The fresh dill from the farmers’ market spiced the chicken salad I’d made with sour cream and onions. But there was so much remaining dill that I decided to incorporate it in a cornbread, something I’d never tried before.
 
This cornbread is airy but does not rise much. It is reminiscent of a “corn toastie,” something I loved as a child.
 
Light Cornbread with Fresh Dill
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup millet flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cups almond milk (or milk)
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup fresh dill sprigs, snipped (kitchen scissors makes this an easy task)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease a 9” x 13” pan.

Whisk dry ingredients. Add sour cream, almond milk, egg, and oil, mixing with a whisk or fork just until moistened. Fold in fresh dill.

Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown (convection oven: 425 degrees for about 13-14 minutes). Yield: 10-12 portions. Refrigerate or freeze uneaten portions. Freezes well.
 
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Thankfully, the dill was subtle rather than overpowering. This cornbread has been a great complement both to a soup and to a dinner salad. Of course, you can make this recipe without the dill. Or, try adding other fresh items, such as peppers or corn. But be sure to refrigerate if adding fresh veggies. 

I did it! I’ve created a gluten-free bread with the taste and overall texture of wheat bread...a quest that has taken me over five years to complete.

If you’ve read the “About Gluten-free and Grateful” section, you’ll know that I stopped eating bread altogether when I found that the store-bought gluten-free bread had a warning to stand by your toaster as “it might incinerate.” The taste was equally dismal.

Then, I bought a wonderful Zojirushi® bread machine*, found a great book, and was reasonably happy until I found that homemade gluten-free breads typically contain two eggs plus two egg whites; and that is more egg than I can tolerate, especially when I want to enjoy my fresh bread for several days in a row. 

A few months ago, I was excited to try a recipe similar to the one below, thrilled that it had no eggs. Unfortunately, it had little loft, wasn’t sweet enough nor salty enough. It needed a little work. Fortunately, that wasn’t too hard. I did have to add an egg—but only one.

I guess I’ve come a long way, because in the past, making up something like bread would have seemed too difficult. And though I love my gluten-free cookbook for the bread machine, the writers strictly caution not to change anything. When I first baked bread in the machine, I was literally fearful of making a mistake. It didn’t help that I’d never used a bread machine before, preferring my wheat bread to be made the old-fashioned way.

The crust on this loaf is excellent, and the inside is soft without being chewy. It has lovely air pockets and a taste enhanced by the sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potato Sandwich Bread
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup lukewarm water plus 1/2 cup cream (OR, 1 and 1/2 cups of lukewarm milk or milk substitute)
3/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potato 
1 and 3/4 cups sorghum flour
3/4 cup millet flour
1 cup arrowroot starch
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 and 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast OR 1 yeast packet

Blend egg, oil, water, cream, and sweet potatoes and place in a bread machine. Turn on for “wheat dough” cycle (1 hour and 50 minutes). In a medium bowl, mix sorghum flour, millet flour, arrowroot starch, sugar, xanthan gum, salt, and yeast. When the machine begins to churn (22 minutes into the cycle on my machine), quickly add flour mixture until all is incorporated; use a rubber or silicon spatula. 

When cycle finishes, bake for 60 minutes. Test with an instant-read thermometer; gluten-free bread should reach at least 200 degrees when done.

Remove from loaf pan and place on cooling rack. When cool, slice; freeze uneaten slices within two days. Yield: 1 loaf.

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To make it easier to bake this bread on demand, I suggest freezing the 3/4-cup of mashed sweet potato the next time you bake sweet potatoes for dinner. That’s what I did; just thaw before using.

I’m not sure this loaf will make it to my freezer. I’ve already eaten three pieces—the thinnest slice from the end...so tasty! And two slices with my dinner of homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup. I see toast in my future.

 *Note: No compensation was made for the use of this brand name.

If you ask me my favorite color, I’ll tell you that I don’t have one. I love the entire spectrum. It’s almost the same with food. But before I ate gluten-free, my favorite food was definitely homemade bread with butter—it didn’t matter whether it was a healthy whole wheat or a loaf of cinnamon raisin, a French bread or a challah. In fact, whenever I’d bake bread (maybe once a month), our family ritual was to cut off a piece as soon as it wouldn’t burn my hand, slather it with butter, and share portions of that slice with everyone in the house.

