Traditional cornbread recipe made with soaked flour and meal. This Southern treat is gluten-free, easy to digest, and delicious for breakfast or a side dish with dinner. 
Corn has a bad rap these days. Truth be told, however, it is a healthy food when nonGMO cornmeal is soaked in limewater before cooking or baking.
This careful preparation makes corn much more digestible. In particular, it liberates Vitamin B3 (niacin). This is very important if corn is a staple in the diet, as it prevents the serious disease known as pellagra.
In my home state of Florida, Native Americans traditionally consumed soaked cornmeal that was slow-cooked for several hours into a soup called sofkey.
Applying this wise principle to baking, the soaked meal can be transformed into cornbread for a Southern-style treat that is just as digestible.
Note that if you substitute masa harina flour you still need to soak it. The linked article explains why.
I like to enjoy a generous square of cornbread with a slab of butter and a drizzle of raw honey. It makes a yummy and filling breakfast.
Soaked cornbread is also delicious with lunch or dinner smothered in homemade chili or grassfed beef stew.
Traditional Soaked Cornbread
Classic cornbread recipe made with soaked flour and meal. This Southern treat is gluten-free, easy to digest, and delicious for breakfast or a side dish with dinner.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups buttermilk or sour raw milk
- 1 cup limewater
- 1 cup corn flour preferably organic
- 2 cups cornmeal preferably organic
- 3 eggs
- 4 Tbl butter melted
- 4 Tbl maple syrup
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
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Mix the buttermilk (or soured raw milk), lime water, corn meal and flour in a bowl. Cover with a cloth and leave on the counter overnight or for a minimum of 12 hours. You may soak as long as 24 hours.
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Preheat oven to 350 °F/ 177 °C
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In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs well. Add melted butter, maple syrup, baking powder and sea salt.
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Blend this mixture into the bowl with the soaked corn flour/meal to form the bread batter.
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Pour batter into a 9X9 greased pan. Bake at 350 °F/ 177 °C for one hour or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
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Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Slice and serve. Refrigerate what you won't use in two days. This bread freezes well too!
As I don’t have any corn flour and do not need to keep the recipe gluten free, can I substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour for the corn flour?
For the corn meal, I have the lovely pink Bloody Butcher cornmeal from Janie’s Mill.
I expect your recipe will be 5-star-worthy when I make it. I just made cornbread using Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions” cookbook which uses a similar soaking of the grains, although she has you do a separate limewater soak of the cornmeal, then moves you along to adding in the rest of the grain to soak for 24 hours with the buttermilk. The result was the best cornbread I have ever eaten. Very corny tasting.
Sarah, I’ll bet your recipe will produce similar great results. I’m just not an experienced baker, though, hence my question about substituting 1 for one whole wheat flour for corn flour.
I’d sure like to see that Nourishing Traditions recipe (I have the Bloody Butcher cornmeal ready to go). Any chance you could post it?
I suggest buying the NT cookbook. It is worth every penny!
If I am using masa harina to make tortillas, how would I soak it in acidic water? Just use way less, like the amount needed just for the tortillas made into the dough, and let it sit overnight?
If I use sprouted corn flour, it looks like I can skip all soaking. Would I then add 1 cup water instead of the limewater to keep the liquid/dry flour ratio the same for the recipe?
which is better nutritionally, masa harina or corn flour/meal?
They are roughly the same if the corn flour/meal is soaked in limewater.
Hi Sarah,
I cannot find organic/non gmo corn flour….can I sub and just use (3) cups of the cornmeal?
Yes you can.