GF Cornbread In the End Times

Judging the articles received for last month's contest was difficult, but ultimately, we had to select a winner.  Congratulations to Hiwall for his "Flour from Mesquite" article.  Round 2 begins today with another article from Hiwall. 

Cooking in general after everything all falls apart is going to have many issues.  And if you need to bake all Gluten–Free for some family members it will be much worse.  Sure you can stock up now on GF all-purpose flour but is that sustainable when there are no open grocery stores?  Many years ago rural folks had flour and cornmeal and got by just fine.  But now many people cannot eat regular flour.  But there is still the cornmeal which you can even grind yourself from readily available corn.

Currently most cornbread recipes call for mostly wheat flour mixed with some cornmeal.  But can you use just all cornmeal?  Why yes you can!  Or you can use cornmeal and oatmeal and still be gluten free.

I am not much of a baker but I do rather enjoy experimenting and trying to make my own recipes.  This started when I could no longer eat wheat-based products.  I bought many different gluten free flours and tried them.  Some were great and some not so much.  A couple traits they all had in common were the fact that they were expensive and often not available in local stores.

Then I decided to try cornmeal as a base because it is relatively cheap (still often under a buck a pound) and naturally gluten free.  I started with the most simple cornbread recipe I found for an 8x8 pan.

 2 cups cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon  salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

4 tablespoons butter or olive oil

1 1/2 cups milk

5 tablespoons sugar (optional)

Cinnamon and vanilla extract to taste if desired

Mix, let set for a half hour + then bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes or so.

Of course I only made that once.  Then I started changing things.  I thought it was too dry.  I added some oatmeal to the recipe which seemed to help a little.  Then I added some instant vanilla pudding to make it more moist which helped also.  Then it was too plain so I threw in a handful of fresh blue berries.  Then I tried many other dried or fresh fruits.  The fresh fruit added moisture and taste to the finished product.  Then I quit using milk and switched to water.  Then I wondered if I needed the baking soda and the baking powder so I left them out.  That stopped the cornbread from rising so much and made it denser which I rather liked.

Then I wondered what it would be like covered with half a can of pie filling (the cherry pie filling is my current favorite) instead of having the fruit mixed in.  While that was mighty tasty I then wondered about Jello.  I added Jello to the mix and baked it but I thought the result was poor.  So I made a simple plain cornbread and after baking and cooling I mixed up a batch of Jello using about three-quarters or less of the suggested water and after jabbing some holes in the cornbread with the spoon handle I dumped on the mixed Jello liquid.  After setting in the fridge about half the Jello somehow ended up on the bottom of the cornbread and half on the top.  I thought it was a success by adding flavor and keeping it moist.

In all my experimentation I was trying to keep it to using mainly storage foods.  Oh, I have eaten stored cornmeal that was 5 years+ old and it was just fine (stored in a simple sealed container).  

What I am saying is that this article is not really about cornbread at all but instead about changes needed if times get hard.  After times get rough the cooks will have to use whatever they have available for ingredients which likely will be very limited.  You will likely find you are missing one of more ingredient.  It will often require experimentation and creativity.  It might be a good idea to do some experimenting now when if you make a flub your family will still have other things to eat.  Just like the author of this blog constantly changes recipes she finds to match what she has on hand. 

In my continuing cornbread experiments (along with many other cooking experiments) I have always eaten everything I baked.  Some certainly tasted better than others.  When times get rough picky eaters will soon change their habits.  Cooks will have to be ready to change too as their supplies change.