I have been away from my blog for a while. I hated putting it aside for so long (4 months) but needed to take some time off. Much refreshed and ready to go I wanted to start back with a post about one of the hardest recipes I have worked with. Corn bread muffins!
Fickle little devils. I had to figure out how to make a great corn bread muffin.
I wanted a savory muffin that was light and had a good corn flavor. The corn muffins I had tasted in the past have been overly sticky and sweet or dry and fell apart. I was looking for a tender crumb, not too sweet and a good corn flavor. It did not seem like it would be too hard to accomplish this. I was wrong.
My first few attempts were complete failures.
After researching corn bread and corn bread muffins I found that the type of corn meal you use is very important. You have the choice of a de-germinated corn meal or a whole corn meal. The de-germinated meal made a bland tasting muffin with very little corn flavor and a dry texture. The whole corn meal made a very dry muffin. The whole corn meal was too dense for this recipe.
I was not sure how to solve this problem. When I added real fresh corn the muffins did not fare much better. I could get a light and moist muffin adding more flour and sour cream but it had very little corn bread flavor.
I thought about my granola bar recipe and how I lightened the whole oats by grinding a portion in my food processor and made oat flour. Maybe I could lighten the corn meal by making a corn meal flour? This worked perfectly. I could use the more flavorful whole corn meal by grinding it in the food processor for about 5 minutes. I made a light whole grain corn flour.
The recipe yielded a moist, sweet and tender muffin with the savory components of bacon and cheddar and the slight heat of chipotle powder.
Perfect for your holiday brunch. Make mini muffins for a savory appetizer.
Bacon, Cheddar and Chipotle Corn Bread Muffins
Makes 12 Muffins or 24 Mini Muffins
10 oz unbleached all-purpose flour (I recommend King Arthur) or 2 cups
5 oz stone-ground cornmeal ground fine in the food processor (I recommend Arrowhead Mills) or 1 cup
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 large organic eggs
4 oz sugar or 3/4 cup
7 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole milk at room temperature
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese (use a dry cheese like Dubliner Sharp Cheddar for best results)
1/2 cup finely mined bacon cooked crispy
1/4 tsp chipotle powder or cayenne pepper
Make sure your oven rack is in the middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
Line your muffin tin with paper or foil muffin cups and spray cups lightly with non-stick spray.
Mix dry ingredients together, flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda and whisk to fully combine.
In a separate bowl mix eggs and sugar together until thick and homogenous.
Add melted butter, sour cream and milk and whisk for about 30 seconds to add some air into the wet mixture.
Add cheese and bacon to dry ingredients and toss lightly to coat with flour. This will help the bacon and cheddar stay suspended in the muffins instead of sinking to the bottom as they bake.
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix just until fully combined. Do not over mix.
Let muffin batter rest for 5 to 10 minutes after mixing. This will help develop gluten strands in the muffins and will make them lighter and puff up more in cooking.
Scoop batter into muffin tins and make sure the batter makes a dome. Do not smooth the dome. It will seem like you are filling the cups too high but this batter will not expand as much as other muffin batters. Sprinkle the top of muffins with chipotle powder as needed for taste.
Bake muffins at 400 degrees until they are light golden brown. About 15-18 minutes.
Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes.
Yumm, these look so delicious!
They turned out with good corn flavor. I think I will reduce the sugar next time more. They are a bit sweet.
You’re back! Good.
Glad to be back.
You’re baaacckkkk! Yippy!!!!!!!! Baby Lady and I have been wondering about you and you have been missed. Love the muffins and the innovation of the whole corn meal flour. As I was reading your post, however, I wondered about the use of dried masa. After all, it’s corn flour. I may need to give this a try. Glad you’re back!
I think even masa should be ground a bit finer. Not sure. Try it and let me know what happens.
When the Thanksgiving Holiday is out of the way I will give this a try. I have a chipotle cheese cornbread that is really good that I intend to modify with this approach. I will definitely let you know and may even do a post on it.
BTW – Happy Thanksgiving.
Welcome back
). I had wondered where you had disappeared to. I have never cooked corn bread muffins and these look delicious. I like the chipotle topping, nice touch.
Thank you. Glad to be back.
Thank you for doing all the hard work! I have been searching for a great corn muffin recipe for so long and your’s looks perfect! I can’t wait to make these(:
Let me know how it works for you. Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes after mixing for best results.
Oh, Connie – so glad you’re back! Hope things are going well for you now…
)
The muffins look marvelous. Do you measure the cormeal after you grind it, or before? (or both?
After. Great question. I am so glad to be back and all is going well. Lots of life changes and challanges have made me a stronger woman. Not to mention losing over 80 lbs this year! Yay!
You have reached Goddess status in the FatJoe universe….
Yay. I can retire now.
Yes….you may
Delighted to see a post from you! I can’t wait to give these muffins a try.
Please let me know how they come out.
Welcome back and my teenagers would go wild for these muffins. They have all the main food groups like bacon and cheese and spice, well those are part of the teenage food groups at least. Take Care, BAM
Welcome back!! Boy, you came back with a bang too….those look and sound soooooo good! Thank you for this. It’s so good to see a post from you in the inbox
They look yummy! Welcome back
My girls are bacon monsters and would love these! I’ve been wanting to find a cornmeal muffin recipe that isn’t too sweet and would be a good side for ribs or chili. These sound perfect. I can’t believe how much effort went into developing this recipe — way to keep at it!
It sure looks like you’ve figured out the right solution.. these look super fluffy and moist! I’ve got to give them a try.. maybe this weekend, the bacon would make them perfect for brunch!
Too much stuff in these muffins for me — I like my cornbreads plain — but I appreciate the tip about grinding some cornmeal into corn flour — I’ll have to try that.
Welcome back. MMMMMMmmmmmmbacon. These look fabulous!
Thanks I am glad to be back.
Finally, cornbread I would probably enjoy!
So glad you’re back. I just happened to stop by today on a whim to check. These look great and what a genius idea to grind the cornmeal. I am thinking these would be a great breakfast item too. (But, my stomach is growling now.)
Hey Eliot,
These are great for b-fast. Feeze and heat great for a quick early morinng snack.
Corn muffins ARE tricky! I’ll have to try this out. I’m a sweet corn muffin fan … I just can’t help it. But these have bacon!!!! Bacon.
They are also a bit sweet. You would probably like them.
Oh, these look fabulous. Love bacon/cheese in bread.
These look fabulous!
All of the best goodies rolled into one – cheese, bacon and cornbread! Yum!
These look delicious. I haven’t experimented much with corn muffins and just use corn meal but this was very interesting.