Gluten Free Buttermilk Cornbread

The texture of this is a little grainier than say a cornbread made with wheat flour. The egg helps it stay together pretty well and it has a nice crumb texture. The amount of batter looked far too much for an 8" round cast iron skillet, so I used an 8" x 8" baking dish instead. I get my stone ground cornmeal from the Cedar Creek Grist Mill during their open house events; Bob's Red Mill or your grocery store's bulk yellow cornmeal will suffice as a substitute.

Ingredients

2 c stone ground yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
4 tbsp raw honey
4 unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

0. Prepare an 8" x 8" baking pan by lining it with parchment paper. It is not necessary to butter the parchment.

1. Sift dry ingredients together. Set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, heat butter and honey together.  Let cool. Stir into dry ingredients.

3. In a 2-cup measure, whisk egg and then stir in buttermilk. Stir in butter and honey.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until combined.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

This is definitely not for the gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, or corn-free crowd, as it has wheat, dairy, eggs, and cornmeal in it. My muffin tin holds about a half cup per muffin and made 18 muffins. The cornmeal I used is stone ground from the local grist mill.

Ready to eat: pumpkin cornbread muffins

Makes: 12-18

Wet Ingredients:

1 c pumpkin puree
1 c half 'n' half or whole milk
2 eggs
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
4-6 tbsp raw honey

Dry ingredients:

1.5 c yellow cornmeal
3/4 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Sift in dry ingredients. Whisk gently to combine. Use a 1/3 c measuring cup to fill greased muffin tin.

Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Let cool on a rack.

Vermont Cornbread

The ingredients that go into a state or region's traditional cornbread recipe are what sets it apart from everywhere else. In the America the Beautiful Cookbook, the Vermont version of the classic cornbread recipe includes ingredients such as buttermilk, warm bacon lard, drippings, and maple syrup. I suspect it will be a far more moist, buttery tasting cornbread than the other cornbread I typically make as a turkey stuffing component.

As far as looks goes, it looks like cornbread; though the batch I took out of the oven today is of a paler yellow than traditional cornbread and that is because I used a combination of fine white cornmeal and a medium grind yellow cornmeal to make the bread. I fried some bacon for this and let the oil cool to about 130 degrees F before adding it to the batter.

A 9" cast iron skillet can be used instead of a baking dish.

Bacon makes everything taste better, including cornbread.

Ingredients

1 c fine white cornmeal
1/2 c medium-ground yellow cornmeal
1/2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp bacon drippings, warmed

Directions

In a bowl, mix together flour, cornmeal, buttermilk, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Drizzle in maple syrup, one lightly beaten egg, and bacon drippings. Mix until well combined.

Pour into a greased 8" x 8" baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool before serving. Cornbread should be lightly browned on top and shouldn't jiggle in the center. If it does, simply turn the oven off and let the cornbread sit in the cooling oven for an additional five minutes.

Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread

This recipe is used just about every year I've been in the Northwest as the bread base for cornbread stuffing for the turkey. I suppose it could be baked in different pans or shapes; but if the end goal is to cube all the bread, then a) it doesn't matter how moist the cornbread is, and b) its baking shape doesn't matter either. The recipe ratio comes from The Cast Iron Skillet cookbook.

Ingredients

1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c fine white cornmeal
1/2 c medium-coarsely ground yellow cornmeal
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 c half-and-half
1/2 c sour cream
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sour cream, butter and half-and-half together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until it forms a batter.

Butter the interior of the cast iron skillet, bottom and sides. Pour in cornmeal batter and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the top is lightly golden brown.

Yield: 4 1/2 c cornbread, or 8 servings if sliced into wedges

Cornmeal Pound Cake

Last autumn I picked up some stone ground cornmeal from the Grist Mill and thought I'd see if it was still usable. This cake came out pretty heavy and dense. I think it would go well with a fruit or berry compote with a slice of this as its base.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 c. finely ground yellow cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. organic granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 c. whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Whisk in milk, vanilla extract, and eggs. Gradually stir in flour mixture.

3. Prepare a loaf pan by buttering the insides. Pour in batter.

4. Bake for 1 hour, until the top is golden brown on top. Cool in pan on a rack. Remove cake from pan and let cool completely before serving or storing.

Cornbread for T-day Stuffing

This cornbread recipe comes from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food ("Cornbread No Chaser") and has been only just slightly tweaked. I lowered the required heat, muckied about with the ingredients and order of operations.

What better way to stuff a bird than to use a somewhat, but not really traditionally bread for stuffing? For this year's Straggler's Thanksgiving hosted by my more adventurous cooking sibling, we used cornbread as the bread base for stuffing the bird. Here is the recipe for it the cornbread. I suppose it could be eaten as is.

Crumbled bits of cornbread for turkey stuffing

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. cornmeal, medium grind (stoneground)
1 1/4 c. whole organic milk, heated to a simmer
1 c. unbleached wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp coarse salt (because it was what was on hand at the time)
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 large eggs
1/4 c. fresh or frozen cooked corn kernels, thawed and drained (optional)
1 tbsp unsalted butter

One 10" cast iron skillet

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and leave skillet in oven while mixing the cornbread.

1. In a small saucepan, heat milk until almost boiling. Remove from heat and stir in cornmeal. It's not all that important to let it sit in the milk for Alton's recommended 15 minutes since the cornbread isn't the final product output.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder.

3. In a smaller bowl, beat together oil and eggs.

4. Add the smaller bowl to the larger bowl and add the cornmeal/milk mixture. Mix until well combined. It won't be smooth nor runny and you'll have to spread it around in the skillet before it bakes.

5. Remove skillet from oven (with oven mitts!) and melt 1 tbsp butter in the skillet.

6. Empty cornmeal mixture into skillet and spread around with a spatula until the surface looks nearly even. Neatness does not count since you'll be crumbling this later after it cools.

7. Bake for 25 minutes, or until top is lightly golden brown.

Try to not eat this before it's made into stuffing or you'll have to make more cornbread. I made two batches of this for a 15# turkey.