Savory Cornbread Muffins with Cheddar and Scallions

The incredibly cold weather continues to rule our lives. This morning, I had my first ever frost bite when I mistakenly forgot my gloves at home. I was on my way to the supermarket and in that 3-minute short walk from my car to the store, my hands got all cracked. It was -10 F degrees, but felt like -24.

Needless to say, it was a lesson learned. After this experience, my husband and I decided to not leave the house unless we have to until the temperatures rise. Currently, I have a big pot of this Three Bean Turkey Chili on the stovetop simmering and these corn muffins are in the oven baking.

How To Make Cornbread Muffins

I don’t know about you, but for me what I serve with my chili is just as important as the chili itself. If I am being honest, I just can’t think of a better accompaniment than these moist cornbread muffins. They are flavored with sharp cheddar, scallions, and fresh corn. With every bite you get a little bit of each of those ingredients making it extra rich and flavorful.

The process for making this Savory Cornbread muffin recipe has 3 folds:

First, you mix the wet ingredients, melted butter, milk, eggs and honey, in a bowl. Second, you mix the dry ingredients, whole-wheat flour, corn meal, baking powder, and salt and pepper, in another bowl. Finally, you mix them together and add in the flavor agents, corn, scallions and cheddar cheese.

Once your corn bread muffin batter is ready, I recommend using an ice cream scoop to fill the muffin tins so that all your muffins will be similar in size and bake evenly.

I know a lot of people love Jiffy Cornbread Muffin mix, and believe me, I used to be one of them. However, I promise you, my version here, cornbread from scratch, just as good, if not better. And the best part is that the recipe below includes none of the hard-to-read ingredients in their mixes. You know what goes in there and the process is not much different. So I say, we all have no excuse but to make our own.

Three Bean Turkey Chili Recipe

Spicy Vegan Chocolate Chili

How To Make Cornbread Moist

As you can see, making this savory cornbread muffin recipe is not hard, but there is nothing more frustrating than taking the time to make them from scratch just to end up with dry muffins. Here are my 3 tips to make the best moist corn muffins:

1. Add fat to the batter: Most corn muffin recipes use moistening agents like heavy cream, melted butter, sour cream, yogurt or milk in their batter. That is because the addition of fat makes cornbread more rich and moist. In my version of the corn muffin recipe here, I used melted butter, milk, and cheddar cheese as the additional fat. All those three ingredients has ample amount of fat that gave the end product a nice moist texture.
2. Let the batter rest: Now I know I have been saying that this is a quick corn muffin recipe to make, but if you have time, I recommend letting the batter sit on the counter for at least 30 minutes. If you want, you can also make the batter in the evening and keep it in the fridge in an airtight container to bake the next day.
   The time spent resting allows the batter absorb available moisture from the batter, making corn meal swell and soften, which results in a moister corn bread muffins.
3. Let them cool in a well ventilated area to stop the baking process: The recipe below suggests baking time of 22-25 minutes. Here, it is important that you take them out and let them cool in a well ventilated area to stop the baking process. I would even recommend taking them out of the tin and letting them cool on a rack as soon as you can handle them. This way they will not have a chance to dry out.

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Savory Cornbread Muffins

5 from 5 votes

By: Aysegul Sanford

Yields12 muffins

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Moist and Savory Cornbread Muffins made from scratch and flavored with scallions, sharp cheddar, and corn kernels. It comes together in less than 15-minutes and bakes in less than half an hour.

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 4 ounces (113 gr.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• ▢ ¾ cup (180ml) whole milk, at room temperature
• ▢ 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ▢ 1 teaspoon honey
• ▢ 1 ¼ cups (155 gr) whole-wheat flour
• ▢ 1 cup (180gr) fine-grind cornmeal
• ▢ 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ▢ 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• ▢ 2 cups fresh, or frozen and thawed corn kernels
• ▢ 1 cup (55 gr) scallions, sliced, from a small bunch
• ▢ 1 cup 4 oz / 115 gr sharp Cheddar cheese, grated and divided
• ▢ Handfull of dill, as garnish (optional)

Instructions 

• Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a lightly greased 12-muffin pan with liners and set aside.
• In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together butter, milk, eggs, and honey until fully combined. Set aside.
• In another mixing bowl, mix together whole-wheat flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper.
• Add in the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix until combined. You should have a smooth but mildly thick batter.
• Stir in the corn, scallions and ½ cup of the cheese. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups.
• Sprinkle each muffin with the rest of the cheese.
• Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean, 22-25 minutes.
• Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Garnish with dill (if preferred) and serve.

Notes

• As I mentioned in the post, I serve them with soups and chilis. I personally like them when they are still warm, but they are very good when they are at room temperature. Additionally, they make the best savory breakfast muffins that you can serve with butter and jam.
• These muffins would be fresh up to 3 days if kept in an airtight container.
• If you prefer to freeze, you can do so after they are baked and fully cooled. Simply place them in an airtight container and keep in the freezer up to a month. When ready to serve, thaw them on the counter for half an hour and heat in a pre-heated 250 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories: 229kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 59mg | Sodium: 575mg | Potassium: 193mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 796IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 179mg | Iron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

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About Healthyish: A Cookbook with Seriously Satisfying, Truly Simple, Good-For-You (but not too Good-For-You) Recipes for Real Life

This recipe has been adapted from Healthyish: A Cookbook with Seriously Satisfying, Truly Simple, Good-For-You (but not too Good-For-You) Recipes for Real Life. I did make a few minor changes to the original recipe, like swapping sugar with honey and adding dill into the recipe as garnish. I love this book, as it’s title suggests, it is full of healtyish and do-able recipes with ingredients that are readily available in most well-stocked pantries. I have already made over 5 dishes from the book and they were all very good. As a matter of fact, I’ll be featuring another one next week. The book is coming out on January 9th, 2018 and I cannot recommend it enough if you are looking for creative ways to change up your cooking.

This recipe is adapted (with minor changes) from Healthyish, which will come out on January 9th, 2018. A copy of the book was sent to me by the publisher, Abrams, as a part of their Abrams Dinner Party. As always, all opinions listed below are mine.