This sweet, cake-like vegan cornbread is also gluten-free, dairy-free and 100% whole grain and doesn’t contain any specialty ingredients.
I’m thrilled to be working with Bob’s Red Mill today to bring you this gluten-free and vegan cornbread! After every trip to the US, I come back with my suitcases stuffed with their flour and even had my friend, Rose, send me another 20 pounds after I had run out of my stash.
I brought the cornmeal I used in this recipe back with me because I had started to notice that most of the German brands I had been buying weren’t 100% whole grain. It’s no different in the US so make sure your cornmeal says whole grain or stone ground. If it says steel-milled, some or all of the hull and germ has been removed and then you might as well be using all-purpose flour!
This healthier cornbread has what is, in my opinion, the perfect ratio of cornmeal to flour. I don’t like my cornbread too coarse-grained but I still want the corn taste. It’s moist, not at all dry, slightly dense (but in a great way!) and sweet. And there’s vanilla! This Southern girl is all about northern-style cake-like cornbread.
This vegan cornbread is great in bread form or as muffins. The only thing is that if you choose to make it as bread, you need to let it sit for 2-3 hours or it’ll be extremely difficult to cut and hold. It’s so fluffy when it comes out of the oven and due to the lack of gluten, it’s just hard to handle. The muffins can be eaten straight from the oven. If you want to make this for Thanksgiving, I recommend making it Wednesday night or Thursday morning so that it’s as fresh as possible.
I used this gluten-free medium ground cornmeal and though I haven’t tried it, I’m assuming it’d come out well with finely or coarsely ground cornmeal. I did try whole spelt in place of oat flour and the muffins sunk in the middle and didn’t taste nearly as good as the oat flour version. So stick with oat flour! I also tried store bought buttermilk in place of the homemade dairy-free buttermilk and that worked perfectly.
When I post a vegan recipe, it’s usually just coincidentally vegan, meaning that there aren’t any eggs involved and I used coconut oil instead of butter. Because I’ve gotten a few nice comments recently thanking me for posting vegan recipes, I thought I’d make more of an effort to make vegan recipes. So here we have some vegan cornbread!
If you’re vegan or making this for a vegan friend, you’ll need to skip the honey and butter I used to dress up my cornbread. Use maple syrup instead! Or just eat it plain like I do. :) And if you’re not vegan or gluten-free, make this anyway! It’s the best cornbread I’ve ever had and it really doesn’t taste like it’s been made healthier.
For another delicious cornbread dish perfect for Thanksgiving, try this Southern Cornbread Dressing! And for sugar-free, check out this Keto Cornbread.
Vegan Cornbread (gluten-free, dairy-free, whole grain)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 16 pieces of bread or 12 muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 ml) milk of choice, room temperature or warm (this is important so that the coconut oil doesn't harden once added)1
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup (75 g) coconut oil, melted2
- 1/2 cup (100 g) raw or granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup (88 g) medium grind gluten-free cornmeal (non-GF cornmeal works, too)
- 1 1/3 cup (123 g) oat flour (use certified gluten-free, if necessary)3
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Wet ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a muffin pan with 12 muffin liners or line an 8" x 8" pan with a piece of parchment paper.
- Pour the milk in a large mixing bowl, add the apple cider vinegar, and give it a few stirs. Let sit for 5 minutes while preparing the dry ingredients.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients. Set aside.
- To the milk mixture, add the melted coconut oil, sugar and vanilla and stir until well combined.
- Add the dry mixture and stir just until combined.
- Pour into the prepared pan. Bake muffins for 12 minutes and bread for 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter.
- Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. The bread can be eaten immediately but will be very difficult to cut – it's better to wait for 2-3 hours until it's firmed up just a little.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Notes
- You can use store bought buttermilk in place of the milk + vinegar mixture for a dairy-containing, non-vegan version. To make the homemade dairy-free / vegan buttermilk, you can use soy milk, almond milk, etc. but I don't recommend canned coconut milk. If you can have dairy, you can also use regular cow's milk.
- I used refined coconut oil, which has no coconut taste. If you use unrefined, these may have a slight to mild coconut taste.
- If you don't have oat flour, you can grind quick or rolled oats in a food processor or coffee grinder until it resembles flour.
I was compensated by Bob’s Red Mill for the development of this recipe but, as always, all opinions expressed in this post are my own.
