My cornbread making skills have been evolving since Jimmi and I got married 5 1/2 years ago.
When I first started making cornbread, I made the Jiffy kind. You know, the kind that came in the blue box and cost 65 cents? That was a lifesaver in the first years of marriage because it was cheap and easy to make.
When I started being more frugal and started cooking from scratch three years ago, I left Jiffy behind and started buying cornmeal and making my cornbread from scratch. It took a little bit more time, after all who realized you put flour in cornbread? But it was well worth it.
A few months ago, when we went gluten-free, I didn’t make cornbread. I was just learning about this gluten-free cooking and I was trying to figure out how to go about making gluten-free cornbread.
When our family went camping in June, we had beans and cornbread for dinner. I took the cornbread recipe on my cornmeal bag and used gluten-free flour and some xanthan gum instead of using regular flour. I even cooked it in a cast-iron skillet on the fire. It was good. It tasted different because it was made over the fire and a little bit more cornmeal tasting and crumbly. It wasn’t quite the cornbread I remember.
Two weeks ago I found Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Cornbread mix at Kroger (FYI: Kroger has a TON of Gluten-free/organic stuff…everything else is still expensive though). I paid about $4 for the bag. I’ve learned to ignore the GF prices because I’ve learned in comparison it costs about the same in the long run.
I got ready to make it and was a little put off because you have to use the entire bag for one meal. My first thought was that it was too expensive to use the entire thing on one meal. Then I realized that I only had to add two eggs and some oil. I didn’t have to worry about using my GF flour or my xanthan gum which would use some of my other resources. This bag was an all-in-one deal.
It was thicker than regular cornbread mix, but making cornbread muffins it didn’t take too long to bake. I always add a little extra sugar (or honey) to make my cornbread sweet. The results were amazing. This cornbread was so moist and sweet and delicious. I honestly liked that cornbread better than any other cornbread I’ve ever eaten!
Sometimes, buying the bag works out better than trying to do it from scratch when it comes to cost. My verdict is this brand of cornbread is AMAZING! I’ll definitely buy it again.
Related articles
- How to Make and Use Gluten Free Cornbread Stuffing (glutenfree.answers.com)
The Mom Odyssey 