Bangin' Cranberry Cornbread - November's Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger

Have you recovered from Thanksgiving yet? Cooked and baked out? Well, I certainly hope you've saved up some energy and some room for dessert because it is for you,  Gluten Free Clevelanders, that I send out this reminder... the NEOCSG's 8th annual Holiday Cookie Exchange is this Sunday - November 30th - at the Independence Public Library from 2 -4 pm. Bring 2 dozen cookies, a container, and a recipe to share. Imagine! A room full of cookies you can eat. Please go to their website for more information or RSVP send an email to clevelandceliac@yahoo.com. 

But, on to the food. 

From days of planning, shopping, and prep work to post a Thanksgiving food coma, I must admit I've been in a world-of-food overload. I made sweet dishes, I made savory dishes. I made side dishes and I made main courses. I even made a dessert (and what a dessert!), and, phew, to be honest I'm still a little warn out. So, too tired to tell you about my recipes - though garlic mashed sweet potatoes and pumpkin meringue pie are in your future, and sitting pretty in my fridge - I give you my contribution to this month's "Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger". 

Started and run by Sea over at Book of Yum, the Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger event encourages us gluten free bloggers to make a fellow bloggers' recipe and review it. This month's theme was Thanksgiving food. A lofty challenge that, making someone else's food for your holiday meal, so when I chose, I chose carefully. 

And I chose well. 

I'd been eyeing Maureen's Skillet Cornbread recipe since it appeared on her holdthegluten.net site earlier this month. Thing is, I Maureen's recipe scared me a little. I'd never used millet flour before. And. though I bought it months ago, my xanthum gum has remained strikingly untouched. Plus, I didn't have a cast iron skillet. Sure Maureen made it look easy, but would her delicious and moist cornbread turn out as good in my lowly glass pan? 

Feeling adventurous - after all, I was already throwing caution to the wind with my glass dish here -  I added cranberries to the mix for a seasonal twist. 

Home from college for the holiday, my brother never misses a chance to tease me about my gluten free food or to remind me how glad he is that he isn't a celiac. Brothers. Anyway, his days of making fun of gluten free eating are done - or at least momentarily curbed - because he had barely swallowed his bite of fresh-from-the-oven gluten free cornbread before declaring, "this cornbread is bangin'!"

Oh, bangin' it was. So much so, the entire pan disappeared in two days, and there are already plans for making a second batch tomorrow. Easy, delicious, and gluten free this cornbread is worth making even if you're a little baked-out. Thanks for the awesome recipe Maureen! 

Bangin' Cranberry Cornbread

with teeny-tiny adaptions made from Maureen's Skillet Cornbread

1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum
1/2 cup of millet flour
1/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 cup + 2 Tablespoon of cornmeal

1 cup of milk
1 egg
1/2 cup of reduced fat sour cream (I used Horizon's Organic)
1/4 cup of canola oil

2/3rds cup of cranberries 

Additional sugar for pan bottom (1 - 2 Tablespoons)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 8 or 9 inch glass dish with canola oil spray (or other GF cooking spray).  Mix all ingredients except cranberries into a batter. Fold cranberries into the mix. Sprinkle sugar into bottom of pan (enough to coat) before pouring in the batter. 

Bake 25 - 35 minutes, or until a knife stuck into the bread's center comes out clean and the top turns a golden brown. Due to the sour cream, the bread is a little wetter in the middle requiring the up to 35 minutes of baking. Be sure to check at 25 minutes to determine your additional baking time. 

(Note: this cornbread tastes amazing warm, but cold, the cranberries become more than a little tart. Also, if you use fresh cranberries, the juices will bleed a little and you may find purple spots in your cornbread. Be assured this is yummy cranberry juice goodness and not anything gross, like mold.)