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135 comments on “Vegan Cornbread (gluten-free)” — Add one!
3 comments are awaiting moderation!
Is this recipe really supposed to be made with 2.5 tsp of baking powder? I made it as the recipe says to, but they completely caved and all I can TASTE is baking soda! They’re inedible! :(
Please let me know if this was truly the ratio, or if I did something else wrong.
Thanks!
The recipe’s correct. The other reviewers (or at least most of them) seemed to love them so I’m thinking something must have gone wrong or you accidentally added too much or too little of something. Or did you make any subs or changes at all to the recipe? I’m sorry they didn’t come out well for you!
Yes I noticed no one else seemed to have any issues. This is actually the second time I have had an issue with the baking soda I added, I use non-aluminum specialty baking soda, so I wonder if that could be it?
The only change I made was I used goat milk…
Hmm, well thanks for your response, your recipes thus far have come out PERFECTLY, I guess I need to figure out my baking soda issues on my end. :)
I don’t think the aluminum-free thing is the issue (baking soda doesn’t actually contain baking soda – you can read more here). But maybe the goat milk is? I’ve never used it and have no idea if it’s in some way different. Good luck figuring out the baking soda issue! I’m happy to hear that you’ve had better luck with the other recipes. :)
I made these and they are incredible. Thanks for sharing. It’s such a nice balance of corn and oats. I did use finer grind from Bob’s Mills and really liked the texture.
I’ll have to try the finer grind and see how they compare! Thanks a bunch for your feedback. I’m so happy that they came out well for you!
I want to put whole corn kernels in as well, how do you think that would affect the recipe? Should I ad anything to compensate?
I’ve never actually tried that so I’m not sure. This recipe has always worked perfectly for me but a few others have had issues so I’d be afraid to add anything to it! If you rinse off the corn with paper towels, I’m pretty sure you’d be okay but I’m not positive.
I loved this recipe! I was skeptical at first as it doesn’t call for eggs, sour cream, or buttermilk like many other cornbread recipes, but man am I ever glad I tried this one out! I substituted coconut milk for regular milk and used Pamela’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour as a substitute for the oat flour. Everything held really well and despite doubling up on the coconut (milk and oil) it tasted delicious and just like cornbread. I had to bake it at least 8-10 more minutes than what the recipe calls for as it hadn’t fully cooked at 20 minutes but it didn’t come out dry. I even managed to get my boyfriend to love it (and he’s never liked cornbread). Definitely recommend.
Sorry I just now saw this! And wow. You pretty much just made a new recipe! I’m thrilled that it worked out well with your subs. I’ll have to try them because they sound great! Thanks a bunch for your feedback. :)
I have a grand daughter who can’t have eggs unless VERY well baked. My cornbread made with eggs always had to be way too done and consequently got dry . I tried this recipe and subbed some things as oil for coconut oil, and used unbleached white flour because the is what I had. The results were delicious and the kids loved the corn bread. Its moist and light and was a hit with everyone having dinner. This is a great recipe .
You used all-purpose flour in place of the oat flour? Interesting! Did you use the same amount? I’m so happy you and the kids liked them. :) Thanks for your feedback!
How is it vegan if you use milk…. just wondering
Milk of choice is listed in this recipe, meaning you can use whatever dairy-free milk you want. The footnote goes on to say, “You can use dairy milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc. but I don’t recommend canned coconut milk.”
mmm tasted real good
whats’ the nutrition profile…fat calories much sodium ?
I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for the nutritional profile, if you’d like. :) I’m happy you enjoyed them!
hi…did I miss some ingredient….followed the recipe and baked the appropriate amount of time but they didn’t stay together totally crumbled …didn’t look as good as your picture…but they did taste ok….but did throw out most of the batch….please let me know as they did look great…
It’s hard for me to say if you missed an ingredient. The recipe is correct, though! The commenters below you seemed to have success so maybe it was an ingredients issue or you forgot to add something (I do this all the time!). Did you make any subs or any changes at all? I’m sorry they didn’t come out well for you! They are really fragile when you take them out of the oven but they should firm up once they’ve cooled.
