Tag: cornmeal muffins

Cheddar Cornmeal Muffins

Photo of cheddar cornmeal muffins on a green and white antique plate

Today was the perfect day for soup and savoury muffins – our first snow of the year. I know, lots of you might think Canada is a winter wonderland, but on the west coast we rarely get snow, so Feb 2 is about right for a first snow of the year. Really wet snow.

I’ve made this recipe so many times, but it wasn’t until a group of friends celebrated CheddaFest* that I realized I really needed to share this with all of you. It whips up really quickly, and is the best accompaniment to soup. I often make a broccoli leek soup with them, something really light and healthy. These muffins make it a meal.

The recipe comes from FoolproofLiving.com. A few changes that I made to the original recipe: I didn’t add corn kernels or dill. I didn’t have whole wheat flour, so I made it with All Purpose, and used Oatmilk in place of whole milk. I have made this so many times, and never saw the instruction saying to let the batter rest for half an hour…. The recipe says to bake for 22-25 minutes, but mine was done at 20, even when I accidentally had the oven set for 400 degrees instead of 425.

These are best when they have been freshly baked. I’ve also eaten them after they had been sitting at room temperature for a few days, and they are still good, especially if warmed up a little! I usually freeze some of these, in a ziploc bag, and I try to remove as much air as I can.

Makes 12 muffins.

What you need:

  • 113 grams unsalted butter (or add less salt to the dry ingredients if you have salted butter
  • 3/4 cup milk (oatmilk is fine)
  • 2 eggs – room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1 & 1/4 cups flour (AP or WW)
  • 1 cup cornmeal -fine grind
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1 cup scallions/green onions, chopped
  • 1 cup aged Cheddar cheese

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
  2. Great the cheddar and chop the scallions.
  3. Melt and let the butter sit until it has cooled down.
  4. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper.
  5. Beat the eggs with a fork, then add the milk, honey, and cooled butter.
  6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold the ingredients together, but not completely.
  7. Add 3/4 of the cheddar and all of the scallions. Mix just until combined. Any more mixing will make the muffins tough.
  8. Use a large spoon to place batter into the muffin tin liners, trying to make sure they are about equal.
  9. Sprinkle remaining cheddar on top or each muffin.
  10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, checking around 20 minutes. They should be lightly browned, and an inserted toothpick should come out clean.
  11. Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes, remove the muffins from the tin.
  12. Feel free to eat them while they are warm! If you want to freeze them, make sure they are completely cool first.

*CheddaFest is a holiday we made up when some friends were interested in learning some cooking and baking skills. And we all really needed to not think about work for a while!

The Best Cornmeal Muffins!

cornmeal muffin on a plate

I found this recipe for “Perfect Corn Muffins” on Smitten Kitchen, and she’s right, these are the best cornmeal muffins I’ve ever tasted. I’m using the word “cornmeal” because I feel like “corn muffins” sounds like there are actual kernels of corn in it, which there are not in this recipe.

The changes I made were just because I didn’t have some of the ingredients on hand, so I used buttermilk instead of whole milk, and yogurt in place of sour cream. The recipe called for 3-5 tablespoons of sugar, and I went with just shy of three because I don’t enjoy sweet cornbread.

These were delicious with a little bit of Irish Kerry Gold butter, and another was eaten with a slice of mature cheddar. I had planned to serve them with Instant Pot baked beans, but they are taking forever instead of an instant to cook, so they’ll have to go with the leftovers.

The recipe is straightforward except one part that was new to me: some of the cornmeal was cooked before mixing, which is probably part of the reason that these were so moist. You will separate the two cups of cornmeal into 1 & 1/2 cups with the dry ingredients, and 1/2 cup to be cooked.

What you need:

  • 2 cups yellow cornmeal (I used Purity brand)
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 & 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1 & 1/4 cups buttermilk (or whole milk)
  • 1 cup plain yogurt, not no-fat (or use sour cream)
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted and left to cool
  • 3 to 5 tablespoons (35 to 60 grams) sugar (see Note up top about sweetness)
  • 2 large eggs

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper or silicone liners; I used silicone, and they slid off really nicely after baking.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl combine 1 & 1/2 cups of the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  3. Melt your butter and let it cool a bit.
  4. Add the milk and 1/2 cup cornmeal to a saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir until it has thickened enough that your spoon/whisk leaves a clear line across the bottom of the saucepan, which slowly fills in.
  5. Mix the melted butter, sugar and yogurt into the cooked cornmeal. If the mixture is cool enough, mix in the eggs. If not, wait a few minutes so the eggs don’t cook when you add them.
  6. Fold the dry ingredients into the eggy-buttery mixture until just combined. The batter will be quite thick.
  7. Scoop the batter into the muffin tins; using an ice-cream scoop or measuring cup can help to keep the amounts even. The batter will completely fill the muffin cups and mound up a bit.
  8. Bake for about 13 minutes, until the tops are just golden brown. Insert a toothpick to see if they are done. There should be no batter sticking to the toothpick. My oven is really annoying, so some were done at this point, and some not. I rotated the pans and left them in for three more minutes.
  9. Let the muffins cool in the pans for five minutes, then remove from the tins and let them cool five minutes more. Because mine were in silicone liners, I removed them at this point.
  10. Enjoy!