After eating gluten-free for over four years, I believe that the bread of my past is the hardest food to replicate gluten-free. You can’t knead bread dough that has no gluten. Instead, it is the consistency of cake batter. Therefore, it requires a bread machine. And oh, I swore I would never use one of those. Why would anyone want to put ingredients into a machine and miss out on the wonderful kneading and shaping that is (or was) an integral part of the bread-making experience?

But after trying the gluten-free store-bought varieties of bread that tasted like cardboard and had warnings about how I must stand near my toaster as they might incinerate, I had to do something. The first thing I did was to omit bread from my diet—not muffins or scones, but bread. It became easier to do over time. No longer was a slice of bread or a bagel needed to accompany my salad. And if I really wanted something like bread, there was always cornbread or biscuits. Sandwiches became a thing of the past. Who really needed them anyway? My corned beef could be spread with hot mustard and wrapped around Swiss cheese. I could eat pancakes instead of French toast.

I tried baking “breads” that were sorry substitutes for wheat bread; they barely rose, and their texture was wrong, not the soft, springy bread that I craved. And then I bought a book that literally changed my bread-baking life: 125 Best Gluten-free Bread Machine Recipes, by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. And that meant I needed a bread machine that could tackle the somewhat more tricky business of baking a gluten-free product. After much research, I decided on a Zojirushi, and I have been thrilled with the way this product performs.

Best Gluten-free Sandwich Bread
(Note: This recipe requires a bread machine; to avoid contamination, use a new and dedicated gluten-free machine.)

1 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup amaranth flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup arrowroot starch or tapioca starch
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
3/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 and 1/4 cups water, warm (about 110 degrees)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
2 eggs, lightly beaten  
2 egg whites, lightly beaten    

Whisk together sorghum flour, cornmeal, amaranth flour, quinoa flour, arrowroot starch, brown sugar, xanthan gum, yeast, and salt. Set aside.

Pour warm (not hot) water, oil, cider vinegar, egg whites, and whole eggs into bread machine, and turn on for “wheat dough” or “dough” cycle. (This is a one-hour and 50-minute cycle on my machine.) In about 22 minutes, when machine starts mixing, add dry ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to ensure all parts get wet; work quickly and then lower lid. 

When cycle finishes (approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes later), turn on bake cycle for 1 hour. (For my machine, I had to create a one-hour custom bake cycle.) After baking, check with an instant read thermometer to be sure that bread center has reached 200 degrees. If not, continue baking or close lid to continue cooking. Allow to cool a few minutes in the pan; run rubber spatula along sides, and turn out to continue cooling. Yield: 1 standard-sized loaf.

Bread freezes well if cut when cool into slices, frozen in an airtight container. It works well for everything from a sandwich to French toast or regular toast and jam.
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When this loaf finished baking, I quickly sliced the heel and spread it liberally with butter. The texture was perfect. I enjoyed my gluten-free bread perhaps even more than I did my wheat bread. After all, I’d waited years for a good loaf of bread, so I appreciated every morsel.

It’s sleeting as I write--the perfect day to bake! I decided to that my leftover hotdogs and beans would taste great with a pan of cornbread. 

I’ve always loved cornbread. Actually, my love of cornbread began with corn toasties, round flat cornbread that you could put in a toaster and eat slathered in butter. (I think my memory deceives me as we only used margarine during my childhood, but the memories are good no matter what.)

Cornbread can be dry, moist, light, dense, mainly cornmeal, or mixed with flour. It’s true that I’ve never met a cornbread I didn’t like. When I first found out I needed to eat gluten-free, one of the first things I baked was a cornbread, substituting millet for wheat flour and making some other adjustments.

This cornbread is flat and airy inside, and it develops a lovely brown crust, just like corn toasties. It is perfect with a bowl of chili or to accompany soup. If you’re like me, it will also be enjoyed for breakfast, with butter (yes, the real thing in my household) along with apple butter or orange marmalade. This bread freezes well and can be easily warmed in your toaster oven five minutes or so before eating.

Light Cornbread

1 cup white or yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup millet flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup sour cream
1 and 1/2 cups almond milk (or milk)
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease a 9” x 13” pan.

Whisk dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients, mixing with whisk or fork just until moistened.

Bake in a greased 9” x 13” greased pan, about 20 minutes, or until golden brown (convection oven: about 14 minutes). Yield: 8-12 portions. Freezes well. (Do not thaw; just heat at 325 to 350 degrees for several minute.)

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The texture of this cornbread is unlike the typical more dense variety. Bake a pan for yourself and enjoy the taste of something new. Or maybe it will remind you of the toaster corn muffins of your youth.