With any baked goods we must remember that not all recipes are universal, in other words whenever I pull a recipe off the internet I try to see where the person is from that published the recipe and where I am in relation to that… why you ask? Because, you see there needs to be made subtle changes to a recipe to account for higher or lower altitudes and varying degrees of humidity. If someone develops a recipe in a high humid area like Arkansas at a lower altitude and I try making the same recipe in a dryer environment and higher altitude like Utah, I am going to have to adjust the recipe….
Alas, it takes experimenting to make those adjustments… : )
That’s true! Does it have such a huge impact? I just think it’s weird that someone can call these the worst cornbread muffins ever and others say they’re amazing. I really think something must have gone wrong for the two people who said they’re crumbly. I’m quick to blame ingredients because I live in Berlin, though I’m from Texas, and it’s become very clear to me that ingredients aren’t the same everywhere. Thanks for your helpful comment! :)
These are delicious. My kids loved them! I would have liked them a bit less sweet but my kids totally disagree here. Thank you so much for sharing.
Haha. I’m on your kids’ side here. :D You could reduce the sugar by a little bit, if you want. ;) But not by too much or it’ll mess with the structure! Thanks for your comment. So happy that you enjoyed them!
This is day #1 as vegans for us and this cornbread is AMAZING. So fluffy and scrumptious! Thank you! Do you happen to have the nutritional info?
I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here and it’ll give you what you’re looking for. :) I’m so happy you enjoyed the cornbread! Thanks a ton for your feedback and good luck with going vegan (I say that in a sincere way – not sarcastically!)
I had to comment when I read your question of “What do you want to eat non-sweet cornbread for?” I have an answer for that. My family always loved the corny, buttery taste of cornbread made without any sweetener. Once could always add syrup to the top after it’s on your plate, but I would ask “Why?”. We added butter and sometimes more butter. You’d want that with soup or collards and black-eyes peas wouldn’t you?
I just came back from visiting some Southern states and had a lot of non-sweet cornbread. I guess it’s just not my thing! But like you said, you can always add some maple syrup or honey. I guess I have my sweet tooth to blame for the need for that. ;)
Awesome recipe! I just tried this today. I used almond milk and substituted brown rice flour as I had no oat flour on hand. The cornbread turned out absolutely perfect!
I’m so happy your subs worked out well and that you liked the muffins! Thanks a bunch for your feedback. :)
Do you know if it would work with quinoa flour brown rice flour or coconut flour?
I know it wouldn’t work with coconut flour, which isn’t interchangeable with and requires a ton more moisture than any other flour. I also don’t think quinoa flour or brown rice flour would work but I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. Sorry about that!
Hi! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’m excited to give it a try. Just wondering what the apple cider vinegar does.
:)
Hi there! It curdles the milk so that you have buttermilk. :) If you’re not dairy-free / vegan, you can use regular buttermilk in place of the milk + vinegar. I hope you’ll enjoy them!
Thank you!
No problem! Happy Thanksgiving. :)
Hi Erin,
I gave these a try the other day. The texture was kind of gritty/grainy – is that usual? I’ve never baked with cornmeal before. I used a fine-ground one because it was available in my local supermarket. I also used a gluten-free flour containing potato, rice, tapoica, buckwheat and corn. I’m just wondering what contributed to that particular texture.
Thank you! :)
Hi Sophie! Cornmeal can be kind of gritty / grainy but not if you use one that’s finely ground like you did. I’m pretty sure it was your gluten-free flour blend! Most rice flour recipes I’ve tried come out gritty. Oat flour is totally powdery and fine so when you make these muffins with that, they’re definitely not gritty. Oat flour isn’t interchangeable with really any other flours so I’m surprised that the muffins came out at all using a gluten-free flour mix. I definitely recommend trying with oat flour next time. :) Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi Erin,
Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, much appreciated! OK, I will have a think for next time.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too. :)
No problem. :) And thank you!
Excuse my comment it got cut in two. Have to make it so sweet. I can go along and taste it along the way. Can you tell me how the consistency of the batter should be? I can probably play with it as I go knowing that.
It’s quite thin, kind of like pancake batter. But pancake batters vary so much in their thinness so I don’t know if that’ll help very much! Sorry I can’t be more of a help here. I hope they’ll come out well. :)
Thank you so much for replying so quickly, I really appreciate it :) I’m also from Texas and love a sweet cornbread, but I guess I can play around and don’t necessairly
Hi love! Can’t wait to try this recipe, do you think I could use a liquid sweetener such as honey or maple syrup in place of dry sugar? Thank you Erin!
