Corn Muffins (Gluten Free)

Gluten Free Corn Muffins are soft and sweet with a buttery flavor, made with gluten free flour, cornmeal, heavy cream, and brown sugar, ready in under 30 minutes!

Gluten Free Corn Muffins are really quick and easy to make with minimal ingredients, and perfect for a quick breakfast, or to serve with dinner. This corn muffin recipe is a little sweeter than regular cornbread muffins, but can almost be used interchangeably if you like the sweetness. They’re also perfect with a bowl of chili on a cold night!

These corn muffins were the first recipe ever published on this website, and one my all-time favorite gluten free baking recipes because they have a ton of flavor with a few simple ingredients. I like to cut them in half and lightly toast each side, then serve with a little softened butter and a drizzle of honey for breakfast.

For more of my favorite muffin recipes, make sure you check out my Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins, and Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

The Perfect Texture – Cornmeal gives these muffins a tender crumb that’s uniquely satisfying, along with a sweet taste. The gluten free flour blend has an impact on how crumbly these muffins turn out, so make sure you choose one with xanthan gum in the mix already.

Customizable – You can add a lot of different ingredients to make these turn out for any type of meal! Try adding shredded cheddar and jalapenos, honey and blueberries, roasted corn kernels, or more!

Ingredients You’ll Need

Gluten Free Flour Blend. You want to use a gluten free all-purpose flour, like Bob’s Red Mill Cup-for-Cup or King Arthur’s Measure-for-Measure flour blends.

If you don’t go with one of these flours, check and see if your flour mixture has xanthan gum added to it already. This helps keep gluten free muffins from crumbling, and also helps avoid dense muffins. If you have to add it separately, for muffins you need 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum for every 1 cup of gluten free flour. 

Because we’re using a 1:1 gluten free flour blend, it means you can make this recipe with equal parts regular flour if you’re not gluten free.  

Ground Cornmeal. Cornmeal is what gives these muffins their flavor and consistency. Try to pick a fine grain cornmeal. If you have medium grain, that’ll work too, but the texture will be grittier.

Also try to pick a cornmeal that’s labeled ‘gluten free’ to avoid cross contamination. You can read more about the different cornmeal grinds here. 

Brown Sugar. I use light brown sugar, because it adds a really nice deep flavor. You can use regular granulated sugar if that’s all you have. 

A combination of brown and white sugar would also add a nice sweetness and flavor.

Melted Butter. Use an unsalted butter, because salted butter doesn’t always have the same amount of salt in it each time. You want to make sure you’re not going to end up with salty muffins. 

If you don’t have butter, or want to make this dairy free, you can replace it with vegetable oil, canola oil, or vegan butter.

Heavy Cream. Heavy cream has a lot of fat that helps give the muffins a moist texture. You can also use half-and-half, buttermilk, sour cream, or regular milk. If you substitute this with a lower fat option, you may end up with dry muffins.

If you can’t do dairy, substitute this with a non-dairy milk of your choice, like almond milk. 

Eggs. Eggs help hold everything together, and the egg yolks add some fat to the muffins giving them a softer texture. 

If you can’t do eggs, replace them with 1/4 cup of applesauce per 1 egg. 

Baking Powder. Use double-acting baking powder, or your muffins won’t rise right. You need at least a full tablespoon baking powder for these. 

Kosher Salt. 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt or sea salt helps balance the sweetness of the muffins. You can leave this out, but you’ll get a slightly sweeter corn bread muffin. 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt is enough, I wouldn’t add more than that.

Kitchen Tools

For this recipe, you’ll need a medium mixing bowl, a whisk, and a muffin tray with muffin liners.

How to Make Gluten Free Corn Muffins

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and line a muffin tin with paper liners (or grease with non-stick cooking spray). In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and sugar.
2. While stirring, slowly add the wet ingredients (eggs, heavy cream, and butter) to the dry ingredients. Mix until everything is just combined. Run a rubber spatula around the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure it’s completely mixed. Let the batter sit for at least 5 minutes to let the cornmeal hydrate.
3. Use an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the batter into a 12-cup muffin pan. 
4. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown on the top and a toothpick comes out clean. Let the muffins cool slightly before serving.

Recipe Variations

• This recipe works best with heavy cream, but if you need dairy free muffins you can use your favorite dairy free milk, such as unsweetened almond milk. Avoid vanilla flavored almond milk. 
• Make these even more moist by using sour cream instead of heavy cream. Sour cream adds fat and acidity that helps baked goods turn out incredibly tender.
• Whip some butter with a tablespoon or two of honey or maple syrup and a dash of cinnamon, and serve warm muffins with honey butter. 
• Use this recipe to make a sweet corn bread by pouring the batter into a cast iron skillet and baking. 
• Throw in a handful of fresh blueberries for a blueberry corn muffins, or try chocolate chips, dried cherries, or dried cranberries. Lightly dust the blueberries with flour before adding to the batter, to prevent them from sinking to the bottom.

Recipe Tip! You can either line the muffin tin with paper liners, or use cooking spray and lightly flour the tin so the muffins don’t stick to the pan. I don’t use any nonstick cooking spray if I’m using the muffin liners.

Frequently Asked Questions

Recipe Tip! Use fine or medium-grind cornmeal for a tender crumb. Coarse-grind works but gives a grittier texture. Stone-ground adds extra flavor depth.

More Gluten Free Muffin Recipes

• Gluten Free Cherry Muffins
• Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins
• Gluten Free Banana Muffins with Crumble Topping
• Gluten Free Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Storage

Store the muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Line the container with paper towels to absorb any moisture in the container. 

Refrigerate the corn muffins in an airtight container for up to a week. 

Freeze corn muffins in a freezer-safe container for 2-3 months. I like to wrap the container in an extra layer of plastic wrap to avoid freezer burn. 

Cooking Tips

• Let the batter sit for 5–10 minutes before scooping. This allows the cornmeal to hydrate fully and gives you a better rise.
• Let muffins cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes before turning them out. Gluten-free muffins are more fragile when hot.
• Use the toothpick test to see if the muffins are done. Once there is no more wet batter coming up from the center of the muffin on the toothpick, take them out of the oven.
• You can either line the muffin tin with paper liners, or use cooking spray and lightly flour the tin so the muffins don’t stick to the pan. I don’t use any nonstick cooking spray if I’m using the muffin liners.
• I use a 12-cup muffin tin to make smaller muffins. You can also make 6 large muffins with a bigger muffin pan with this recipe. Increase the cooking time to 20-25 minutes.
• Fill the muffin cups up with as much muffin batter as you can, which helps make the muffin tops taller. 

Tried this recipe? ⭐ Leave a review and share what worked best for you—your tips help other home cooks get the same delicious results!

We are a participant in both the RewardStyle and Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, which are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com and through RewardStyle.