Easy Gluten Free Cornmeal Spoonbread

This easy gluten free cornmeal spoonbread casserole is light, fluffy, and creamy, with the slightest crust all around. Perfect for a holiday, or any day.

It’s all about the side dishes

The holiday season is all about the food that we share with our nearest, dearest and sometimes most crazy-making friends and family. We each have our private ideas about what the gathering should look like, feel, and (of course) taste like, and sometimes we’re not sure how we’ll survive at all.

Somehow, everyone and everything will be just fine. The meal will turn out wonderful, and the side dishes will carry the day, as per usual. This recipe for incredibly moist gluten free cornmeal spoonbread, with the right balance of creamy and fluffy and only the slightest crust on the edges, should be at the top of your list.

Make-ahead options for this spoonbread

I try not to save this casserole dish for serving only in the holiday season, especially since it’s extra special with fresh summer corn. But inevitably, I don’t tend to think about it until the weather starts to turn cooler in the fall.

This spoonbread is well worth space in the oven on the big day, but that’s not always possible. Luckily, you can make it ahead of time.

Just store it at room temperature for at least an hour or let it cool completely and refrigerate it (covered) for up to 2 days. I recommend letting it sit at room temperature first, then reheating it in right before serving in the microwave. Putting it back in the oven may dry it out.

Homemade creamed corn

The creamed corn recipe is essential since I’ve never been able to find a ready-made gluten free creamed corn. Not only can that element of the recipe be made ahead of time, but it should be, since it needs to cool to at least room temperature before including it in the spoonbread mixture.

The original recipe for creamed corn makes about 30% more than the recipe included here. Feel free to make the entire original recipe and enjoy the leftovers on their own.

Corn muffin mix

When I originally published this recipe, I built it off our recipe for gluten free Jiffy-style corn muffin mix. I used one-half of that muffin mix recipe in place of the gluten free flour blend, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, and 2 tablespoons of the butter in the spoonbread ingredients list below.

If you’d like to help this recipe come together more quickly without making the entire soufflé ahead of time, try making the corn muffin mix as far ahead of time as you like, and storing in the pantry. You can either make a half-recipe of the muffin mix just for use here, or make a whole recipe and then some corn muffins with the rest.

Of course, you could also make the entire corn muffin mix, double all of the other ingredients (including the creamed corn), and make two spoonbreads. Even if you’re having a small gathering, you can’t beat the leftovers!

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy-free: To make this recipe dairy-free, you’ll need to replace the butter in the creamed corn and in the spoonbread, and the sour cream in the spoonbread. I think it can all be done, though! 

The butter in both the creamed corn and the spoonbread should be able to be replaced with Melt brand vegan butter or even Earth Balance buttery sticks. The sour cream can be replaced with nondairy Greek-style plain yogurt. If you can’t find that in nondairy form, just strain plain nondairy yogurt of moisture until it’s the consistency of Greek yogurt or sour cream.

Egg-free: I’m afraid that you can’t make this dish without eggs entirely. There are 3 eggs, and this recipe is essentially for a soufflé, which relies heavily upon those eggs for height and texture. 

Gum-free gluten free flour blend for the creamed corn: In place of the gum-free gluten free flour blend that is called for in the cream corn recipe, which is made of superfine white rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch/flour, you can use arrowroot or superfine sweet white rice flour.