Sweet Corn Muffins #MuffinMonday

Just a little cornmeal adds a lovely flavor to these tender sweet muffins, without making them as heavy as cornbread could be. It’s all a manner of ratios, more flour to less cornmeal. 

It’s Muffin Monday time again! Somehow the last Monday of the month always seems to sneak up on me but I am delighted to say that my Muffin Monday bakers are clearly more organized than I am and are turning out in force this month. We’ve got seven wonderfully creative muffins for you and my rather normal sweet corn muffins. That said, sometimes normal can be terrific.

My younger daughter is home for a visit so I let her choose the muffin I’d make this month. After all, she’d probably be the one eating most of them. She told me of a sweet corn muffin they used to serve when she was still in school. It was sweet, but not too sweet, with a subtle corn flavor. It did not have any actual corn in it. In fact, when I asked that question, she looked horrified. You might remember my discussing her assertion that everybody likes plain things. Anyway, if there wasn’t actual corn, I had to presume that it was made with cornmeal. Last but not least, it was light in texture, not heavy like cornbread.

So, here you go. I think this muffin fulfills all of her requirements: A tender, light, fluffy, sweet corn muffin. Perfect for breakfast or snack time. As a bonus, the muffin top edges are almost crunchy from the cornmeal. She's still sleeping as I post this so I'll have to report back later on her verdict.

Update: She says the muffins are very good but the ones at school had more corn flavor. Next time I'm going to up the ratio of cornmeal to flour a little.

Make sure you scroll down to see the link list of the other more creative muffins!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190ml flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/2 cup or 85g yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 or 300ml cups milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Grease or paper-line your 12-cup muffin pan.

Whisk together your flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk together your milk, oil and eggs, until fully combined.

Fold your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients, until just combined.

Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups. They are going to be pretty full but you can manage to fit it all in.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown around the edges and a toothpick stuck in the middle of one comes out clean. Cool in the pan for a few minutes then remove the muffins to a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Check out all the great muffins we have for you this month!

• Banana Bread and Chocolate Muffins from Making Miracles
• Chocolate Chip Blood Orange Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Grilled Cherry Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Jamaican Me Hungry Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Margarita Sour Cream Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pancake Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Sweet Corn Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of 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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Caramelized Pineapple Blue Cheese Corncake Bundt #BundtBakers

With just enough cornmeal to border on cornbread but almost enough sugar to be cake, this tender crumb Bundt encloses little nuggets of sweet and savory with caramelized pineapple and crumbled Roquefort cheese.

This month’s Bundt Baker challenge, set by June of How to Philosophize with Cake, was to create a Bundt with unusual flavor combinations. Fortunately, I received the perfect Christmas gift to help me out, a handy little book called The Flavor Thesaurus – Pairings, recipes and ideas for the creative cook. <affiliate link

I must admit that I don’t always agree with the author who readily admits that taste is subjective, yet gives her own as fact. She states, for instance, that coffee is used as a marinade for beef in many Latin American cultures, but she tried it once and it’s better avoided. She suggested that one might as well add lit cigarettes as a garnish. Harrumph. Well, I have tried coffee with beef  too and thought it was fabulous. So there.

But in the case of pineapple and blue cheese, she was spot on. They do go very nicely together, especially as I decided to caramelize the pineapples at the last minute and created a batter with some cornmeal and just enough sugar to make what I have christened corncake. We ate thick slices of it with big bowls of spicy beef chili! So good!

Ingredients
1 small can (4.95 oz or 140g drained weight) sliced pineapple in light syrup
4 oz or 115g blue cheese
1/2 cup or 65g fine yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup or 184g full fat sour cream
Drained light syrup from canned pineapple, topped up with milk to make 1/2 cup or 120ml
(It's going to look a little curdled. Don't let that bother you.)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup or 78ml canola oil

Method
Drain and save the light syrup from your pineapple slices. Dry off the pineapple with paper towels.

Heat your griddle or non-stick frying pan till it’s smoking hot and toast the pineapple slices till browned and caramelized on both sides.

