Old Fashioned Gluten Free Cornbread | the original best recipe

This easy gluten free cornbread recipe will give you the perfect balance of delicious sweetness and melt-in-your-mouth crumbly softness. It's the perfect side for nearly any meal, from soup to BBQ, and it's naturally gluten free if you use all cornmeal and no other flours.

Need your cornbread to be dairy free? Egg free? I can help with these too! Want to take your GF cornbread to go? Use my tasty recipe to make gluten free cornbread muffins that you can enjoy on the run.

What makes this recipe for gluten free cornbread special?

This recipe was one of the earliest gluten free recipes I shared on the blog, and it's become a staple in so many readers' homes. The recipe has always been simple, and still remarkably adaptable.

Many of you have written to me of the years, telling me that you made it with granulated sugar instead of honey, milk instead of buttermilk or yogurt, shortening or coconut oil (or even vegetable oil!) instead of butter. The recipe has turned out every single time.

It bakes very quickly, especially if you're making it in a cast iron pan, since that conducts heat very well. The sides and bottom of the cornbread also brown very nicely in the oven.

Is cornbread gluten free?

Corn itself does not have gluten in it, so it’s naturally gluten free. Cornmeal is made by simply grinding yellow corn into a coarse or fine grind.

For complete information on which grains and other ingredients are naturally gluten free, please check out my Ultimate Guide to the Basic Rules of a Gluten Free Diet. It’s a great way to begin a gluten free lifestyle on the right foot.

By this logic, making cornbread gluten free requires no extra thought, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. You first have to be careful about the cornmeal you buy to ensure that it isn’t contaminated with gluten-containing grains during manufacturing.

Bob’s Red Mill brand has a certified gluten free cornmeal variety, so if you buy that brand be sure to pick up the right package. Most cornbread is made from cornmeal and wheat flour, so it’s not actually gluten free.

The only flour in my original “old fashioned cornbread” recipe is coarsely ground yellow cornmeal. There's no wheat flour, so it’s naturally gluten free.

What's the best pan for making gluten free cornbread?

Cast iron skillet. Cake pan. Muffin tin.

These are all possibilities for making GF cornbread, but which is the best? I've made this easy gluten free cornbread recipe in nearly every container imaginable.

My favorite way by far is my cast iron skillet — I love my pan, and I find myself using it nearly every day. And as with many things, it does a superb job with this gluten free cornbread. I'm talking quick cook time, crunchy edges, and lovely color.

But if you don't have a cast iron pan, you have plenty of options. A round 9-inch cake pan works well too. The only difference I notice between my cast iron pan and cake pan is that bread doesn't get as crunchy around the edges when I use the cake pan. If you're not a fan of too much crunch, try a cake pan instead!

Believe it or not, I hadn’t tried this gluten free cornbread recipe in a standard 12-cup muffin tin — until recently. And no surprise, they turned out beautifully.

Making gluten free cornmeal muffins

To use this same recipe to make muffins, I lined the wells of the tin with greaseproof paper liners so the muffins didn’t stick, and distributed the batter evenly among the wells. In my muffin tin, the wells were nearly full of batter.

This isn’t a high-rising cornbread, so I wasn’t concerned that the gluten free corn muffins would overflow the pan. I made the variation with half coarsely ground yellow cornmeal and half corn flour, as discussed below.

The muffins rose evenly, and they baked perfectly at 350°F in 18 minutes. I was considering adding another egg, since the batter is looser than an ideal muffin batter, but I wanted to see if it worked as written. And it did!

Gluten free cornbread: all cornmeal recipe

This recipe has long been a staple of this blog for so many reasons, not the least of which are because it’s so incredibly simple—and strikingly adaptable.

The original gluten free cornbread recipe calls for 2 cups of coarsely ground yellow cornmeal as the only flour—without any added starches or more finely ground flours.

I call it “coarsely ground yellow cornmeal,” but that’s a bit redundant since cornmeal is simply corn that’s been dried and coarsely ground. All cornmeal is, by definition, coarsely ground.

Made this way, as the recipe was originally written, this classic cornbread recipe is moist and tender, but has a fair amount of “bite” from the cornmeal. The honey helps keep the cornbread tender and helps offset any bitterness from the cornmeal.

None of these variations contain cornstarch, which is a flavorless powder made from only the starch in the endosperm of the corn grain. You could probably replace a bit of the cornmeal with cornstarch and get a more tender cornbread, but I prefer the other variations listed in this recipe.

Gluten free cornbread: the cornmeal and corn flour recipe

Cornmeal is coarsely ground corn, and corn flour is finely ground corn. You can buy corn flour, but I generally take my coarsely ground yellow cornmeal and simply grind it again in a blender until it’s lighter.

I consider this variety, made with half coarsely ground yellow cornmeal and half corn flour, to be the best gluten free cornbread of all.

Replacing half of the coarsely ground cornmeal in this recipe with more finely ground corn flour makes for a less crumbly, more cohesive cornbread. It also has a smoother mouth feel, and tends to stay fresh another day longer when stored at room temperature, wrapped tightly.

Since I’ve started experimenting with changing up the flours in this recipe, this variation has become my favorite. I do sometimes buy corn flour if I’m placing an order for other things from nuts.com (where I buy gluten free corn flour), but more often grind my own.

U.K. terminology

To confuse things a bit, I’m afraid that these terms are used differently in the U.K.

In the UK, “corn flour” is actually what we call cornstarch in the U.S. (the starch only).

