Jalapeño Hush Puppy Mini Muffins #MuffinMonday

These jalapeño hush puppy mini muffins have the hush puppy vibe down pat from the crunchy exterior to the fluffy interior, full of cornbread flavor!

It’s live crawfish season in Louisiana and Texas (and probably Mississippi for all I know) right now so a week ago Saturday, I drove north about half an hour to Crawfish Nick Seafood to pick up a sack. 

I was fourth or fifth in line to place my order when I heard the lady behind the desk ask the next buyer if she had a reservation and, if so, for how many sacks. My heart dropped because I didn’t have a reservation! What if they run out before it’s my turn? 

Thankfully, they did not but next time I know that it may not be enough to call and ask if they have live crawfish before getting in the car. I whistled all the way home with 33 pounds of live crawfish, inordinately pleased with myself, superior hunter/gather that I am. 

That afternoon, after a few fresh water purges, my husband steamed those delicious guys and we ate them with relish. Not literally. There was garlic butter though and lots of Cajun spices. We ate and ate and ate. Then the next morning we ate more cold. Even with four people eating, 33 pounds is a lot crawfish! 

At that point I stopped eating crawfish and just started peeling them to use the tails in another dish. My search for a recipe to use the leftover seven ounces of tails led me to a recipe for hush puppies, but who wants to deep-fry anything? I pivoted and made these muffins instead. And saved the crawfish for another dish: baked crawfish Rangoon. 

Jalapeño Hush Puppy Mini Muffins

These little guys would be great served with fried fish, a seafood platter, a bowl of chili or, dare I say it, your next crawfish boil; in fact, anywhere you might serve hush puppies or cornbread. We added a small pat of butter to each as we ate them but they are also good plain. This recipe makes about 20 mini muffins. 

Ingredients

1 green onion

1 fresh jalapeño

2/3 cup or 120g yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup or 63g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or 1/2 teaspoon if you like things spicy)

1 egg

1/3 cup or 80ml buttermilk

2 tablespoons canola oil, plus extra for greasing the mini muffin pan.

Method

Chop the green onion, both white and green parts, finely and separate out a small pile of the green parts to use as garnish before baking. Do the same with the jalapeño. I discarded the jalapeño seeds and innards because they weren’t pretty. Use yours if you like and chop them finely as well. 

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C. Generously grease your mini muffin pan with canola oil and put it in the oven about five minutes before the end of the preheating cycle. This batter makes about 20 mini muffins so grease accordingly.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and cayenne pepper. 

Stir in the bigger piles of onion and jalapeño.

Beat the egg, buttermilk, and oil in a small bowl. Pour the wet ingredients to the cornmeal mixture bowl and fold till it is just combined.

Carefully remove the pan from the hot oven and quickly divide the batter between the muffin cups. I like to use a small scoop, which speeds up the job.  As you can see, my last muffin wasn't very full but he still puffed up nicely. Top with the reserved chopped green onion and jalapeño.

Bake until golden brown and crispy, 17 to 20 minutes. 

Insert a toothpick into the center of a baked hush puppy muffin and make sure it comes out clean. Serve hot or remove to a wire rack to cool. The crunchy golden bottoms are so good! 

Enjoy!

It’s the last Monday of the month so that means it’s Muffin Monday! Check out all the great muffin recipes we are sharing today. 

• Beer Cheese Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Blueberry Bran Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Jalapeño Hush Puppy Mini Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Strawberry Streusel Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Tomato Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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