Say goodbye to dry, crumbly cornbread! Buttery, lofty, and lightly sweetened, this well-tested gluten-free cornbread recipe comes together with 10 ingredients in under an hour. Buttermilk (or yogurt + milk) adds rich flavor and acidity, while honey brings a touch of sweetness.
Serve this easy quickbread to the side of soups or salads, topped with homemade honey butter, or turn it into gluten-free cornbread stuffing. You'll want to eat this moist & tender cornbread all day, every day!
This is the gluten-free cornbread recipe I've been making since 2013. I adapted the recipe from a wheaty recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy that was barely sweet and baked in a cast-iron skillet. I've made this recipe many times over the years, including a savory cornbread loaded with summer veggies, a sweet version studded with cherries and millet in my GF cookbook, cheesy cornbread muffins, and made into a savory cornbread stuffing for the holidays.
I recently tweaked this base recipe to make the cornbread a little sweeter with maple syrup and honey, a little more sturdy and moist thanks to an extra egg, especially floofy with the addition of tapioca starch, and SUPER MOIST thanks to extra butter. I'm OBSESSED with the results, and I think you will be too.
I found I prefer baking this cornbread in a round pan rather than a skillet, so I've updated the instructions as well. If you take the new version for a spin, please let me know how you like it!
This updated GF cornbread is:
- incredibly moist
- lofty and tender
- never dry or crumbly
- balanced with the ideal amount of sweetness and salt
- loaded with big cornmeal flavor
Here's what one happy baker had to say about it:
5-Star Reader Review
“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 love it!”
—JenSays
Ingredients & Substitution Suggestions
This recipe comes together with just 10 ingredients. Once you've sourced your flours, the rest are easy to come by.
Flours:
- Cornmeal forms the base of this cornbread (obviously!). I prefer Arrowhead Mills brand cornmeal, which is the perfect consistency – not too fine or too coarse. Be sure to steer clear of polenta, which is too coarse to be used here.
- Sweet rice flour takes the place of wheat flour, adding structure. You can sub GF AP flour such as Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 if that's what you've got.
- Oat flour fluffs up the batter, adding creamy notes. Sub by weight sorghum flour or try almond flour.
- Tapioca flour makes the cornbread extra springy and tender. Sub arrowroot starch or corn starch.
Other Ingredients:
- Buttermilk moistens the batter. If you don't have any, you can thin yogurt with milk until it's the consistency of heavy cream. Or use plant yogurt and plant milk for dairy-free.
- Eggs help the bread bake up tall and lofty, setting the batter nicely. I use an extra egg here to replace the protein lost from the glutens in the wheat flour. I don't recommend swapping out the eggs if you can help it since they're important for the structure of the cornbread.
- Maple syrup and/or honey add natural sweetness. I like using half and half, but you can use sugar (any type or color) if you prefer.
- Baking powder and baking soda lift the batter.
- Salt makes this cornbread extra flavorful.
- Butter adds moisture. Feel free to use plant butter for dairy-free, or try melted coconut oil or ghee.
Method
I've simplified this 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.
This recipe makes one large cornbread, serving 8-12. It can be baked in the following vessels:
- 9-inch round cake pan
- 8-inch square pan
- 9 or 10-inch ovenproof skillet
- 12 standard-sized muffin tins
Got Extra Buttermilk?
Here are some favorite ways to use up your carton of buttermilk (aside from making moar cornbread):
- Gluten-Free Buttermilk Pancakes - with crispy edges and pillowy middles.
- Lemon Buttermilk Pie - bright and creamy filling + flaky GF pie crust.
- Buttermilk Ice Cream - rich and tangy!
See my library of buttermilk recipes for more ideas.
Bojon appétit, my sweets! If you make this, I’d love to know. Please 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
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Wet Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter* (4 ounces/113 grams)
- 4 tablespoons (90 g) maple syrup, honey, or a combination*
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ¼ cups (290 g) well-shaken cultured 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 or 10-inch oven-proof skillet with the softened butter. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper cut to fit (or line on all sides if using a square pan). Or line 12 standard-sized muffin tins with paper liners.
