Sometimes I feel bad for my husband. He married someone that wasn’t aware of her gluten allergy, and would bake up all kinds of fabulous doughy goodness for him. Fresh bread when he came home from work, homemade bagels on the weekend, etc. He was a little bit spoiled 
Then the diagnosis came, and all of that came screeching to a halt. With all of our initial forays into (store bought) gluten free breads being as awful as they were, breads just disappeared from our household. I’m shocked he doesn’t feel like he was bait-and-switched! While store bought gluten free breads leave a lot to be desired, I’ve been making great progress with developing gluten free versions of our favourites. (I’m sure that anyone who’s tried my Gluten free deep dish pizza would agree!). The other night, I created a recipe for gluten free hushpuppies, to indulge his love of all things corn…. and oh, were they ever fabulous! |
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As we did not have any regular cornmeal in the house, I had to choose between red cornmeal and blue cornmeal – red having a sweeter, delicate flavor, while blue has a more rustic, earthy, almost roasted flavor. We went with red, and the resulting hushpuppies were delicious – soft, pillowy, and full of flavor. Beyond the actual flavor being perfect, they lacked any of the telltale “gluten free” texture issues- they were light and airy, moist, and had no “gummy” to it at all. You could easily serve these to people who are not living gluten free, without anyone knowing the difference!
Enjoy!
Gluten Free Hushpuppies
1 cup red cornmeal
3/4 cup gluten free biscuit mix (I used Bisquick)
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4-1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic
1 finely chopped jalapeno (optional)
Heat oil to 350F. You can use a deep fryer, or a heavy pan. If not using a deep fryer, pour oil to at least 3″ deep.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, biscuit mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together 1 1/4 cup buttermilk, egg, and sour cream until well combined and smooth. Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring with a whisk until well incorporated. Once everything is blended, add onion, garlic, and jalapeno (if using). Allow batter to sit for 5 minutes.
Give batter a final stir. If it’s too thick to stir easily, add enough of the remaining buttermilk to get it a bit more wet and malleable – but not too soupy!
Using two teaspoons, scoop out approximately 1″ globs of dough, carefully dropping them into the hot oil. (Do NOT splash yourself!). Cook for about 5 minutes, flipping to brown on all sides. Cook a few at a time, being careful to not over crowd your fryer / pot.
As hushpuppy batches are cooked, use a (metal!) slotted spoon to transfer them from the oil, to a pan lined with paper towels.
Serve hot.