What you need to look for to make this gluten free cornbread is”coarsely ground cornmeal” (what we simply call “cornmeal” in the U.S.) and “finely ground cornmeal” (what we refer to as “corn flour”). You may also see the latter labeled as “maize flour” or “finely ground polenta”.

Gluten free cornbread: the cornmeal and all purpose gluten free flour blend recipe

I learned that this recipe could be made with half all purpose gluten free flour (I’ve only used Better Batter, but I’m sure any of my recommended blends would work) when I ran out of cornmeal after I had already prepared all the ingredients to make cornbread.

Since it was only for my family, and my husband will eat anything, especially if it’s warm when I serve it, I decided to try it with half all purpose gluten free flour. The recipe worked (although it took about another 5 minutes to bake fully)!

The all purpose gluten free flour version makes for a cornbread that has a much smaller crumb, and a lighter crumb color overall (although the top is just as yellow). The crust itself is also less crispy.

As you’d expect, it has little bite and is much less chewy than the other two versions. I would not recommend making the cornbread with a combination of all purpose gluten free flour and corn flour, though, as it would not have the right texture.

You’ll also notice that this gluten free cornbread tends to dome more in the center during baking. That’s likely because the combination of flours leads to less even baking, but of course, it doesn’t affect the flavor or texture any further.

How to serve gluten free cornbread

There are so many yummy ways to serve gluten free cornbread, whether you're serving the bread as an accompaniment to a meal or enjoying it on its own.

One of my favorite ways to snack on cornbread is to grab it when it's still hot from the oven and quickly top it with a bit of dairy-free butter. So decadent!

But when I'm craving a bit of sweetness, I drizzle my gluten free cornmeal muffins with extra honey. For a sweet and tangy twist, spread a little strawberry or raspberry jelly instead.

On those days when I need something extra sweet to end my day —hear me out — I warm my cornbread in the microwave for just a few seconds and then drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

When I'm serving my gluten free cornbread alongside soup, stew, gluten free chili, BBQ, and other meals, I generally offer my family and guests butter and honey, but I find they rarely use them. Instead, they top the cornbread with their meal or use it to soak up the last bits on their plate.

Using gluten free cornbread to make stuffing

If you couldn't already tell, I absolutely love this cornbread, both for its yummy taste and for how versatile it is.

When I need to make stuffing, I often turn to this recipe for a base, and make gluten free cornbread stuffing. It's a great alternative to classic gluten free stuffing, and is often easier to make.

After baking a pan of gluten free cornbread, I let it dry out for a couple of days. Then, I chop it up and add rosemary, thyme, sage, vegetable broth, and a few more ingredients.

Seriously, give it a try at Thanksgiving or the next time you're making chicken or turkey.

Storing gluten free cornbread

I'll be honest, my gluten free cornbread doesn't tend to last long around my house. But when I'm really craving it, I'll make a couple of batches so I can enjoy it throughout the week.

Thankfully, storing this delicious GF cornbread is super easy — just wait until it has cooled completely, and then store it in an air-tight container. I have a plastic container that fits a whole batch beautifully, but zip-top storage bags work great in a pinch too.

If you'll eat your cornbread within two or three days, leaving it outside at room temperature is fine. Any longer than that, I recommend storing it in the refrigerator.

Is this GF cornbread recipe suitable for freezing?

Yes, you can absolutely freeze this gluten free cornbread (or corn muffins, if you go that route).

I've found that if you make this recipe with at least some all purpose gluten free flour, your baked goods will stay fresh for a bit longer and freeze a bit better.

If you make a naturally gluten free variety of the cornbread, without any rice-based flour blend, you should eat it soon after baking, or quickly freeze it for later use. When you're ready to eat it, defrost briefly in the microwave, as even a warm oven will dry out the cornbread.

While you can freeze many non-gluten free cornbread batter recipes, I wouldn't recommend it with mine. It may taste largely the same in the end, but it won't rise as much so it will be quite dense.

Gluten free cornbread ingredients and substitutions

This is such a simple recipe, which often makes substitutions more difficult, but somehow this gluten free cornbread recipe is magic ✨ and can take all sorts of modifications (dairy free, egg free, etc) in stride.

Some following suggestions are from personal experience with this recipe, others are just well-educated guesses.

How to make gluten free dairy-free cornbread

I have successfully transformed this into a gluten free, dairy-free cornbread recipe by using Earth Balance buttery sticks in place of unsalted butter (just reduce the salt by half) and dairy-free plain yogurt in place of yogurt.

You can also try a mix of half plain dairy-free yogurt and half unsweetened almond milk as a buttermilk replacement. That’s your best bet.

How to make gluten free egg free cornbread

As always, whenever there is one egg in a recipe, I recommend trying it with one “chia egg” in its place (1 tablespoon ground chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel).

I haven’t tried this egg-free, though, so you’ll have to experiment, but I feel pretty confident that you’ll get good results.

Gluten free cornbread — without corn?

Well, this is a super tough one, to make gluten free cornbread without, well, corn. The only reason I think this might be even remotely possible is because I’ve seen some Paleo recipes floating around the Internet that use ground millet in place of cornmeal to make a corn-free “cornbread.”

Perhaps the all purpose gluten free flour variation, which contains only 1 cup of coarsely ground cornmeal, can be made with ground millet in place of the cornmeal.

But note that replacing the cornmeal entirely is a big risk, so only try it if you’re feeling adventuresome

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