Gluten Free Cornmeal & Cheese Drop Biscuits (2024)

I have a deep and abiding fondness not only for biscuit dough, but for folding it and “turning” it like puff pastry.

But every once in a while, you really need some hearty, savory and super easy biscuits in a hurry, with flavor to spare. These gluten free cornmeal and cheese drop biscuits, which are ready in about 30 minutes, will make anything into a meal to remember.

Why you're going to love these gluten free cornmeal and cheese biscuits

These easy gf drop biscuits are packed with cheese like our gluten free “cheddar bay” biscuits, but made with a combination of an all purpose gluten free flour blend and rich, chewy cornmeal. They're also even easier to get right into the oven since they're shaped entirely by scooping them onto a baking sheet with a spring-loaded ice cream scoop.

These gluten free cornmeal and cheese drop biscuits are heartier than your typical drop biscuit, on account of the cornmeal and cheese. They're not flaky in the same way that our layered, extra flaky gluten free biscuits are, but they’re tender and so flavorful that they make a regular chicken dinner into an event.

In fact, they’re so tender inside, and lightly crispy outside, that I might just reach for one even if there were some puff-pastry style layered and flaky biscuits nearby. It also doesn’t hurt that they come together in the blink of an eye.

These cornmeal and cheese biscuits so good that I would consider making them for myself for dinner (if by some miracle it was just me and my husband, or even just me alone) and having cornmeal drop biscuits + a glass of red wine for dinner. If that doesn’t send you running to the kitchen, I just don’t know you like I thought I did!

Gluten free cheese and cornmeal biscuit ingredients

• Gluten free flour – I like to use my gluten free pastry flour here as our base gf flour blend for the perfect balance of richness from the added powdered milk and lightness from the added cornstarch. If you prefer, you can just use Cup4Cup gluten free flour, which is already best used as a pastry flour. If you need a dairy-free version, you can use coconut milk powder in place of powdered milk.
• Cornmeal – Coarsely ground yellow (or white) cornmeal is what gives these biscuits that hearty and satisfying texture. Be sure the brand of cornmeal you choose is uncontaminated by gluten-containing flours.
• Baking powder – Baking powder gives these “baking powder” biscuits their rise. Be sure yours is fresh!
• Salt – Kosher salt brings out all the flavor of these biscuits.
• Butter – Cold unsalted butter is incorporated into the rest of the dry ingredients here in chunks and kept cold, so when the biscuits meet the heat of the oven, the butter expands and makes the biscuits light and airy.
• Asiago cheese – Asiago cheese is a semi-hard cheese that has tons of flavor and melts slowly. It won't turn your biscuits into a greasy mess.
• Buttermilk – Buttermilk helps tenderize your biscuits and adds tons of flavor. If you're all out of buttermilk, you can use half milk and half plain yogurt, both by volume. Don't try to match the richness and thickness of buttermilk by adding a bit of lemon juice to milk!

I don't like to make pastry using a pastry blender or forks to turn the mixture into small crumbs or peas, since those pieces melt too quickly in the oven. Instead, I chop the cold butter roughly into medium-size pieces, toss those in the dry ingredients, and then flatten them with floured fingers. That way, they stay whole and large enough to create airy pastry throughout the biscuits.

Tips for making the best gluten free cheese and cornbread drop biscuits

Use cold butter for your gf biscuits

Pastry should always be made with cold ingredients. The airy texture is created, in part, by cold chunks of fat distributed evenly throughout the rest of the pastry that expand when they suddenly become hot in the preheated oven.

How to cut butter into your gluten free flour

We “cut” our butter into the flour by roughly chopping the super cold butter first, tossing it in the whisked dry ingredients, then flattening the butter between a floured thumb and forefinger. That's how we make sure our biscuits are never dense, always puffy.

Getting the dough from bowl to baking sheet — mess free, still cold

Let's be sure we handle the dough with our actual hands as little as possible after we've shaped the butter, since warm hands will begin to melt the butter too soon. First, mix the biscuit dough together with a spoon, then scoop the dough into portions using a spring-loaded ice cream scoop or two large soup or serving spoons.

Dust your gluten free drop biscuits with flour

You might notice that the portions of dough are dusted lightly with extra flour. Since the method used to make these gluten free cornbread biscuits doesn’t naturally seal in the butter as well as the method used to make layered biscuits, the dusting of flour helps keep the butter from escaping during baking.

Making cornbread and cheese drop biscuits in advance

The dough can also be frozen solid, placed in a freezer-safe bag, and frozen for up to 2 months. When you're ready to bake, place the biscuits back on a baking sheet, and bake from frozen. You may need to add a couple of minutes of baking time when baking from frozen.

