Gluten Free Cornbread

In case you hadn’t already noticed, I enjoy messing around in the kitchen creating recipes.  Furthermore, I love it when the children can get involved in making their after school snacks or meals and contribute to the activity. This makes me feel less like a general dogsbody and more like a proactive parent on a mission to teach the kiddos how to fend for themselves.

We have several gluten-free friends and as cornmeal is naturally gluten free and I always have a stock of gluten-free flour in the pantry, it made sense in my head to make this recipe completely gluten free. I like to have a bank of gluten-free recipes for bring and share meals and for when gluten-free friends visit so I am not always relying on the same ones. Everyone deserves a bit of variety right?! It is true that gluten-free flour does tend to yield a drier bake, but that said this cornbread does have a lovely taste and texture; the mustard powder and sweetcorn add a bit of depth to the flavour

I made this with Ophelia and due to all the buttermilk, oil and eggs, photographing the process was the last thing on my mind. My aim was to  avoid the need to completely clean the kitchen or to give her a bath just before her swimming lesson. It also meant that my phone was mainly on the other side of the counter to avoid the potential onslaught of ingredients from an overenthusiastic toddler! At the end of the activity, I did have to clean the counter where we were working thoroughly, mop a splodge off the floor and frogmarch my daughter to the sink so she wouldn’t put the mixture on the walls too… But my phone was clean! There is a first time for everything!

Ingredients

• 200g fine cornmeal/polenta
• 150g Doves Farm gluten free plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 280ml buttermilk (one tub)
• 20ml wholemilk
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 100g sweetcorn (defrosted if frozen)
• 50g Mexicana cheese, grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°c fan and grease and line a 20cm square tin. (You could cook these in muffin cases if you prefer, to make little buns)
2. Put all the dry ingredients except the corn and the cheese in a large bowl and mix.
3. Put the buttermilk, milk and oil into a jug and mix.
4. Crack the two eggs into the buttermilk jug and mix again until the eggs are fully incorporated.
5. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk/egg mixture and mix until fully combined.
6. Add the sweetcorn and cheese and mix so they are evenly spread out.
7. Put the mixture in the tin and gently flatten with the back of the spoon.
8. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch.
9. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
10. Slice and enjoy warm or cold.

We had some very happy reviews of this cornbread from not only my children, but also my gluten-free recipe testers. Please do drop me a line or leave a comment if you do manage to make this recipe as I love hearing from you.

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