Leave to cool and then chop into small wedges with a sharp knife. Crumble the blue cheese and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and butter and flour your 10-cup Bundt pan liberally or use a non-stick baking spray to prepare the pan.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together your sour cream, pineapple syrup topped up with milk, eggs and oil in another bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Fold in the pineapple bits and the crumbled blue cheese.

Pour or spoon the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before turning it out on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to June for this creative challenge! Want to see what everyone else baked?

• Banana Bacon Bundt Cake by Liv For Cake
• Beet and Beer Red Velvet Bundt Cake by I Sugar Coat It
• Beet and Blood Orange Bundt Cake by Brooklyn Homemaker
• Black Pepper and Red Wine Bundt Cake by Passion Kneaded
• Caramelized Pineapple Blue Cheese Corncake Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Banana Bacon Bundt Cake by The Freshman Cook
• Chocolate Lemon Bundt Cake by I Bake He Shoots
• Chocolate Liquorice Bundt Cake by Baking in Pyjamas
• Chocolate Potato Bundt Cake with Strawberry Glaze by Magnolia Days
• Chocolate Tomato Soup Bundt Cake by SpiceRoots
• Coconut and Rose Syrup Bundt Cake by I Camp In My Kitchen
• Coconut, Cardamom, and Orange Cake by Baking Yummies
• Dark Chocolate Beet Cake by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Dark Chocolate Stout Bundt by Living the Gourmet
• Junk Food Bundt Cake by Faith, Hope, Love, and Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Lemon Rosemary Bundt by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Lovely Fields Bundt Cake by Los Chatos Chefs
• Mini Mayonnaise and Chocolate Bundt Cakes by I Love Bundt Cakes
• Olive Oil Rosemary Bundt Cake by Tartacadabra
• Orange Bourbon Rosemary Bundt Cake by The Spiced Life
• Peanut Butter Sour Cream Bundt Cake by Basic N Delicious
• Six Flavor Bundt by Making Miracles
• Sweet Potato and Marshmallow Bundt by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Triple Rum Black Pepper Bundt Cake by How to Philosophize with Cake

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving Bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest Board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our homepage.

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Beet Cornbread Muffins for #MuffinMonday

Beets give these muffins their distinctive bright color but the corn and cornmeal mellow the beety flavor making these muffins light and delicious. 

When I starting dating my husband more than 30 years ago, he would not eat three things: olives, beets and asparagus. He’s overcome his dislike of olives and asparagus, and actually really likes them both, but I am still working on getting him to eat beets. When I saw this recipe in the free supermarket (Waitrose) recipe booklet, it seemed worth a try. Let me just admit right now that he wasn’t crazy about these muffins. But my friend Glenys and I, beet lovers both, really liked them. I'll just keep on trying.

Ingredients
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons or 200g fine cornmeal or polenta
Generous pinch dried chili flakes or crushed red peppers
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 heaped cup or 195g canned corn, drained
8 2/3 oz or 245g cooked beets (I bought these in a vacuum pack in the supermarket – four small to medium-sized beets)
1/4 cup or 50g butter, melted and cooled
Scant 2/3 cup or 150g thick, Greek-style yogurt
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by lining it with paper muffin cups or greasing it.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your cornmeal with dried red pepper, baking powder and salt.

Puree your corn and beets together in a food processor or with a hand blender until relatively smooth. A few corn kernels left here and there are fine.

Add in the eggs, yogurt and melted butter and process or blend again.

Pour the wet ingredients into dry mixture and stir until well combined.

Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

These make a great addition to any brunch or luncheon menu.

Enjoy!

Honey Thyme Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

These sweet honey thyme cornbread muffins are delicious as is, or slather them with butter and an extra drizzle of honey to serve. They make a great breakfast or snack.

I have been quietly grinching to myself that all the muffins for Muffin Monday have been sweet lately and we all know I don’t eat sweets very much. Not for dietary reasons, goodness knows, but because I prefer savory. I’ll take a greasy link of sausage over a piece of chocolate cake any old day. But with this week's recipe came the perfect opportunity to bend the muffin my way. A cornbread muffin! Which can totally become savory!

