Gluten Free Cornbread

This will be in Becky Holm's Douglas County News.  Cornbread is an easy gluten free bread because it is generally somewhat coarse anyway, and so there is no reason to add tapioca, which makes a smoother texture but tends to create a gummy tooth, or xantham gum, which is expensive.  I include a little background on food intolerances because this is written for the general public.

Good Food Cheap #14

Baking Gluten Free
By Larisa Sparrowhawk

Food intolerances are an often-unrecognized source of symptoms including fatigue, seizures, rashes, acne, hives, stomach aches, diarrhea, flatulence, headaches, mood swings, sugar rushes and crashes, unexplained over or underweight, and tingling extremities.

Gluten intolerance symptoms come and go with ingestion of or abstinence from offending foods containing wheat, rye, barley, spelt, triticale and kamut. Most medical science says it is genetic but a few studies suggest a bacteriological origin. It appears to me that when an adult with gluten intolerance goes untreated, the illness worsens to become celiac disease in the following generation.

Rather than an annoying food intolerance, celiac disease is an autoimmune disease in which even tiny amounts of gluten in beer, soy sauce and salad dressing will trigger an immune response and damage intestinal villi. People with untreated celiac disease are often malnourished and more susceptible to other food intolerances, intestinal cancer, lymphoma and autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis, thyroid disease and diabetes.

Gluten free grains and flours include: amaranth, arrowroot, bean, buckwheat, corn, flax, millet, montina, potato, quinoa, rice, sago, soy (a goitrogen to be used with caution), tapioca and teff. Most people can also include oats in their diets.

Gluten-free cornbread: Preheat oven to 350. Combine 1 cup rice flour, 1 cup corn meal, 2 ½ tsp.baking powder and ½ tsp. salt. Set aside. Mix 1 cup milk or non-dairy milk, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp. honey and 1/4 cup melted butter together. Combine the wet and dry mixtures quickly. Add 3/4 cup frozen corn kernels. Bake in 8x8 inch pan for 20-25 minutes. You may stir in grated cheese, onion flakes and chopped bell peppers. For better digestion, you may also soak the flours in the milk in the refrigerator overnight and then add the remaining ingredients.

Next week: more gluten free breads!

Larisa Sparrowhawk is owner of Localvore Fresh Oregon Foods, 115 E. Central Ave in Sutherlin 459-1259