Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

It's pumpkin season and I am busy adding pumpkin to some of my favourite recipes. I love this version of cornbread muffins. The pumpkin puree adds moisture and the spices create a warm, festive flavour. Enjoy slathered with butter and honey and along side stew, soup or chili.

Mini Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

We love them as mini muffins and I always make extra to freeze or take with leftovers for lunch. You can use the batter to make pumpkin cornbread pancakes too! (may need more milk)

makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

1/3 cup Sugar

1/3 cup Oil

1/2 cup Pumpkin (or squash) Puree (I use home made but store bought works)

1/3 cup milk 

2 Eggs

1/2 cup Cornmeal

1/2 cup Corn Flour (or use more cornmeal)

1 cup Rice Flour (or your favourite GF flour blend)

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

3/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice 

Directions

Mix together wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine.

Spread batter equally between 12 muffin tins lined with papers (or use mini muffin tins)

Bake at 350 for around 15 mins (more like 10 mins for mini muffins)

Serve warm with butter and honey or freeze for later once cool.

Not a pumpkin fan? Try my regular cornbread muffins!

Caramel Corn

caramel corn (gluten free)

As promised, here is my caramel corn recipe. It's nothing particularly special since caramel corn is naturally gluten free, but it's one of my favourites so I'm going to share it anyway. I tend to associate caramel corn with Christmas time, but it's a great treat any time of year. This Christmas I tied little bags of caramel corn to some homemade cards I gave to friends and family. Yes, I have too much time on my hands:) I probably ate half the caramel corn while making the cards... oops.

This recipe takes time, but it's really easy to make and fairly inexpensive too. Just be careful with the hot caramel, it burns like a mother. You can fancy up the corn by mixing in some peanuts or other nuts. Just add them to the corn when you pour in the caramel.

(makes about 24 cups of caramel corn)
Ingredients

24 cups popped corn (6 quarts)
1 cup Margarine (or butter)
2 cups Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Corn Syrup
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1-1 1/2 cups Nuts - optional

Directions

Pop corn and place in two large shallow pans (I use the lid and the base of a roaster). Remove any unpopped kernels.

pop corn

place in two pans

Mix margarine, sugar, salt and corn syrup in large pot.
Stir mixture occasionally until it boils.
Boil without stirring for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and add baking soda and vanilla.
Stir until mixture is fluffy.
Pour caramel over 2 pans of popped corn (add nuts here if desired) and stir until evenly mixed.
Bake at 250 for 1 hour. Stirring every 15 minutes until caramel has evenly coated the corn and starts to harden a bit.
Let cool, stirring occasionally so the corn stays separate.
Enjoy!

mix in large sauce pan

boil for 5 mins without stirring

add baking soda and vanilla and stir until fluffy

pour caramel over corn

stir caramel in to corn

bake at 250 for 1 hr, stirring every 15 mins

store in large airtight bucket or in bags

This stuff should keep for at least a month.

Cornbread Muffins

gluten free cornbread muffins

The only special ingredient needed in this recipe is rice flour (corn flour is optional). I always make a batch of these to go with a big pot of chili. They are easy to make and everyone loves them! Even gluten-eaters ask me for the recipe. Serve warm with butter and a little honey or jam if you like.

(makes 12 muffins)
Ingredients

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 corn flour (or substitute cornmeal for a slightly grittier texture)
1 cup white rice flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Mix together all dry ingredients.
Then add wet ingredients and mix all together, making sure eggs are well beaten.
Fill paper lined (or greased) muffin tins 1/2 to 2/3 full.
Bake at 350 F for around 15 minutes.

before baking

after baking

Variations
Filling - For special occasions my mom puts a dollop of cream cheese and raspberry jam (or any type) in the middle. Just put half the batter in each muffin cup, spoon a bit of the filling in the middle, and cover with remaining batter.
Feel free to add more or less sugar depending on your taste!

Cornbread pancakes - make pancakes with the batter - you may need to thin with more milk.

Tip: If you like to make these muffins fairly often, you can do a triple or quadruple recipe of the dry ingredients and store in an airtight container.  For 12 muffins, add 2 1/3 cups of the mix to the wet ingredients listed in the original recipe. For 6 muffins, use 1 heaping cup of the mix and cut the wet ingredients in half (1 egg, 1/6 cup oil (or 2 1/2-3 T), 1/4 cup milk). It helps to tape a piece of paper with the directions on to the container so you're not always searching for the recipe!
You can freeze the already made muffins, but I think they taste better fresh.