Hi there! The problem with that is that you’d have to reduce the milk but since I haven’t tried it, I don’t know by how much. And honey is sweeter than sugar so it sounds like you’d need to experiment a little. I did find this, which says, “In baking, replace 1 cup of white sugar with 3/4 cup of maple syrup and reduce by 3 tablespoons the other liquid content in the recipe for every cup of maple syrup used. Because maple syrup is brown and granulated sugar is white, this replacement will darken your baked goods and cause them to brown quicker.” So for 1/2 cup sugar, that’d be 6 tablespoons of maple syrup and you’d need to reduce the milk by 1.5 tablespoons. I don’t know if it’ll actually worked in this recipe, though! Good luck if you try it out. :)
I also live in Europe and measure with cups and grams / milliliters for every single recipe, so the measurements are correct (but I double-checked right now just to make sure!) The batter should indeed be extremely thin and when you take the muffins out of the oven, they’ll be very, very soft and even a little wet. They’ll also fall apart if you try to eat them immediately. I could definitely see how you were worried. Once the muffins cool, they firm up and are easier to handle. :) I’m happy that adding more flour worked for you! I guess it could have also been an ingredients issue, which is often an issue for me over here in Germany. What kind of cornmeal did you use? I used medium ground here and can imagine using a thicker ground one could cause a problem. I’m so happy that you enjoyed the muffins and thanks a bunch for your feedback!
In the top you say it is dairy free and yet there is milk in the ingredients. I can not eat dairy or gluten so I was excited about this recipe until I saw you have to add milk. Can you explain why you have described this cornbread as dairy free and yet there is milk in the ingredients?
thank you-
In the ingredients list, “milk of choice” is called for. That means you can use any milk you’d like, including soy milk, almond milk, or any other dairy-free milk. You mix it with vinegar to create dairy-free buttermilk. Hope that helps!
I used almond milk and when I added the vinegar the almond milk separated and it looked disgusting but I used it anyway and the muffins came out fine. The muffins were done according to the toothpick test but they weren’t browned at all.
That’s strange that it separated! But good to know that it worked out in the end. And you’re right – these muffins don’t brown at all. Still love ’em, though. ;) Thanks for your feedback!
I tried these and they were sooooo lovely and soft like cake! thank you so much for this! <3
Oh, yay! This is the first feedback I’ve gotten on this recipe so I was very happy to read your comment. Thanks so much and I’m happy you enjoyed them! :)
This cornbread recipe sounds great! Oat flour is such a versatile GF flour to use in baking. And the addition of vanilla? Wow. Ingenious!
I love how this recipe is a sweet cornbread – just like my mom’s recipe….I’ve forgotten, is sweet cornbread a Southern thing, and unsweetened cornbread more Northern? Being from Texas, I should know this – but I get this fact confused =)
Thanks, Mandie! And I didn’t know about the northern / southern thing until I started food blogging. I used to think that all cornbread was sweet, but it seems like only the northern type is. So this is definitely a northern variation, despite my Texan heritage. ;)
Huh. That is interesting. Both my parents are southerners, but I grew up on sweet cornbread. I can distinctly remember trying true southern cornbread for the first time when I was much younger. lol. What I was expecting and what I got were two completely different things. So I just mixed in the unsweetened cornbread with my bowl of soup. :-D
Thanks for clearing the northern vs southern cornbread dilemma.Now I won’t forget it.
Haha. I’m from Texas and also only ever knew the sweet kind. Dry, almost sugarless and crumbly is not my idea of yummy bread. ;)
Girl, you are a gluten-free master! These look absolutely amazing and I just adore Bob’s Red Mill products – thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Oh, hey! :D And thanks so much. :)
I love these! Bob’s has the best products.
Agreed! And such a big variety. :)
Perfect! Soup season is upon us and these are a great to go along with it!
~Liz@HoosierHomemade
I bet they would! I’m not much of a soup eater but I’d be happy with just these muffins. :)
Now this is some beautiful cornbread! I love your honey and butter topping…that’s one of my favs too! :)
Thanks, Faith! :)
Hello do you think I could omit the honey to have a not sweet cornmeal?
