Flours

[~Trish~]

I have a corn bread recipe I'd like to try but am running very low on gluten-free plain flour. I do however have a fair bit of white rice flour, Tapioca and Arrowroot. The recipe calls for 1 cup of corn meal and 1 cup of plain flour. Do you think if I used 1/2 a cup of rice flour and 1/2 a cup of either tapioca or arrowroot that would work?

Also, Can polenta be used as a substitute to corn meal if you didn't have it??

Thanks

[TrillumHunter]

Just mix up those two or three to make a cup. You might put in a 1/2 teaspoon of xan. gum if you have it, but I don't think that's necessary for cornbread.

I would think polenta could be subbed. It is sometimes more finely ground so it might make a cakier bread.

[Mack the Knife]

I sub polenta for cornmeal all the time. I live in Australia and I can't actually find a product called cornmeal here. Polenta (either coarse or fine) seems to work very well. But I've never had the real thing so it's hard to be sure.

[Pac]

I use polenta whenever my recipe calls for coarse-ground flour. It works well for me, but I've never seen a cornmeal in my life, so I can't tell the difference. Isn't polenta just italian word for cornmeal? :-)

[~Trish~]

Thanks for the replies

Mack the Knife, I live in Australia too and must admit haven't seen cornmeal anywhere since going gluten/wheat free.

[sb2178]

In Japan, I could find cornmeal in the Brazilian stores... are there enough Brazilians to support grocery stores in your part of Australia?

The polenta I've bought in the US is like really coarse cornmeal. More like fine grits- I'd soak it before using in cornbread or else it might be little dry. Cornmeal is somewhere between that and flour. My favorite cornbread uses cornmeal and corn flour.

[mushroom]

I don't know if you get any of the New Zealand Healtheries products in Oz? They make a fine ground cornmeal: www.healtheries.co.nz

[NonHuman]

In Japan, I could find cornmeal in the Brazilian stores... are there enough Brazilians to support grocery stores in your part of Australia?

The polenta I've bought in the US is like really coarse cornmeal. More like fine grits- I'd soak it before using in cornbread or else it might be little dry. Cornmeal is somewhere between that and flour. My favorite cornbread uses cornmeal and corn flour.

Could you post that recipe?

[sb2178]

NonHuman, it's on my blog which is groundcherry on wordpress. I have a link in my profile... let me know if you can't find it. Hope you enjoy it!

[Mack the Knife]

No, I don't think we have much of a Brazilian community at all. Australia has big Greek, Italian and Asian communities that have a massive influence on Australian cuisine - but no South American communities big enough to really have an impact on what we eat. I'm always amazed by pervasive Mexican food is in the US cuisine. It's not like that here.

However, there is a small Spanish community in my area and I live near a pretty good Spanish grocery store. They have polenta, cornflour and corn maize but nothing called cornmeal.

But it's all the same thing anyway - just corn ground to different consistencies. I just go with polenta and everything turns out really well.