If you live in the North United States, this is called Cornbread Stuffing. In the South United States, this is called Cornbread Dressing. Whether it is called dressing or stuffing, it is delicious. It is a savory bread pudding where half of the bread is replaced with cornbread. It adds a nice texture and depth of flavor that most find very comforting, especially in the South United States where cornbread is served more often and associated with childhood memories.
Some people prefer to actually stuff their holiday turkey with this and cook it that way, while many others prefer a safer method of baking it in a pan in the oven. I have not yet practiced safely cooking stuffing inside a turkey, so I use the pan method. In my opinion, this is the most delicious savory dish on the holiday menu. Ladle with turkey gravy and it is exquisite.
A word of advice: make the cornbread and the rolls the day or night before if you can. Although, if you have a late evening holiday dinner, you could very well start this process in the morning, but it could still set you back significantly with timing. Because you are on a GFDF diet, you have to bake everything from scratch. While some of your counterparts are whipping up a box of Stovetop prepacked stuffing within minutes before serving dinner, or have ready made breads available to put this together, this will cost you extra time. The stuffing itself doesn’t take a lot of time and is pretty easy. But you need to make the bread and cornbread. So, here goes:
You will need a package of Bob’s Red Mill Pizza Crust Mix (or prepare your favorite GFDF dinner rolls). Prepare the rolls using the recipe on the back that says Cinnamon Rolls Recipe but omit the Filling part of the recipe. As such, here is what it looks like:
When proofing the yeast, I recommend pouring the warm water in the bowl first (water should be very warm to the touch but not hot, about 110 degreed Farenheit), then sprinkle the yeast on top. Preheat the oven as suggested, you’ll need the warmth from the oven when you set the rolls on the stovetop to rise before putting inside the oven to bake. Also, you will notice that the recipe calls for 3 1/4 cups of the mix. I measured thinking I would need additional flour from another package. Nope, the entire package fits the recipe.
During rising time, bring a small oven-safe saucepan of water to a boil. When you are ready to bake, put the pan of hot water in the oven with the rolls. The steam will help keep these moist as GF products have a tendency to come out dry.
This is what the finished rolls will look like. They are soft, tender and as one who can eat bread, I seriously cannot tell the difference between these rolls and regular rolls except for a slightly more dense texture. But still, if I had not known I just baked with a GF mix, I would not have known they were GF. When you pull them out of the oven, spread a bit of earth balance buttery spread on top for the golden appearance. Because…
little boy needs a delicious roll treat! Just look at this. And I didn’t intend for the spread to melt into a heart shape but the camera captured it. What a delightful treat for a kid that walks by the bakery section of the grocery store and must ignore it. Okay… the rest of the rolls need to be broken up and spread out on a cookie tray. Depending on when you make them, you can leave them out overnight to go stale or toast them for about 10-20 minutes in a 425 degree oven.
When you are finished, make the cornbread. Now, if I were consistently using Bob’s Red Mill mixes, I would probably start recommending a cornbread one here. However, I have found that the following recipe for cornbread is excellent. Sugar is the optional ingredient. For northern style sweet and softer cornbread (remember, sugar conditions some doughs), add the sugar. For southern style cornbread, omit the sugar. I have made this both with and without sugar – with success and with good reviews that one cannot tell that it is a GFDF cornbread.
CORNBREAD RECIPE
1 cup brown rice flour (superfine if you have it, if not regular brown rice flour is fine)
1/3 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp tapioca flour (also called tapioca starch)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup yellow cornmeal (Quaker or generic brand is quite fine)
1 Tbsp double-acting baking powder
1/4 cup granulated sugar (optional)
1 eggs
1/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening, melted
1 cup rice, almond or soy milk
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Grease an 8″ cake pan with some shortening. (You can use muffin or other types of pans if you prefer).
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated, then add the wet ingredients. (I like to whisk the egg in a little bowl before adding it).
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden around the edges, top feels dry and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the cornbread.
When you’ve enjoyed a slice, etc. Crumble the rest into a pan and let stale or toast.
CORNBREAD STUFFING
4 stalks celery, coarsely diced
1 med-large yellow onion, diced
32 oz chicken broth (or broth from your turkey cooking in the oven)
2 tsp ground sage
1 tsp thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Hopefully, you are already cooking your turkey at about 375 degrees Farenheit. If not, preheat the oven. In the meantime, saute the celery in a little oil until soft. Add the onions and saute until translucent. Add seasonings. In a large bowl, add the toasted bread crumbs, cornbread crumbs, the sauteed celery/onion mixture and pour broth into it. Stir until crumbs are thoroughly moistened. (Since eggs were already used to make the cornbread and yeast bread, I do not add additional eggs. This comes out with a firm cut-able texture on its own. However, you may want to add more eggs if you prefer a more dense custard-like texture.)
Bake for about 30-45 minutes until the top is golden brown, stuffing is firm and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Enjoy!
Safe Eats 