Corn Muffins

Corn muffins are great with chili, scrambled eggs, vegetable stews, black beans. Whenever you don't feel like brown rice with your main dish, corn muffins are a great alternative, and they're quick to make.

Some corn muffins are fluffy, suitable as a substitute for a dinner roll.

These muffins are dense and a little dry, which I find a good companion for chili. I serve them with chili for dinner and then the next morning for breakfast with scrambled eggs.

Last time I baked a batch I turned half of it into Spicy Cheese Corn Muffins. I followed the recipe below and poured half the batter into muffin tins for plain corn muffins. I then added a scant quarter cup of grated Mike's Firehouse Cheddar to the batter left in the bowl, stirred as little as possible to distribute the cheese while not overmixing, and then poured it into muffin tins. I topped the spicy cheese muffins with a slice of pickled jalapeno so I could tell which were which.

You could make the whole batch into Spicy Cheese Corn Muffins by stirring a half cup of your favorite spicy cheese into the batter before putting it in the muffin tins. (I buy Mike's Firehouse Cheddar at the Spring Hill Cheese stall at the Hollywood Farmers Market. It's made from organic milk from Jersey Cows, and it has a kick! You could use jalapeño jack instead.)

This recipe makes 7-9 muffins. Pour a little water into the empty muffin cups before you put the pan in the oven.

Corn Muffins
1 egg
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup water
6 tbsp whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 425°. Stir together the egg, oil, honey and water.

Separately, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.

Pour egg mixture into flour mixture and stir just until combined.

Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake about 15 minutes until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with a few small crumbs attached.

Makes 7-9 muffins.