"When Southern Women Cook" Fresh Corn Muffins Recipe
Corn Muffins Recipe:
Makes 12 muffins
Total Time: 55 minutes, plus 20 minutes cooling
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups (7½ ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups (7½ ounces) cornmeal, divided 1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
- 1½ teaspoons table salt
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup sour cream
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups corn (2 to 3 ears corn)
Directions:
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray 12-cup muffin tin, including top, with vegetable oil spray. Whisk flour, 1 cup cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in large bowl; set aside.
- Whisk milk and remaining ½ cup cornmeal together in medium bowl. Microwave until mixture begins to thicken to paste-like consistency, 1 to 3 minutes, whisking frequently. Whisk sour cream and melted butter into cornmeal paste. Whisk in eggs. Stir cornmeal mixture and corn kernels into flour mixture until just combined.
- Using greased 1/3-cup dry measuring cup or #12 portion scoop, divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups; evenly distribute any remaining batter among cups (cups will be full).
- Bake until muffins are golden brown, and toothpick inserted in center comes out with few crumbs attached, 20 to 24 minutes. Let muffins cool in muffin tin on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from muffin tin and let cool on rack for 15 minutes. Serve warm.
One of the best things about summer in the South is the bushels of corn at the farmers’ market. Of course, fresh corn is delightful straight off a boiled cob with butter or in a number of garden- fresh vegetable dishes, but if you’re lucky enough to have a surplus, making sweet corn muffins packed with fresh corn is a great way to showcase the vegetable. Using equal parts flour and cornmeal gives these muffins a tender crumb that’s more cakey and less crumbly than traditional versions of large-scale cornbread, which often have a higher ratio of cornmeal to flour. Microwaving cornmeal with milk until the mixture thickens to a paste-like consistency blooms the meal’s flavor and softens the grain for an ultra-corny muffin with a plush, not gritty, texture. When it comes to sugar, we lean toward the sweeter side here to enhance the fresh corn. Two cups of fresh corn kernels, which you should be able to get from three ears of corn, add nice pops of sweetness in each bite without weighing down the muffins. Be sure to avoid using coarse ground corn meals in this recipe, as they can make the muffins gritty. If you don’t own a microwave, the cornmeal paste can be made in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Just be sure to whisk it constantly so that the ingredients don’t scorch on the bottom of the saucepan. Try spreading warm muffins with Cardamom Brown Sugar Butter (recipe follows).
Cardamom Brown Sugar Batter Recipe:
Makes about 2/3 cup
Total Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup packed (1¾ ounces) light brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Directions:
- Using fork, mash all ingredients in bowl until fully combined. (Butter can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
We love this butter slathered on our Fresh Corn Muffins, but it’s also good spread on toast, salmon, or chicken. We got the idea to pair cornbread with cardamom from cookbook author and restaurateur Asha Gomez. Her recipe for cardamom cornbread is in her 2016 cookbook My Two Souths: Blending the Flavors of India into a Southern Kitchen. In the book’s introduction, Gomez says, “I call my style of cuisine ‘two Souths cooking.’ Its flavors and dishes are characterized and rooted in my deep affection for the resourcefulness and soulfulness of cooking both in my mother country India, in the far southern state of Kerala, and my chosen home in America’s Southern culinary-savvy city of Atlanta, Georgia.” Pairing cardamom with cornbread is a lovely example of how Gomez blends the food of Kerala with that of the American South.
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