Cornbread Muffins

Cornbread is one of those dishes that varies greatly from region to region of the United States.  Canadians tend to go along with the northern versions, as of course they are our neighbours.

In the south, cornbread tends to be more cornmeal and less flour, for a dryer texture and more corn taste.

In the north, cornbread tends to be less cornmeal and more flour, for a cakier texture and less pronounced corn taste.

In my kitchen, I have found that I like a balance of the two.  After some work, I developed this cornbread recipe and have been using it for a few years now.

  • Recipe Edit Note – I have changed this recipe to increase the amount of butter.  The increased butter improves the texture of the muffins, without making them greasy.  You can reduce the butter by a 1/4 cup, but the texture will be less tender.
  • I have also done this recipe adding the kernels cut from two cobs of corn that were grilled on the BBQ.  This adds a nice texture, and makes the corn flavour really pop – yes, pun intended!

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3 cups            All Purpose Flour (15 oz by weight)

2 cups            Cornmeal

2 tsp               Salt

1 tbsp            Baking Powder

2 tsp               Baking Soda

1 cup         Butter – melted and cooled

4 tbsp            Brown Sugar

4                      Eggs – beaten well

3 ½ cups        Buttermilk

½ cup             Honey

 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the middle position.

Combine cornmeal and buttermilk in medium sized bowl, mix well. Let rest until room temperature

Combine eggs, sugar and honey in small bowl and stir until sugar is fully incorporated

Combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in large bowl, whisk until light and no lumps remain

Combine egg mixture into buttermilk mixture, stir well. Add butter, and whisk to combine until everything is uniform

Add liquid mixture to dry mixture. With a large spatula, fold together to just combine.  Be careful to not over mix batter .

Portion into muffin tins, fill each cup almost to the top. I get 16 square muffins in each batch.

Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating half way thru.

Keep an eye on the muffins, if your tin is dark, the bottoms of the muffins will be significantly darker than the top. It is desirable to have a nice deep brown bottom on the muffin, but not burned.

Serve warm with browned butter spread or any butter of you liking.

Enjoy!