Fresh-Corn Muffins

“Wait till you see what Mami made,” I heard my husband tell the Little One. He’d seen the corn muffins cooling off on the kitchen table.

Corn is in season now. I like to buy it still in the husk to steam, cut off from the cob,  and mix up a colorful corn salad. Or get fancy with a soufflé. When it’s not just eaten on the cob, with butter. But lately I’ve been using up my fresh corn in these tender, kernel-studded cornbread muffins. My family likes to eat them at breakfast.

Enough for 12 conventional-sized muffins or 6 large ones.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

3/4 cup yellow corn meal

2 Tblsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

A few grinds of black pepper, or a pinch of cayenne

2/3 cup buttermilk

3 Tblsp. oil

1 egg

2/3 cup cooked corn kernels cut off the cob – about 1 ear of corn. You may, of course use canned corn (but it’s never as good).

Method:

Preheat the oven to 450° F., 250° C.

1. Grease your muffin till very well.

2. Take a large bowl and in it, blend the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and pepper.

3. In a smaller bowl, blend buttermilk, oil, and egg.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the liquid mix into it, stirring gently till everything is just blended. Don’t overstir; that will make a tough muffin. That’s a thing we all wish to avoid.

5. Mix the corn kernels in, gently.

6. Fill the muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the muffins are uniformly golden brown.

7. All the muffins to cool 5 minutes, then lift them out of the cups – run a knife between the muffin and the cup to loosen it up if you have to – and set them on a rack to cool.

Very good to eat when warm, with a little butter or some cheese on the side.

♥

My old, favorite cornbread recipe is one I’ve baked dozens of times – and it’s here on the blog, but there’s a glitch with the link. To find the recipe, do a search for “cornbread” and it’ll appear together with a post titled “Mama’s Little Babies Love Za’atar on Bread.”

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Peach Cobbler Muffins

Two peaches were sitting in the fruit basket. Nobody was eating them. Two peaches are not enough for a cobbler, but to top some muffins, they were plenty, and plenty good. I wanted big muffins for my daughter to take to school, so I used a cupcake tin whose molds take one-half cup of batter. Here are Peach-Cobbler Muffins. The recipe follows the photo.

Peach-Cobbler Muffins

Yield depends on size of pan you’re using. My cupcake pan yields 6 hefty cupcakes. The recipe is supposed to make 24 2-inch muffins.

Ingredients for Peaches:

2 large peaches, chopped into cubes. Not necessary to peel them.

4 Tblsp. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Ingredients for Muffins:

1 3/4 c. sifted flour

3/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs

2 Tblsp. oil

3/4 cup milk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400 F – 200 C.

Grease your muffin pans (or cupcake pan)

1. Mix the cubed peaches, the sugar, and the cinnamon. Put them in a small sauce pan and cook them over a low flame, till the sugar is dissolved and the peaches are starting to give out some juice. Put aside.

2. Sift together the dry ingredients, or mix them very thoroughly.

3. Take a separate bowl and in it break the eggs. Beat them.

4 Add the oil and milk to the eggs.

5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid mix into it. Mix the batter up quickly: over-beating will result in a tough texture. Ignore any lumps, just draw in all the flour till you have a batter.

5. Fill your molds 2/3. Spoon cooked peaches over each filled mold.

Bake 20-25 minutes. Allow the muffins to sit in the pan for 5 minutes or so before taking them out: they will be more likely to come out in one piece if you do.

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