gluten free cornbread muffins

i adore corn bread. with a bowl of chili, or on it's own smothered with butter and a drizzle of honey. yum. there's a cafe in my neighborhood - the sunlight cafe - that serves wonderful gluten free cornbread. however, their cornbread is made into a loaf and cut into slices, which in my opinion is way less fun that getting to eat a cornbread muffin. they would not share their recipe with me though, so i've been testing a few different gluten free corn bread recipes over the past few months... and here is the results! i've played around with different flours and ratios - this recipe is very adaptable to ingredients you have on hand, but here are my preferences. i'm sure you could use any gluten free baking flour mix, but i especially like the combination of flours here with a bit of buckwheat - it gives the cornbread a lovely brown speckle and nuttiness. i use fine cornmeal, rather than coarse polenta - but you could experiment with a mixture of the two if you enjoy a coarser cornbread. enjoy!

1/3 cup brown rice flour

1/3 cup soy flour

2 tablespoons buckwheat flour

3 tablespoons tapioca flour/starch

*(or use 1 cup of your own gluten free flour mix)

1 cup cornmeal

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 large egg

1 cup milk, milk substitute or buttermilk

2 heaping tablespoons of honey or brown sugar

1 cup frozen sweet corn, thawed and drained (optional)

heat oven to 375 degrees. sift all dry ingredients together. add butter, egg, milk and honey and mix until just combined into batter (does not have to be perfectly smooth - small clumps are ok!) finally, fold in the corn kernels. pour batter into muffin pan lined with cupcake wrappers... about 1/4 cup batter per muffin. bake for 15-20 minutes.

you could also pour this batter into a 9x9 baking pan, lined with parchment paper or buttered. bake cornbread a few extra minutes (25 total or so) until golden brown around the edges.

thai peanut sauce

i wouldn't be surprised to find out that seattle has an equal number of thai food restaurants as we do starbucks. there is never a lack of thai food. luckily, i happen to enjoy thai food. a lot. one of my favorite thai flavors is the peanut sauce. my dad used to make a home made version that was slightly more complicated and involved a stove top... but the version i've created is fairly simple and tastes great at room temp on raw vegetables or thrown into a hot stir fry.

1 cubic inch fresh ginger, finely grated

1 or 2 cloves raw garlic, chopped

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

4 tablespoons tamari

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1/8 teaspoon dried chillies

1 teaspoon brown rice syrup or 1/4 cup coconut milk

notes: if you prefer a warm sauce over steamed vegetables or rice, try adding a quarter cup of coconut milk to your sauce and heating all ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat. if you prefer a thicker sauce for raw vegetables or to add into a stir fry, use brown rice syrup to slightly sweeten the sauce without adding too much liquid.

combine all ingredients in a food processor until combined to serve at room temperature or to add to stir fry. if making a warm sauce, combine ingredients in a sauce pan and cook at a low temp, stirring frequently. add additional coconut milk or water until you reach a desired consistency.

i love the sauce served with a mixture of raw and cooked vegetables and rice. this particular meal had red rice, cooked mushrooms and carrots with raw green bell peppers and avocado, served with sesame marinated bakes tofu.