Sweet Dairy Free Cornbread Recipe (Gluten Free)

If you are looking for some sweet cornbread that is free from gluten and contains no dairy, then I promise you that is cornbread will go down as a real treat this thanksgiving.

It's so good that you don't even have to wait until thanksgiving to whip up a batch for the entire family.

Christmas is right around the corner, so please check out my Caribbean Christmas Recipe Roundup.

I remember my first time trying cornbread when I went to the southern states of America. I had some cornbread with some beans on the side.

Let me tell you that the food was truly delicious and finger licking good. To the point where you wanna head to the restaurant's kitchen, find the chef and ask for the recipe so you can make it at home.

This is the Northern style cornbread which is sweet in taste but still super moist and great to serve at a family gathering.

You can also serve this cornbread with some Candied Yams, Sweet Potato Pudding or even some Caribbean Style Potato Stuffing.

Cornbread is a type of quick bread made with cornmeal. It is a bread that is commonly associated with American cuisines, more specifically the southern region.

Typically you will find that cornbread is made on a piping hot iron skillet sealed with bacon grease which is then baked in the oven.

However it can also be steamed albeit this is quite rare and a rather soft/mushy texture more like a pudding (pone).

Don't forget to check out my Vegan Cornbread Muffins which is a savoury and vegan friendly version made into muffins.

There is a clear distinction between northern and southern cornbread. The former is lighter, sweet and relies on flour and sugar for sweetness and is more of a cake like texture.

Therefore is not unusual to see the northern cornbread being prepared to be baked in a rectangle or square baking tin and once baked cut into squares.

The latter is crispy, crunchy and grainier while depending on the type of cornmeal that is used (coarse, medium or fine) and omits the use of sweetener with little to no flour used at all. It is made in a cast iron skillet and cut into wedges upon serving.

I guess you could say that the northern is an imitation or a spin off of the original renown southern style cornbread.

Some people feel that sugar has no place in cornbread but I simply embrace both versions and make whichever I see fit for the occasion.

Fortunately, for you guys I have been your guinea pig and made the recipe a few times now and played around a bit with some other variations of gluten free flour.

I have come to the conclusion, aside from using my very own GF flour blend, you can also use either buckwheat flour or rice flour.

Buckwheat flour: Contrary to the name buckwheat actually derives from the rhubarb family and contains absolutely no gluten. It is quite a dense, nutty textured flour with a dark hue to it and due to its density you might want to add some tapioca starch to reduce it's denseness and to act as a binder.

i.e. 1 ¼ cup of buckwheat flour with ½ cup of tapioca starch.

Although buckwheat yields some nutritional value to your cornbread will be more dense in taste and texture.

Brown rice flour: There are a few rice flour options but I personally love brown rice because it's obviously a whole grain and not overpowering in taste like some GF flours i.e millet/quinoa.

You can easily use brown flour alone although the cornbread may not be as light/fluffy but I would recommend adding 1 teaspoon of xantham gum so the cornbread isn't crumbly.

Ingredient substitutions

Dairy free yoghurt: If you don't want to use almond milk or simply don't have any to hand, you can see make this recipe successfully using some coconut yoghurt. I would recommend adding the lemon juice to the yoghurt to yield that acidic buttermilk flare.

Flax or chia eggs:  I seen a lot of amazing vegan cornbread recipes online that call for chia or Flax Eggs. I personally haven't tried making my cornbread with flax eggs so you're going to have to do a bit of trial and error. I would advise using the flax eggs with something with more structure like apple sauce.

Apple sauce: Another vegan favourite that's applesauce, this yields great moisture without the use of eggs.

Can you freeze the cornbread?

Yes, although I recommend eating it immediately but you can simply store the cornbread in some freezer friendly wrap and then place it in some aluminium foil.

From there you can single or double bag with a freezer friendly zip lock bag to help retain that fluffy texture.

You can either store it whole or into small slices. Just make sure to thaw it out completely either in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature.

Why did my cornbread turn out crumbly?

If the cornbread is crumbly it could be because the egg whites were folded into the batter and the air was lost. Alternatively, it might be due to using too much flour so next time reduce the flour by ¼ cup.

Why is my cornbread heavy/wet?

If the cornbread is wet at the bottom, it needs to be baked some more.

If it hasn't baked in the given time simply cover the top of your cornbread with foil to stop it from burning and continue to bake until it's done (skewer comes out clean).

Check its readiness every 15 minutes or so.

Can you use coconut or almond flour instead?

No, it won't work. If you choose to replace the flour then it should be only 1 to 1 gluten free flour substitute only.