Buttery, crumbly, and slightly sweet, this gluten-free cornbread recipe comes together quickly with 1 bowl and 10 ingredients. Serve this easy quickbread to the side of soups or salads, or turn it into gluten-free cornbread stuffing.
One day last spring, I found myself with some milk that had turned slightly sour. Thanks to Jay's mom, I knew that not all was lost; I could bake with it. So I opened up my brand new (signed!) copy of Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy and flipped to a recipe for Buttermilk Skillet Cornbread. I tweaked things around to make gluten free cornbread, and what I pulled from the oven was hands-down the best cornbread I'd ever tasted – super moist, slightly chewy, and flecked with nubs of stone ground cornmeal.
I included a sweet version in my cookbook studded with cherries and honey, but this version is barely sweet and just thing to serve with soups and salads. Top it with veggies for a hearty farmers market cornbread. Or cut it into cubes and bake it into a savory cornbread stuffing for the holidays (or any day!)
This GF cornbread is so easy and versatile, you'll be looking for excuses to make it again and again!
I've simplified this gluten-free cornbread recipe to be mixed all in one bowl, which means that you can have cornbread baked, slightly cooled, and into your mouth within an hour. Despite being gluten-free, the ingredient list is short and sweet. And buttermilk works beautifully in place of soured milk, of course.
However you serve this gluten-free buttermilk cornbread, I hope you love it!
*Bojon appétit! For more Bojon Gourmet in your life, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, purchase my gluten-free cookbook Alternative Baker, or subscribe to receive new posts via email. And if you make this buttermilk cornbread recipe, I’d love to know. Leave a comment and rating below, and tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet.*
Moist & Tender Gluten-Free Buttermilk Cornbread
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup (140 g) yellow stone-ground cornmeal (not polenta; I like Arrowhead Mills)
- ½ cup (78 g) sweet white rice flour (I like Koda Farms Mochiko)
- ½ cup (50 g) gluten-free oat flour (I like Bob's Red Mill)
- 2 tablespoons (15 g) tapioca flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Wet Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter* (4 ounces/113 grams)
- 4 tablespoons (90 g) maple syrup, honey, or a combination*
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ¼ cups well-shaken buttermilk*
Instructions
Prepare Things
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375ºF (190ºC).
- Rub a 9-inch round cake pan, 8-inch square baking pan, or 9-10-inch oven-proof skillet with the softened butter and line with parchment paper cut to fit.
Batter
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, sweet rice flour, oat flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk well to eradicate lumps.
- Add the eggs, buttermilk, maple syrup and/or honey, and melted butter, and whisk until combined. Don't worry about over-mixing since there are no glutens to toughen up!
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and spread evenly.
Bake
- Bake the cornbread until golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs, 30-35 minutes.
- Let the cornbread cool to warm, at least 30 minutes; the bread is still cooking from residual heat.
- Cut into wedges and serve warm.
Store
- Extra cornbread can be kept covered at room temperature for up to 1 day, refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to several months. Toast in a toaster oven before enjoying.
Notes
- *For dairy-free, use plant butter (I like Miyoko's). In place of the buttermilk, thin plant yogurt (such as Forager cashewgurt) with plant milk (such as oat or almond milk) until it reaches the consistency of heavy cream.
- *If you don't have buttermilk on hand, you can use yogurt thinned with milk until it reaches the consistency of heavy cream. Kefir will work too!
- *For a not-sweet cornbread, decrease the sweetener to 1 teaspoon, which will enhance the flavors without registering as sweet.
Monet says
What a gorgeous skillet cornbread! I love cornbread (I eat it like it's dessert!) and I'm eager to give this recipe a try. Thank you for sharing it!!
Alanna says
Thanks, Monet! I'd forgotten how dessert-like cornbread can be until this afternoon - you wouldn't believe how fast Jay and I each scarfed a piece of that buttery, honey-y cornbread when I was done shooting it. :) I hope you like it!
oZGe says
Thank you for this delicious recipe, but what if we don't have sweet rice flour or xanthan gum, does normal rice flour work or not? I live in Turkey and we don't have sweet rice flour here :)
Alanna says
Hi oZGe! Thank you for reading, and for your question. I have several friends who live in Turkey. :)
I haven't tried this recipe using regular rice flour and no xanthan gum, so I don't know whether that will work well or not. Sweet rice flour is naturally sticky, sort of like wheat flour, so it helps gluten-free baked goods hold together. My concern is that, without it, the cornbread will be overly crumbly and not hold together well. There may be enough egg in the recipe to give it a nice texture, though. If you give it a try, please let me know how it comes out!
Angela @ Canned-Time.com says
One of my favorite side dishes, especially with soup. It's really an excuse to have soup isn't it? Love this version and the Gluten free ♥
Alanna says
Totally an excuse for soup. :) Although today we split a couple of wedges lengthwise and melted cheddar cheese over them. mmm...
Ileana says
This looks fantastic! I know what I'm making this weekend.
Alanna says
Aw, that makes me so happy! :)
Whitney says
If you are dairy free, is there anything you could recommend to replace the buttermilk?
Alanna says
Hi Whitney, I haven't tried making this dairy-free, but I would wager that a combination of plain DF yogurt and a milk substitute could work to mimic the thickness, fat content, and tanginess of the buttermilk. You could probably use Earth Balance buttery spread in place of the butter, though you'll want to take down the salt. Please let me know how it goes!
