Thanksgiving Series: Gluten Free Jalapeno Cornbread

So, it's that time of year again - Thanksgiving is going to be around the corner before we know it. This is going to be our first gluten-free Thanksgiving, so it's a pretty big deal. We've always had the usual, traditional trimmings in the past: turkey with stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cornbread, creamed white onions, applesauce, a selection of pies, and, at least personally, a longing to get back into my skinny Seven for All Mankind jeans for at least a week afterward.

Well, the good news is that a lot of this stuff is naturally gluten free - turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, sweet potatoes, gravy (we've always used cornstarch), and applesauce are all good. And since my hubby isn't a fan of the onions, or the pecan or pumpkin pies that leaves a short list of things to try to make gluten-free:

• stuffing
• cornbread
• apple pie

Now my original plan was to go apple picking, and make a gluten free apple pie with fresh granny smith apples - unfortunately due to the lovely Upstate NY weather that was postponed for a week or two. So, I did the next best thing and tried my hand at cornbread. I picked up a package of Arrowhead Mills organic yellow cornmeal, and found a recipe on the back of the package for a jalapeno cornbread (it's since been removed from their recipe page).

Here's the recipe, for your reference:

Ingredients

• 1 cup onion, finely chopped (I didn't measure but used 1 medium sweet onion)
  
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup unbleached white flour (I used the same amount of white rice flour with 1 tsp xanthan gum)
• 1 cup yellow corn meal
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (I used regular, iodized salt)
• 1 cup soy milk or milk substitute (I used skim milk - I wonder if that made a difference?)
• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil or butter (I used butter)
• 2 eggs or 1/2 cup liquid egg substitute (I used 3 eggs)
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 1/4 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated (I used extra sharp)
• 2-4 jalapeno peppers, chopped (I used a handful of canned jalapeno slices, certainly not as many as the recipe called for)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
   
2. Prepare an 8x8 pan with cooking spray
3. Sautee the onions in the 1 Tbsp oil until just limp, about 5 minutes, and set aside
4. Combine the dry ingredientsg
5. Seperately beat together the milk, eggs, oil/butter, and honey. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened
6. Stir in the onions, 1 cup cheese, and jalapenos
7. Pour into prepared pan, top with the remaining cheese
8. Bake 20-25 minutes or until top is crusty brown (it took about 20 minutes in my oven)
   

Now - the cornbread turned out tasty, but if I decided to make it again I think I'd make some changes:

• The dough came out very thick and the top of the cornbread was lumpy and unattractive. I think the dough needed more liquid or a couple Tbsp less flour
  
• I love spicy food and would prefer to use fresh jalapenos next time - however my hubby hates spicy food and probably wouldn't eat the cornbread!
  
• There wasn't enough cheese. I would probably put the entire 1 1/4 cup in the mixture, and top the dough with another 1/2 cup or so

Anyway, that's all for now - let's hope the weather's better for apple picking this weekend so I can try my hand at a pie!