There’s no honey in the cornbread but regular sugar. I think if you omit the sugar, the texture may be affected. But I think you could only add half the sugar! That would probably work and it wouldn’t be very sweet at all.
I love cornbread. I add flour & a tiny bit of sugar to mine. Have you used Bob’s 1-to-1 GF flour?
I haven’t! Have you? I’d love to try it!
This looks so wonderful! Sweet cornbread is right up my alley. Can’t wait to try!
I hope you do get a chance to try them out! :)
I looooove cornbread, Erin. I can’t wait to give these a try!
I hope you’ll enjoy it, Kris! :)
For us celiac gals who can’t eat oats, even GF oats, do you think Bob’s Red Mill GF All-Purpose Flour would work in place of the oat flour?
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. I thought that this recipe would be pretty forgiving so I tried making it with whole spelt and they sunk in the middle. Maybe quinoa flour would work? It’s just a guess, though!
Oh, sweet cornbread, how do I love thee? These muffins look perfect! YUM.
Thanks, Sarah! :)
I love Bob’s Red Mill and these muffins look perfect!
Thanks a bunch, Miss! :)
This looks so great! I love love love cornbread and you version is amazing!
Thanks so much, Kim!
I would never have thought this was cornbread. I am a southern woman and I don’t like my cornbread sweet and not much flour at all. I used to just make it with without flour. To each its own taste. Glad we have choices. Ha!!!
Haha. It’s totally unrecognizable to you as cornbread? That’s so funny. :) Give me lots of flour, sugar and little cornmeal!
I love bobs red mill products! I use them all the time. I will have to try this!
Me too! I have a huge box of just BRM products that I bring over with me. :)
Who doesn’t love a good cornbread muffin ; )
Apparently Brandy (below) doesn’t. ;) Her and her southern-style cornbread. :D
Thank you, thank you! This cornbread looks so moist and just perfect! I love Bob’s Red Mill too. Their quality is the tops.
Thanks, Ginny! And I agree. Love Bob’s Red Mill! :)
I love finding true whole grain products for making–especially when they’re non-GMO. You’ve definitely got me craving corn muffins now!
Thanks so much, Kirsten! I was also happy to find out that Bob’s Red Mill’s stuff is all non-GMO. :)
I had no idea all of the Bob’s products were non-GMO! That’s great info; as though I needed another reason to love BRM.
Woohoo! I consider my job here done. ;)
Erin, these pics are KILLING ME. I’ve been in Spain for almost two weeks (eating nothing but fantastic food, of course — tough life…) but the simple, comforting and all-American spirit of these beauties has me SALIVATING. (Could also be that pat o’ buttah…) Definitely putting these on the list of things to get in my face ASAP when I get back! xo – Em
Haha. I love this comment. :D Thank you! I’m happy I haven’t lost my American spirit after 5 years abroad. ;) Have a great time in Spain and I hope you’ll like the muffins!
I love these in muffin form, perfectly portioned!
That didn’t stop me from eating half the batch in one day. Womp womp. :(
These seriously look like the perfect corn muffins! The texture is spot on!
Thanks, Stephanie!
Yep, this is exactly why I love Bob’s Red Mill products…non-GMO and whole grain. These muffins look fantastic!
Same here! And great prices, too. :)
I am going to share this with my GF friends
Thank you! I hope they’ll enjoy it. :)
I actually love the idea of these in muffin form – perfect for grabbing (and no waiting is always good). And I like my cornbread the same way you do, so I know I’d enjoy this recipe!
To be honest, I totally ate this straight from the pan but I used a spoon. I only said you have to wait so people didn’t complain about not being able to get a clean cut piece. ;)
These look completely scrumptious! My Mom is gluten-free, so perhaps I’ll surprise her with these!
That’d be a great surprise! I bet the rest of the family would enjoy them, too. :)
You northern girls and your sweet cornbread ;) I do love the addition of vanilla though. I bet this cornbread is super delicious! (Also, score for non-GMO cornmeal!)
What do you want to eat non-sweet cornbread for? :D Boooring. ;)
I’m doing a happy dance! These look wonderful. Pinned.
Thanks so much for the shares! :)
The perfect side dish to our Thanksgiving meal!
If there’s cornbread or dinner rolls at Thanksgiving, I rarely eat anything else. True fact. :D
Love these so much! Gorgeous photos!
Thanks so much, Liz! :)