Whitney says
Thanks so much, Alanna! I will give it a try :)
Donna says
Crucial for your sublime stuffing recipe!!…I was wondering if "polenta" corn meal could possibly work in this recipe? I bought 500 grams at an Italian market in Lyon and am hoping I can sub it in?!
Alanna says
Hi, Donna! Here's an account of someone successfully using polenta in corn bread: http://muffintop.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/polenta-cornbread-a-happy-mistake/
I'm not sure if the GF version will be different, but it might be worth a try? Please let me know how it goes!
jun says
thank you for the recipe! I'm going to try making this next week! Going to try that with Polenta instead that I just bought today!
Alanna says
Hi Jun - you're very welcome! Please let me know how you like it. Happy baking. :)
bedouin_88 says
Thanks for posting this! I tried it tonight, but replaced sweet rice flour with sorghum flour (~65 g) + the recommended 1/4 tsp xanthan gum. Came out great!
Alanna says
You're very welcome - glad you liked it! I'm also glad to know that the recipe will work with those substitutions - thank you for sharing!
lynn liccardo says
this also works well with all cornmeal. i also leave out the sugar and sometimes sub melted bacon fat for the butter. also, they bake up nicely in madeleine tins.
Alanna says
Whoa, you are blowing my mind here! Little savory bacon fat and cornmeal madeleines? Be still my heart. I must try that!
Summer Larkin says
Do you think I could sub a gf flour mix for the oatmeal and rice flour, as I don't have any on hand at the moment? I have a big bag of Manins gf flour, which I've been really loving lately and I don't have any gluten intolerance. Thanks!
Alanna says
Hi! I've never tried that gf blend so I can't guarantee that it will work, but I'd say chances are good that it will! Please let me know if you give it a try.
Zak says
Just got done baking this wonderful act of God. I found a half dozen peppers in the garden that were just begging to go in the mix, so I chopped them all up, seeds n all since I love it hot as can be, mixed in the peppers and voila! Lunch will be soup n this beautiful corn bread, almost a shame to cut it. Please keep the recipes coming and if possible please post a recipe of the jalapeno poppers such as the ones served up at the Sonic drive in restaurants. I love those things but they just cost so much for so little since here at my house we can put away 3 or 4 dozen of those things in no time (I live in a frat house with 8, sometimes 9 other guys and we love to eat
Suzanne Holt says
Finding a recipe for moist cornbread is definitely challenging. Especially with gluten free ingredients. Maybe I will have to give yours a try.
Kim says
I know I'm a little late to the corn bread party, but I just wanted to let you know that I made this tonight. It was the third batch of cornbread attempted today, two other recipes were relatively miserable failures.
I actually wound up using dried buttermilk powder and water in this recipe (don't judge! It was a long day!) - I sifted the buttermilk powder into the rest of the dry ingredients and whisked the egg and water together before I combined.
Additionally, just in case this helps anybody else, the other two batches of corn bread I made, I used "stoneground cornmeal" from Bob's Red Mill. For this batch of corn bread I used "corn flour" which is a much finer grind. I actually found that I preferred the corn flour significantly. In all three recipes I tried today, none of them allowed the corn meal to soften in the liquid before baking, and it wound up being really crunchy with the cornmeal versions. In your recipe the corn flour made it very tender.
I should also add that when I finally found your recipe, I thought "Ah ha! Bojon to the rescue!" I really enjoy your blog and your recipes, and I know that they are solid and frequently beautiful ( and frequently delightfully gluten-free!).
Overall, your recipe saved the day!
Maxene says
Just made this for thanksgiving and it turned out wonderfully. I used bacon fat instead of butter, but other than that I followed the instructions and the crust was perfectly crunchy and the inside soft and moist. Great flavor too and everyone loved it (I was with people who are not gluten intolerant). All the recipes I’ve tried from you have been great! Thanks a bunch!
Alanna says
Yay, so glad you liked it!
Vickie Golab says
Yum! I just made these and they are perfect! I used Bobs medium grind corn meal, honey instead of sugar and sprouted brown rice in place of oat flour. The recipe made exactly 12 beautiful muffins baked at 375 for 18 minutes!
Thanks!
Alanna says
So glad it was a success! Thanks so much for sharing your variation!
Allison says
I've lost count how many times I have made this recipe. By far the best cornbread recipe....out of every gluten free and gluten filled recipe I've ever tried.
Alanna says
Awwww I'm so glad you love it! Thanks a bunch for the sweet note.
Camilla says
Excellent recipe! Results are so tasty and tender.
Made it dairy-free with vegan butter and vegan buttermilk (soy milk + ACV) and it was perfect. Thank you!!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Oh I'm so glad you loved it and that those subs worked well – brilliant! Feel free to leave a star rating if you're so inclined :)
JenSays says
Hands down best cornbread I’ve had since going gluten free almost a year ago. It feels like a combination of my pre-celiac diagnosis favorite buttery gluten version (thanks Chowhound.com, RIP) and the Southern skillet version I grew up with. The texture and flavor are excellent! I don’t like sweet cornbread at all, but I used the 1t of sugar Alanna recommended because of her explanation. The result is a balanced flavor that doesn’t taste sweet to me at all. I love it!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
I'm so glad the GF cornbread was a hit! Aw yes I miss chowhound.com too, and the magazine they had for a couple issues back in the day too. Thanks a bunch for the sweet (but not *too* sweet haha) note and rating!