Saturday, January 22, 2011

Gluten and Dairy Free Spiced Blue Corn Cornbread with Green Chiles

I have been having a rough time lately with my health.  I have been cooking and baking in a minimalistic fashion to get us fed and nourished, but not really playing in the kitchen like usual.  Today, I just had to bake something.  I needed something that I could put together with what I had on hand.  Since I had a pot of dry Lima beans with ham cooking away on the stove, cornbread seemed like a good option.  I found a recipe over at the Gluten-Free Goddess that looked like it would work for me then played with it just a little.  Karina's Skillet Cornbread Recipe with Green Chiles and Cinnamon seemed like a great fit for what I had available.  At first this may seem an odd combination of flavors but be bold and try it as it adds an earthiness to the cornbread which is delicious!





Gluten and Dairy Free Spiced Blue Cornbread with Green Chiles
(Below is Karina's recipe with my changes listed)

Dry ingredients:
1 cup stone ground gluten-free cornmeal (I used 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal and 1/2 cup blue cornmeal)
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour!)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon chili powder or cinnamon- or my fave: both  (I used a scant tsp chili powder and a scant 1/2 tsp cinnamon)
1/2 cup organic light brown sugar (I used regular light brown sugar)
Wet Ingredients:
1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 1/4 cup warm water (I used 3 medium eggs)
1/2 cup plus two tablespoons light olive oil, or grapeseed oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
1 cup very warm water
2 extra tablespoons water, if needed- the batter should be like cake batter, and not too thick (I needed the extra water)


Add:
1/2 cup chopped roasted green chiles- mild or spicy, as you prefer (I used a 4 ounce can of fire roasted diced Hatch Chiles)
A sprinkle of chili powder and cinnamon, for topping (I omitted this altogether)

Preheat the oven to 375 F.
In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients ensuring that there are no lumps of brown sugar.
In a small bowl combine the wet ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until the batter comes together.
Lightly incorporate the chiles and more water if your batter is too dry.
 Karina recommends using an oiled and preheated 10" cast iron skillet to bake this in.  However, I couldn't find mine easily and used a cold 8" square glass baking dish which I oiled instead.
Place the batter in your pan and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry and the edges are lightly browned.
Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Best served still warm.