Cornbread Muffins: When Cornbread isn’t Just Cornbread

  

I’m a southerner by birth and by God and my parents were the same, so meals meant cornbread, not just bread.  I know times have changed and so many southerners these days are from O-hi-ya or New-Yark.  Good for them, but just don’t let the newcomers complain about grits or cornbread!  That would cause more commotions than a sign offering Free Beer. 

 

And as you may know, those two, grits and cornbread, are first cousins, coming from the same stalks in a field of corn.  You blanch the skin off the kernels, dry them, grind them until they are as fine as you want, then you either make them sloppy with water (grits), or less sloppy, add a few more ingredients and bake them in the oven. Presto!  Cornbread.

 

Lately, diversity has become a touchstone word and I’m here to tell you cornbread can be as diverse as you want it.  Sometimes just cornmeal, sometime wheat-flour added, often with eggs or not, and anything else your fiery southern mind takes a hankering to toss in.  Not yet a southerner?  Well, find one and make a friend.  We’re friendly folk!

 

Finally, say my so-called friends, ”Are you finally going to get to making Cornbread Muffins?”  As they say in the deepest and dearest parts of the south, “Uh-Hu Honey.”

 

I started with a recipe on the back of a box of cornmeal, but as I often say, a recipe is just a suggestion, like an artist’s virgin canvas and pallet sitting on an easel, on a sunny day, overlooking a beautiful landscape.  The recipe is meant to give you the urge. What you smear on the canvas is up to the artist.  Hey, that’s you!

In another southern tradition, I was baking for a Sunday School room full of older Baptist ladies. I made a double recipe, cause those gals can eat and so can the preachers and anyone else who’s walking the halls. 

 

“Will you once and for all get back to the recipe???”  Ok!  Yes!  Amen!

 

To start

 

Heat the oven to 400ºF or 200ºC

Grease a 12 hole muffin pan

 

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cups cornmeal

1 tablespoon sugar (the ladies are watching their sugar intake)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup skim milk (I used a cup of coconut milk from the grocery store’s milk aisle to keep the cholesterol down. The canned stuff is too thick.)

¼ cup vegetable oil

1-2 beaten eggs  (I used three eggs for the double recipe.  Fluffier.)

¼ cup Italian seasoning, or more

1 cup grated cheddar cheese, or more

½ can of corn, strained, rinsed

 

Puttin’ It te-gether

 

Use a large bowl for all the dry ingredients, including the corn, Italian seasoning, and cheese.  Stir well.  

 

In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients, including the egg (s).  Mix very well and add to the dry ingredients a third at a time.  I used a handheld electric mixer.

 

The “dough” will be thin, but not watery.

 

Spoon the dough into the muffin tins.  Using a half-cup measuring cup worked for me.

 

Bake for about 15-17 minutes. Test by poking with a knife.  If it comes out clean, the muffins are done.  Wait too long to take them out and they’re going to be too dry.

 

These muffins are good anytime, breakfast (split, buttered and toasted), lunch, dinner, or whenever you have a sack of ‘em, and find your southern drawl is making people stare and beg for some. 

Caution:  Baptists steal shamelessly when food is involved. They also beg.

If you enjoy recipes, book reviews, stories, and humor, DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE!  Comments welcome!