Cornbread is a great side dish, whether you’re eating a bowl of soup or chili, or serving a big roast. It is easy to make and versatile enough that you can spice it up with all kinds of other flavors. Cornbread is also a recipe that can be easily adapted be gluten free. Cornmeal doesn’t contain any gluten and most recipes don’t contain that much flour, so it is actually very easy to substitute in gluten free flour blends and still get a delicious bread that is not much different from the original.
This Gluten Free Cheddar Cornbread is an adaptation of a basic buttermilk cornbread recipe that I often use, and I made it using a gluten free all purpose flour blend. The Trader Joe’s GF All Purpose Flour works very well in this particular recipe, but just about any all purpose blend should give you good results. The cornbread has a pleasantly crumbly texture and you get a lot of corn flavor from the cornmeal. I added a generous handful of shredded cheddar cheese to give the cornbread a more savory flavor, since I was planning to serve this batch with a batch of chili.
A common complaint about gluten free baking is that the finished products turn out to be a bit on the crumbly side. Most cornbreads are slightly crumbly, no matter which recipe you use, so this is one recipe where a crumbly texture doesn’t take anything away from the dish. If you don’t want to use cheese in the cornbread, you can omit it. Other variations you might try include substituting the cheese for corn or adding some chopped green onions or chives for another twist
And I will also note that if you don’t have gluten free flour in your kitchen, you can absolutely make this recipe using regular all purpose flour instead.
Gluten Free Cheddar Cornbread
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup gluten freen all purpose flour blend*
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup plus 2 tbsp buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (about 3-oz)
Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 9-inch square baking pan.
Whisk together cornmeal, gluten free all purpose flour, salt, baking soda and sugar in a large bowl.
In a medium bowl, or a large measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk, egg and olive oil until well blended. Stir into dry ingredients, mixing until no streaks remain. Stir in cheddar cheese.
Pour mixture into prepared pan.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the bread is golden brown. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Serves 9-12.
*Note: You can make this using regular all purpose flour if you don’t mind some gluten in your cornbread, too.
Missie
April 30, 2014This was both beautiful and yummy!
Used oats instead of the all purpose gluten free flour. Don’t like that too much:/
How many calories in the original version?
Betty K
February 21, 2015Turned out pretty great. I do recommend using sharp cheddar, otherwise the cheese flavor gets lost. It was moist enough, held it’s shape (unlike other GF breads), and my 5 year old loved it. Note: I also added about 1/2 tsp of granulated garlic.