Gluten Free Corn Bread

I love when the weather starts to get chilly here, it means I can finally start making soups, stews, chilli's, and abusing my poor crock pot.  All the things no one wants to think of eating in the summer with the warmer weather, particularly with the excess humidity we have here in NY.  One of our favorites here is a big pot of Chili, which I make different every time based on what we have in the house, or what I find on sale at the supermarket.  One huge suggestion I can offer for the chili, is to dump in a bottle of gluten free beer, you will be shocked at the depth of flavor this can add to the dish, I hardly go without it now.

Obviously when you have a great pot of Chili the one side dish you need without question is Cornbread!  Sometimes I make chili just so I have an excuse to make cornbread, I'm not sure why I couldn't just make a batch of cornbread and get my fix.  I suppose I should start making it when I make my BBQ pork shoulder in the slow cooker too, see, one more reason I need to make cornbread.

My husband and I agree this is our favorite cornbread recipe, moist, and perfectly airy, just right for soaking up honey, or cleaning the chili bowl to get those last bits of spicy goodness.

Gluten Free Corn Bread

1    Cup Yellow Corn Meal
1/4 Cup Soy Flour
1/4 Cup Tapioca Starch
1/2 Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1/2  tsp Xanthan Gum
1/4 Cup Sugar
3    tsp Baking Powder
1    tsp Salt

1/4 Cup Butter, melted
1    Cup Milk
1    Egg, beaten

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, stir in melted butter.  Mix egg and milk together and add to dry ingredients with only a few strokes (over mixing the batter will result in a tougher, flatter corn bread).  Bake in a greased 9x9x2 inch pan for 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees (F).

I usually stage it so the cornbread is coming out of the oven no more than 10 minutes before we sit down to eat so it's piping hot.  Tim eats his with butter and dips it into his chili, I personally like to soak mine with honey, oh and I always cut my piece just a little bit bigger than his, not enough so that he notices, but just a little, I'm pretty greedy about the corn bread around here.