But my sister is here in Cairo visiting and when I said, “Yay! It’s a honey cornbread muffin so I can take out the honey and add cheese or something,” she responded, “But a HONEY muffin! Why can’t you just make it?” Because sweet is her thing.  So I made these honey thyme muffins for her. And she cut them open and drizzled them with EVEN MORE honey. And declared them good.

Honey Thyme Cornbread Muffins

This recipe is adapted from one by Down Home with the Neelys. I shared it as part of the original Muffin Monday group created by Anuradha from the blog Baker Street. Back then, we share a muffin every single Monday!

Ingredients
1 cup or 180g cornmeal (white or yellow)
1 cup or 125ml all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 cup or 240ml whole yogurt (I used two small 110g pots of yogurt and topped up my cup with whole milk rather than opening a new container for a couple of tablespoons.)
2 medium eggs
1/2 cup or 115g butter, melted
1/4 cup or 60ml honey – plus more for drizzling, if you really have a sweet tooth

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper liners.

Mix your cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl.   Add in your fresh thyme leaves and stir well.

In a small bowl, whisk together your yogurt, eggs, melted butter and honey.

As always, please allow your helper to clean out the yogurt pots.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Do not over mix.

Divide the batter evenly between your muffin cups.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown.  Allow to cool briefly and then remove the muffins to a rack.

These are delicious warm, plain or slathered with extra butter and/or honey.

Enjoy!

Sheila’s Mexican Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

Sheila's Mexican Cornbread Muffins are baked up with cheesy cornbread batter flecked with red and green jalapeños, baked in muffin cups made of bacon. Yes, bacon!

I have always been free and easy about sharing recipes.  Perhaps it was my upbringing but good food is meant to be shared, right?  By the same token, I am not shy about asking you to share yours.  I met someone years ago (in a ladies' Bible study group no less!) who refused to share recipes.  I can’t even remember what she had made that I expressed an interest in knowing how to make, but she flat out said, “I don’t share my recipes.”  I was sure she was kidding and tried to make a joke.  She was dead serious.  I was flabbergasted.  Seriously?  I had never met anyone who refused to share before (or since.)

Fortunately, my friend Sheila was also raised in the Southern Louisiana tradition and, when I asked her to share the recipe for her succulent, cheesy spicy cornbread, she sent me an email right away.  She is the best kind of friend because she never hesitates to share other information as well.  She was the one who first took me around Cairo and showed me the important things like where to get Fritos and Karo, where the Community Services Association is and she gave me the name of a good vet who makes house calls.  Look in the dictionary under Helpful, Knowledgeable Expat and you will see a photo of Sheila.  Because she is among the very best of our ilk. 

Ingredients

1 cup or 6 oz or 170g yellow cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup or 226g sour cream

1 1/4 cups or 12 oz or 275g creamed corn

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1 medium onion

2-4 jalapeño peppers or chili peppers (Sheila said: I like red and green.  I agree!)

12 oz or 340g extra sharp cheddar

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.   Grease a 9in X 13in or 33cm X 23cm cake pan or line a 12-cup muffin tin with awesomely delicious bacon cups.  Or muffin liners.  But I promise bacon cups are worth the trouble.  They are not only pretty but add such flavor to the cornbread.  Your mouth will be doing a happy dance with the cornbread alone.  The bacon cups add a pirouette to every bite.

Chop your onion pretty finely.  My father-in-law won’t eat onions if he can see them so I was careful with this step. 

Dice your chosen peppers and add as much as you like, depending on their hotness and your potential eaters.  Peppers vary greatly in heat and so it’s worthwhile to give yours a taste to judge how spicy they are before you add them.  If greater heat is desired, also leave in the membranes and seeds.

Mix all of the ingredients.

Pour or spoon the batter into your prepared pan.  As you can see, I chose the bacon cups!

For the cake pan, bake for about 45-55 minutes - or 25-30 minutes for muffins - or until golden brown.  If you are using bacon cups, coax them out gently with a spoon while still warm.  In any case, allow them both to cool before cutting.

Enjoy!

Divine cheesy spicy deliciousness.  And also bacon.