How to store gluten free cheese biscuits, so they stay fresh

Baked pastries are always freshest the day they're made, but if you store these biscuits in a sealed glass container at room temperature, they will stay relatively fresh for up to 3 days.

For longer storage, try freezing the raw, shaped biscuit dough and baking them from frozen, or freezing the baked biscuits in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with water and then refresh in a 300°F toaster oven until crisp and fragrant before serving.

Gluten free cornmeal drop biscuits: substitutions

Gluten free, dairy free drop biscuits

To make these cornmeal biscuits dairy free, you'll need to replace the cheese with dairy free cheese, and the butter with vegan butter. My favorite brand of dairy free cheese is Violife (buy the kind in the block, not the already-shredded kind) and my favorite vegan butter is Melt or Miyoko's Kitchen. In place of vegan butter, you can use Spectrum butter-flavored nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening.

How to choose cornmeal

This recipe calls for coarsely ground yellow gluten free cornmeal, which adds color and texture to your biscuits. Cornmeal is naturally gluten free, but be sure you buy cornmeal that is clearly labeled gluten free and is processed in a separate, gluten free facility. Bob's Red Mill brand cornmeal is very good, but be sure to get the variety that is labeled “gluten free,” as they also sell a conventional version.

Alternative cheeses

We love gluten free biscuits with Asiago cheese, perhaps because we all love all the intense flavor that it brings and the way it pairs perfectly with the chew of the cornmeal, but you could use any semi-hard cheese. Cheddar cheese would also be delicious for gluten free cheddar biscuits.

Cornbread biscuits: delicious variations

You can add so many other flavors to these cornmeal and cheese biscuits to give them a slightly different flavor profile. Here are a few suggestions:

• Make them into cheddar garlic drop biscuits by using shredded cheddar cheese and adding 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder.
• Add a handful of kernels of fresh corn to the biscuits after adding the buttermilk, but use about 1 tablespoon less buttermilk, since the corn adds some moisture.
• Replace 1/4 cup of the buttermilk with gluten free ranch dressing for ranch-flavored cornmeal and cheese biscuits.

FAQs

Why are they called gluten free drop biscuits?

Drop biscuits are made with smaller pieces of cold butter that are mixed into a soft pastry dough and shaped by scooping directly onto a baking sheet. They're different from layered, laminated biscuits like our extra flaky gf buttermilk biscuits, which are shaped similarly to our gf puff pastry, with a large packet of butter layered over and over again with pastry dough.

Is cornmeal gluten free?

Yes, cornmeal is made by milling corn in steel rollers. It has only one, safely gluten free, ingredient. But be sure that the package that you buy is prepared in a facility where it won't be contaminated with gluten-containing ingredients. Bob's Red Mill brand's gluten free cornmeal is a good choice.

What's the difference between corn flour and cornmeal?

In the U.S., what we refer to as cornmeal is more coarsely ground corn, which is what is called for in this recipe. What we refer to as “corn flour” is more finely ground cornmeal. In the U.K., the term “corn flour” is used to refer to the starch that's extracted from corn (which, in the U.S., we refer to as cornstarch).

What's the best gluten free flour blend for this gluten free drop biscuit recipe?

I like to use the combination of Better Batter gluten free flour, cornstarch, and powdered milk that makes up my recipe for gluten free pastry flour. You can use Cup4Cup gluten free flour in place of the gluten free pastry flour, too.

Does my gluten free flour need to have a xanthan gum?

Yes, your base all purpose gluten free flour blend must have xanthan gum to help hold the biscuits together. Xanthan gum also helps keep the biscuits fresh for much longer. If you'd like to try making them without xanthan gum, try using konjac powder like we did in these gluten free drop biscuits without xanthan gum.

Why did my gluten free biscuits come out gummy?

If your biscuits came out kind of gummy, first, ask yourself if you used one of my recommended gluten free flour blends, measured by weight. Were your butter and buttermilk cold, and measured carefully? Did you bake your biscuits at a high enough temperature for long enough? If they're gummy, they probably have been under-baked.

Why did my gluten free cornmeal biscuits come out dry?

If your biscuits came out dry, did you use a gluten free flour blend that is too high in starch, or overmeasure it? Did you measure your ingredients carefully, and add enough liquid?

Why are my gf drop biscuits falling apart?

If your biscuits aren't stable, you may have handled them too quickly after they were removed from the oven. They are much more fragile before they've cooled and set.