Gluten-free Sourdough Cornbread

This quick, easy recipe for gluten-free Sourdough Cornbread uses gluten-free sourdough discard for fluffy, tasty cornbread that pairs well with any soup, BBQ, or Holiday feast.

Cornbread is almost like a warm, cozy hug (in food form).

There’s something nostalgic and comforting about it. A warm piece of cornbread fresh from the oven, with a little butter, and covered in honey… it just oozes comfort food to me.

Plus, it’s an easy side dish or carb to add to meals. I LOVE to make cornbread with soup in the Fall and Winter (especially chili!). It’s super fast, requires minimal ingredients (and nothing fancy), and my family loves it.

My daughter likes to eat it for breakfast too. Inspired by her Great Grandma, who ate cornbread with milk on top for breakfast (because cereal didn’t exist “back then!”). So leftovers are either used up the rest of the week for breakfast, or I freeze half of it for another meal later (it’s so nice a month or so later to pull out a bag of cornbread from the freezer on busy nights).

But, have you ever had gluten-free Sourdough Cornbread?

I’ve been on a gluten-free sourdough kick lately, which means I have a sourdough starter that I keep active and fed daily. I do this primarily because I’m constantly baking. I like to experiment in the kitchen and find creative ways to use up my sourdough discard.

Gluten-free Sourdough Cornbread is the perfect opportunity to use up sourdough discard. It’s easy to add to cornbread, and gives it a little extra tang. This way, we don’t waste any of our expensive gluten-free flour too!

If you love cornbread and have some sourdough discard, you’ve gotta give this recipe a try.

Let’s talk sourdough a bit, first.

Sourdough starter is made from flour and water that sits at room temperature and ferments, with the wild yeast and bacteria actively in the air. The yeast and bacteria need to be fed daily, to stay alive. This fermented starter can be used instead of yeast, to give your baked goods rise. It can also be used as an addition that adds a bit of flavorful tang.

New to the gluten-free sourdough world entirely? Bakerita has a great how-to guide to get you started. I was inspired by her during COVID to start my own sourdough starter.

As you build a sourdough starter that’s fed daily, eventually you remove some of it.

Either you use it to bake with. Or, your jar gets too full. The excess is referred to as “sourdough discard.”

Sourdough discard can be stored in the fridge and used up within a couple of weeks. Keep in mind, the longer it sits in the fridge the tangier the taste.

I tend to add to my container of sourdough discard a couple times a week (stored in my fridge), then use my sourdough discard however I like. One of my favorites is in Sourdough Discard Pancakes (I’m also a huge pancake fan, so having excess sourdough discard gives me an excuse to make more!). I’ll be sharing some more discard recipes soon, because I routinely add it to other recipes and have some favorites that I think are worth sharing!

The rest of this recipe is quite simple.

It’s made with basic ingredients, like: gluten-free all purpose flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, butter, milk, maple syrup, and eggs. It’s made in one bowl, and bakes up in about 20-25 minutes.

Because this recipe is made with a 100% hydration starter, you’ll need to make sure yours is roughly the same. If you feed yours a little extra water (higher hydration percentage, thinner starter), you may need a little extra flour in this recipe to compensate. If you feed yours extra flour (lower hydration percentage, thicker starter), then you may need a little extra milk to compensate.

My sourdough starter is made with brown rice flour. I feed it about 50/50 brown rice flour and water daily. This means its a 100% hydration starter, which just means it gets equal amounts of flour and water.

Cornbread is a pretty forgiving recipe, so don’t fret if you aren’t sure about your hydration levels. The texture of my sourdough starter is like a thick pancake batter.

BONUS: If you’d like to make this recipe with active sourdough, check out the notes in my recipe to see how. This way you can ferment your batter a bit, if you’d like.

If you have a sourdough starter and need some more recipes to add to your collection, this gluten-free Sourdough Discard Cornbread is a winner. Simple, fluffy, and an easy side dish… plus, you can always drown it in maple syrup if you’d like too!

Looking for other easy gluten-free side dishes? Check out my gluten-free Garlic Cheddar Drop Biscuits or Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread.