Moist & Fluffy Gluten Free Cornbread

You’ll adore this Gluten Free Cornbread recipe! Made with clean ingredients, it’s a much healthier choice than the boxed alternative. This can also be easily made a gluten free dairy free cornbread.

The BEST Gluten Free Cornbread

I love this cornbread recipe! It’s a go-to, and something that’s made every winter. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a steaming bowl of chili, and also great for holiday dishes involving bread — like gluten free cornbread stuffing (I also use it for these INCREDIBLE Sausage Stuffing Balls).

Years ago, before I was gluten free, I had a craving for cornbread. I picked up a box of Jiffy (what we all used to make!), and was appalled at the ingredients.

Ingredient & Nutrition Comparison:

• Jiffy uses degerminated corn meal. This means the nutritious, fiberous part of the corn is removed in processing. While corn isn’t exactly a superfood to begin with, this processing makes it even less so.
• Jiffy’s mix uses lard and hydrogenated lard. There is no safe amount of hydrogenated oil, and I refuse to support companies that are negligent enough with their consumer’s health to still use them, in any quantities.
• This homemade recipe is lightly sweetened with honey, rather than using processed white sugar.
• Preservatives! Let’s leave the chemicals where they belong – in the lab.

If you are wondering how to decode nutrition labels — I recommend starting with the ingredient list. Download my Nix List (printable!) and keep it with you while grocery shopping.

Another delicious suggestion is trying this gluten free sweet potato cornbread. Two of my favs combined!

Make this a Gluten Free Dairy Free Cornbread

I use unsweetened, unflavored almond milk in this recipe. I add some vinegar to it, and leave it to sit to create a dairy-free “buttermilk.”

I do use butter, so as written, this recipe isn’t dairy free.

If you need a completely dairy free recipe, use either a plant-based butter or grapeseed oil in place of the melted butter.

Grass-fed butter is high in omega 3s and CLAs, and low in lactose, so it’s something that I’ve added back to my nearly dairy-free diet. Definitely experiment and find out what works best for you!

How to Make Gluten Free Cornbread

Step 1: Add vinegar into the almond milk, and set aside while putting together the dry ingredients. This creates an almond “buttermilk” and helps the cornbread come out really fluffy.

Step 2: Add the masa harina, corn meal, almond flour, arrowroot, salt, baking powder and baking soda to a bowl, and whisk to combine.

Step 3: Into a medium sized mixing bowl, add the eggs, almond milk, melted butter, and honey. Whisk to combine.

Step 4: Add the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients, and stir until the there is no more dry ingredients in the batter.

Step 5: Line an 8×8 baking dish with baking paper or spray it with avocado oil and sprinkle it with additional masa harina. Pour the batter into the baking dish and smooth out the top.

Step 6: Cover the baking dish with foil, and bake the cornbread in an oven preheated to 400º F for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes to brown the top. If you don’t cover it with foil for the beginning on the baking time, the cornbread will get very dark because of the almond flour.

Is Cornbread Gluten Free?

Cornbread in America is made with a combination of cornmeal or corn flour and wheat flour. This means most cornbread mixes you buy at stores and the cornbread in restaurants is not gluten free.

However, its super simple to make cornbread at home, and swap in a more nutritious flour, like almond flour, in place of the wheat flour.

Variations for Making this Cornbread Recipe your Own

• Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread: Add 1/2 cup of very thinly sliced jalapenos, along with 1 cup of shredded cheddar to your batter, and bake as directed.
• Green Chili Cornbread: Drain a can of green chilis and mix into the batter, and bake as directed. Drain the excess liquid off the green chilis.
• Honey Bacon Cornbread: Cook 6 slices of bacon until crisp, and then crumble them. Increase the honey to 1/4 of cup. Fold bacon into the cornbread batter prior to pouring it into the baking dish. Serve cornbread with additional honey.