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This gluten-free cornbread is made with honey and is super moist, perfectly sweet, and tender. It’s easy to throw together, and it goes amazingly with smoked meats, BBQ, fried chicken, and chili!
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
A Note from Cheryl
Y’all, here’s the deal. The Southern-style of cornbread is traditionally made with cornmeal, but the Northern version generally has wheat flour, so we’ve switched it to gluten-free flour. Cornbread can swing between sweet and cake-like to savory with a crumbly texture, typically served alongside chili, barbecue, or holiday meals. This sweet, gluten-free version keeps the classic flavor and texture you’d expect, I promise!
Why This Recipe is So Good
- The results of this gluten-free cornbread recipe are so tender and moist, and it’s incredibly delicious to eat with a pat of butter and more honey drizzled on top!
- It’s made with honey rather than sugar, so it’s a healthier option. If you want to be even more healthy, try it with my Perfectly Crispy Gluten Free Fried Chicken recipe, these tender Instant Pot Country Style Ribs, this yummy Pork Stew, and of course, my take on a classic—Whole30 Chili.
- It’s remarkably easy and quick to make, requiring just 30 minutes and a handful of pantry staples.
What You Need to Know Before You Start
- This is a tip I give for most gluten-free baked goods—the top of the cornbread should be deep golden brown before removing from the oven. Trust me here, you’ll need that extra baking time to avoid a gummy, doughy center that’ll ruin the whole experience.
- If you want a smoother cornbread, choose finely ground cornmeal. If you want cornbread with a bit of texture, choose a medium grind cornmeal. The grind makes a huge difference in your final texture, so choose based on what you’re craving!
- Let it cool completely before slicing to prevent crumbling. I know it’s hard not to dig in while it’s warm (and you can definitely grab corner pieces!), but patience here gives you clean, beautiful slices that hold together perfectly.
- When combining wet and dry ingredients, stop mixing your batter when everything’s just combined. Having lumps in your mixture means that it hasn’t been overmixed, as going too far can create dense, tough cornbread with weird air pockets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yep, most corn bread has gluten from the wheat flour that’s mixed with the cornmeal. Pure cornmeal is gluten-free, but traditional recipes combine it with regular all-purpose flour. To get that perfect gluten-free corn bread, you’ll want to use certified gluten-free cornmeal and a quality gluten-free flour blend instead.
You’ll want to look for that “certified gluten-free” label on your cornmeal – this is super important! I love Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Cornmeal, Arrowhead Mills Organic, and P.A.N. cornmeal. Definitely avoid Martha White, Quaker, and Albers since they’re made on shared equipment with wheat. Don’t take chances with cross-contamination!
If your gluten-free flour blend already has xanthan gum in it, you’re all set!. But if your flour doesn’t have it, you’ll need to add about 1/4 teaspoon per cup of flour – otherwise your cornbread will fall apart like nobody’s business.
Here’s the secret: make sure your flour blend has xanthan gum or guar gum (that’s your “glue”), let it cool completely before you even think about slicing, and don’t overmix the batter.
Absolutely! You can swap honey for maple syrup in equal amounts. The texture stays the same since they’re both liquid sweeteners, and you’ll just get that lovely maple flavor instead.
More Delicious Southern Recipes
- Southern Fried Apples
- Whole30 Southern Fried Chicken Salad
- Southern Instant Pot Collard Greens
- Shrimp and Grits
- Easy Cherry Cobbler
- Grilled Green Tomatoes
- BBQ Chicken Salad
- Savory Southern Cornbread Stuffing
Gluten Free Cornbread with Honey
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- ½ cup honey
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- Pinch salt
- ¾ cup milk or vegan milk
- 6 tbsp butter melted
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×9 inch baking pan.
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the butter and honey and stir well then add milk and eggs; stir to combine.
- Pour the batter into prepared baking pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of pan comes out clean. Let cool a few minutes then cut into 9 even squares. Serve with butter and more honey.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
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Thank you so much for this! We all agreed it’s even better than gluten cornbread! So soft and easy!
So glad it won everyone’s approval! Thanks for sharing, Sarah! 😊
Tastes amazing and I made it gluten and dairy free. Goes great with some homemade chili. Highly recommend.
So glad you enjoyed it! 😊
This is my FAVORITE cornbread recipe by far! 🧡 & my husband LOVES them too 😊 I had no idea that it would be so hard to find a GOOD cornbread recipe that doesn’t have any sugar in it! This one is perfect! 😊🧡🌽 (I use coconut milk to make this recipe dairy free 🥥)
We’re so glad you love this cornbread!! Thanks for sharing, Sarah! 🧡
Finally I have found a good cornbread recipe! Perfectly moist, perfect amount of sweetness and all with simple ingredients. Thank you!
Yay- so glad that you loved it! Thanks for sharing, Amanda. 😊
This is absolutely the BEST cornbread recipe! We made it to go with smoked brisket for Christmas, and we savored every bite of cornbread. We added about 1/4 cup of (pickled) chopped jalapeños, drained / patted dry, for a little zing to the cornbread. We’ve written down the recipe to add to our recipe box.
So happy to hear this, Barbara! What a fun addition! Thanks so much for the review!
Hi, I just wanted to say thank you for this recipe and I tried it out. It was good but I noticed that the pieces of the cornbread in the middle of pan were still raw and like wet and mushy whereas the corner pieces were cooked so I had to leave it in for like an extra 25 minutes and then it got at least cooked but it was burnt so I’m not really sure what I did wrong like I thought I followed the directions well so if you could help me with a tip that be great.
Hmmm. Were you using a 9×9 square baking dish? If your pan was smaller, that would’ve definitely had an effect on the bake time. If you run into that issue again, covering the dish with aluminum foil should help it bake more evenly!
Can you use this recipe to make corn bread sausage stuffing for Thanksgiving?
You absolutely can, Joan! One batch should do the trick – you want roughly 4 cups of cornbread crumbles.
Can you make this recipe in muffin cups?
Sure! Make sure you keep an eye on them and do the toothpick test earlier as they’ll most likely bake faster!
Thanks for the original recipe. I love to use honey. I have recently found it difficult to find cornmeal so I substitute masa. This resulted in a much dryer mixture, so I added an additional half cup of milk. The cornmeal I can get is a cornbread mix and so I see it as poison, even though I do not have a violent reaction to gluten as some do.
Glad you were able to adapt it to your needs and your specific ingredients, Roy. Thank you for sharing!
Great recipe! We are GF and DF so I subbed ghee for butter. Added some leftover corn off the cob from dinner last night – so yummy! Can’t wait to enjoy with our pulled pork!
YUM!! This recipe is a good one. Hope you enjoy it! ♥