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 the batter is well-combined and smooth. 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, or 18-22 minutes for cornbread muffins.
- Let the cornbread cool to warm, at least 20 minutes; the bread is still cooking from residual heat.
- Cut the cornbread into wedges and serve warm. I like topping a warm slice with a pat of salty butter, plus a drizzle of honey if you like it sweeter.
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, and increase the buttermilk by 2-3 tablespoons.
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...
Sharon says
This is a great recipe ! I'm new to being gluten free and I'm so impressed that this cornbread turned out better than my "normal" recipe! I used kefir instead of buttermilk because that's what I had, and ground my own Oats into a flour. Easy recipe and was a big hit with us. I'll be making this again ! Thanks so much !
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Awww this makes me so happy to hear!! So glad you love this recipe, especially as someone new to GF baking. Kefir is a perfect sub for buttermilk here, and it's great to know that ground oats can be used in place of oat flour. Can I ask what brand of cornmeal you used? The one I tested this with isn't being made anymore and I'm interested to know what most people are using. Thanks for the intel and for the great feedback!
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!
Lisa says
Really easy and delicious! I made the cornbread muffins and my family just devoured them! Thank you!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Yay, I'm so glad they were a hit! Thanks so much for the sweet note. :)
Shree says
Your previous version of this cornbread recipe was my family’s favorite. I’d be so grateful if you could repost it for those of us who are originalists!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
For sure! Emailed it to you :)
Sharon says
I live abroad, so the cornmeal I used was just a cheap local brand and not available in the US I think. It was finely ground though and worked great ! Also no oat flour here so I have to grind my own. But due to the abundance of Chinese shops , sweet rice flour and tapioca starch are cheap and easy to find so I'm really happy to have this recipe !
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Ah interesting! Well I'm glad you were able to source (or make!) all the necessary flours for this recipe :D
Jill Surdzial says
I made these in muffin tins lined with paper cups and they looked great as they baked up, but when they had cooled enough to remove from the pan, they were swimming in butter. There were pools of butter at the bottom of each tin cup. The bottom portion of each muffin felt dense while the top half was airy. They taste good, but just seem to be drowned in butter (not something I would usually have an issue with because …. butter!), but not what I was expecting. The only thing I can think of that might be different in what I did was that I used dried buttermilk powder to make my milk (with water.) Alanna, any thoughts?
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Hi Jill,
I'm very sorry to hear that this recipe is giving you trouble! I've made this recipe in muffin form and did not have that issue, and I've also tested it a dozen times in cornbread form.
It seems like the powdered buttermilk could be the culprit. I've never worked with powdered buttermilk, so I'm not sure what the consistency is like - is it thinner than fresh buttermilk?
In this Reddit thread the poster shared that powdered buttermilk lacks the thickness of fresh buttermilk, so I would guess that that could be the issue. I wonder if you could use less water added to the powdered buttermilk and add some more acid to the recipe, like a splash of vinegar? And perhaps decrease the butter by a few tablespoons too (maybe the powdered buttermilk has a higher fat content as well?)
In case it's helpful, I've found yogurt thinned with milk to be a good buttermilk sub. Please let me know if you try the recipe again!
xo,
Alanna
Trish says
This is wonderfully moist and easy to make. We usually eat it with honey or some type of jam, but this needed no embellishment. I made it as you wrote it, Alanna, except for using polenta in place the cornmeal as I had very little cornmeal in on hand. I ground the remaining amount of polenta in a coffee grinder and it worked well. I had leftover buttermilk from making your banana buttermilk cake and it made for a great week of baking! Love, love, love your recipes!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Aw thank you for trying my recipe and for the sweet feedback Trish, I really appreciate it! That's great to know that polenta ground in a coffee grinder can sub in for the cornmeal - brilliant! xoxox