. A celiac nutritionist told me that Quaker Oats cornmeal was contaminated to thousands of parts per million (tested at 1200 ppm).
2017 Arrowhead Mills gf cornmeal was unavailable for a few months and when I bought it again, I didn't like it. So choose between Bob's Red Mill gf cornmeal (grittier) or gf corn flour (finer) to your personal preference for amount of grittiness in cornbread or your favorite brand.
This recipe is easily divided down to a one egg quantity for testing. I made about 3 muffin tops and 3 small muffins with one egg. I did try 1 tbsp of Expandex modified tapioca starch instead of 1 tbsp gf flour mix. I didn’t notice any real difference in the corn bread. I use muffin top pans to make mini corn focaccias for sandwiches. I’ll also have one as a quick snack toasted with pb or almond butter and some strawberry jam or Nutella. Think peanut butter cup with cornbread.
3/4 cup (3 oz, 84g) my gf flour mix
1/2 c (2 oz, 56g ) almond meal or almond flour for better nutrition or use 1+1/4 cups gf mix. (I used to buy almond meal from Trader Joe’s, now I buy certified gf Blue Diamond or BRM).
2018 Trader Joe's now state online on their gf list, that their almond flour and almond meal is gluten free at $4.99/lb and Costco's own brand of almond flour labeled gf, 3 lbs for $12.
1 cup (4+1/2 oz, 126g) cornmeal.- gf Arrowhead Mills (available at Stop n shop) - see above for choice
1 tbsp (15 ml) gf baking powder - I use Rumfords -, gf, non-gmo, and no aluminum.
½ tsp (3 ml) salt - you will probably have to adjust the amount of salt after first time of baking to your personal taste preference. I found without sugar the corn muffins needed more salt.
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 Tbsp (15 ml) potato flour (not potato starch) - optional but makes moister bread - grind instant potatoes in your food processor to make potato flour.
6 tbsp (90 ml) sugar -also decrease after first baking if cornbread is too sweet for you. I don’t find it particularly sweet. I’m lazy and just use 1/3 c (80ml) sugar, quicker.
1 tsp (5 ml) gf vanilla extract for sweet cornbread. I use vanilla for muffins but not for cornbread for stuffing. I use Costco’s vanilla extract. It used to be labeled gf, waiting on that label again since FDA change in labeling.
3 large eggs or 2 large eggs and ¼ cup egg substitute or all egg sub. -Papetti is meant to be gf and no onion etc.
2/3 c (160 ml)milk (I use fat free). I have also used buttermilk, lactose free milk and almond milk.
1 stick of butter/Earth Balance.coconut oil (4oz, 112g) melted or ½ c (120 ml) olive oil (even a mix of evoo and regular olive oil)
1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. Whisk egg, milk, butter or oil and vanilla together.
4. Pour wet mix over dry mix and gently stir together. Don’t over work, you can use an electric mixer, but do make sure to mix in all the dry bits. They don’t disappear on baking. Mix will look very wet so leave batter for about 2 minutes when it will have thickened due to baking powder and xanthan gum.
5. Divide up amongst greased muffin top pans, 8x8 or greased muffin pans. If you use muffin top pans, wet your fingers and spread the mix out to edges and only about ½ fill muffin top pans. Use a scant ¼ cup measure for muffin tops. I measure oil in ¼ cup measure and then use oily cup to scoop out batter which glides out of cup because of oil.
6. Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown but the tops are barely colored if you are going to toast them. They don’t mound above the pan but rise evenly. Regular muffins and 8x8 pan I cooked until golden on top. Each oven is different so start checking at 12 minutes and even cook longer than 15 minutes, sometimes it seems to take 20 minutes to cook. Dark colored pans will brown outsides before inside is cooked through. I literally poke a fork into middle of biggest muffin or center of 8 x 8 to see that it is cooked through. A moister gf batter often takes longer to cook than regular flour batter.
Remove from oven and let cool for 10-20 minutes before removing from pans. I do toast the muffin top shape or just nuke them.
7. OR put batter into greased 8 x 8 pan and bake at 350* for about 35 minutes. I dig in to bottom center of pan to see that corn bread is cooked throughout. It frequently feels firm on top, nicely browned, but when you dig to bottom of center it is still wet raw.
Remove 8x8 from oven, cool and then eat as corn bread, use for corn bread stuffing, or cut into squares, and then cut in half to make a corn bread sandwich. Really good.
I cut corn bread pan into 3 inch squares, cut it in half and then toasted it, spread with mayo etc topped with turkey and tomato and ate as two pieces/open face sandwich. Far too messy to try and eat as a sandwich. My son totally approved of cooked bacon on top of warm cornbread as a breakfast.
Make mini muffins in cases set in mini muffin pans for less clean up.
NOTES: I have tried this with melted butter and fat free milk. That’s the best flavor for muffin or toaster cake in my opinion. But olive oil substitute is still excellent and has no cholesterol.
I make it with earth balance butter substitute and plain almond milk for my son. It doesn’t have the gold color of butter and looks very pale. But my son happily ate it. But it definitely doesn’t have the taste from butter.
I use oil for the corn bread, same fat calories but reduced cholesterol from not using butter. I have made it with egg replacer or flax seed meal egg replacement. I notice flavor of flax seed. With egg replacer it is more like a corn bread short bread toaster cake but my cousin was very happy with gf, cf and soy and egg free.
My gf mix:
I use for one cup of GF mix.
½ cup potato starch
¼ c tapioca starch from Asian market or Goya or Yoki brand in supermarkets.
2 tbsp amaranth or millet flour: Bob’s Red Mill (millet is roughly one third the price of amaranth, is not so nutritious, but is more readily available.)
2 tbsp sorghum flour: Bob’s Red Mill.
Larger quantity:
1 x 14 oz bag potato starch, which is 3+1/2 cups - that's the size I can buy.
update 2018 - I'm trying to substitute 14 oz arrowroot starch by weight for 14 oz potato starch to see if I also have problem with nightshades. So far I have used the arrowroot mix for gf pizza, quick breads, shortbreads, pancakes and haven't noticed a difference in baking results.
1+3/4 c of Tapioca Starch is 7 oz
Just under 1 cup of Amaranth or Millet (actually ¾ c plus 2 Tbsps is 4 oz)
Just under 1 cup of Sorghum (actually ¾ c plus 2 Tbsps is 4 oz)
Making about 7 cups total of mix.
