Cornbread Muffins

Fall is on the way, complete with the cooler weather that calls for warm, comforting meals like chili... Which reminds me, I need to post another of my favorite chili recipes...

But anyway, the natural companion for chili and other warm meals is of course... cornbread. Who doesn't love munching on that crumbly goodness, normally slathered in some butter and honey (often mixed together as "honey butter" in my house)?

Of course, when you are gluten-free and you have been used to making cornbread from mixes, you quickly realize that just because it has cornmeal as a main ingredient doesn't mean it is gluten-free. Not to worry... plain old brown rice flour is a pretty good substitute for wheat flour in pretty much any recipe. But as I learned last night, you can make superior cornbread if you use just a few extra ingredients (including some tapioca starch that I finally found and tried out!) to bump up the quality of the flour substitution.

I've made cornbread GF style many times, but this time was definitely the best. It didn't crumble and fall all to pieces when you tried to put butter on it. Heck, I think it held together even better than my old homemade cornbread with gluten normally did. Plus I made it in muffins, so it came in a convenient little package that I didn't even have to cut! Definitely doing that again in the future.

Recipe adapted from this one from Allrecipes.com.

CORNBREAD MUFFINS

Ingredients:

1 c. buttermilk*

½ c. butter
½ c. white sugar
2 eggs

1 c. cornmeal
1/3 c. brown rice flour
1/3 c. tapioca starch (corn or potato starch will work, but tapioca is finer)
1/3 c. sorghum flour
½ tsp. xanthan gum
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt

*Can be made using milk or milk substitute plus 1-2 tsp. of white vinegar or lemon juice. Let stand for 5 minutes before adding to batter.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease muffin tin (or 8-in square pan). If not using true buttermilk, prep using milk and vinegar or lemon juice (as described above).

2. Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Allow to cool a bit.

3. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. (Using a whisk is helpful.)

4. Whisk eggs into butter and sugar. Add this mixture and buttermilk to dry ingredients and mix well.

5. Pour into prepared tin (or pan). Bake for 20 minutes for muffins (or about 30-40 min. for bread, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). I recommend turning the tin or pan about halfway through if your oven cooks unevenly as mine does!

These are pretty tasty by themselves (especially while fresh and warm), but I couldn't resist adding butter and honey on mine. Mmm...!