Tuesday, January 13, 2009

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins


For the past year, Tuesdays With Dorie members have been creating sugary wonders out of the baking bible that is Baking: From My Home to Yours. I've been along for the ride for the past six months. With few exceptions, the desserts have been some of the best I've ever had - lemony blueberry pie, granola cookies that make you wonder what you ever saw in oatmeal cookies, chocolate cookies that I still crave whenever I buy milk chocolate (really).

And while my sweet tooth is in no danger of fading away any time soon, I was still so excited to read that Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake chose a savoury recipe - Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins, to be exact. I goofed a bit on the ingredients for this one. I normally buy corn meal in bulk, and last week, I bought it from a typical grocery store for the first time. I ended up buying cornmeal labelled "pre-cooked" because I didn't think it would make a difference - I didn't realize that there were even different types of cornmeal - but it did.

Instead of the stone-ground variety that Dorie recommended, I ended up with a cornmeal so fine it was like flour. So my corn bread batter was more like corn bread dough, and that made for a pretty dense finished product.


Still, the flavour in these muffins is wonderful! I've never tasted a corn bread so complex before, with its chili powder and pepper. I omitted the jalapeno pepper and red pepper in favour of minced chipotle peppers, and the smoky chipotle added a lot of spicy flavour to the finished product. I would also omit the corn next time, since I found it more distracting than delicious.

This recipe is definitely worth making, although I need to buy some proper cornmeal next time. If you're looking for a corn bread with a lot of personality, I recommend heading over to Rebecca's blog for the recipe.

13 comments:

vibi January 13, 2009 at 9:32:00 AM EST  

Beautifully done, Kait! ...and the pics are out of this world! Wow! Probably the only ones that can actually make cornbread look good! LOL

chocolatechic January 13, 2009 at 10:58:00 AM EST  

Gorgeous muffins.

Anonymous January 13, 2009 at 9:44:00 PM EST  

Ooh, minced chipotles sounds delicious! Other people were complaining about their cornmeal being too grainy, but it seems like you had the opposite problem. Must be a happy medium in there somewhere.

MaryBeth January 13, 2009 at 10:53:00 PM EST  

Great pictures..The muffins are nothing but fabulous.

Anonymous January 13, 2009 at 11:04:00 PM EST  

The chipotle flavoring sounds delicious. I didn't know there was such a thing a pre-cooked cornmeal.

Anonymous January 13, 2009 at 11:17:00 PM EST  

Absolutely scrumptrilescent pictures!

Anonymous January 14, 2009 at 2:38:00 AM EST  

THanks for the warm welcome! It's great fun - your muffins look fantastic. Love what you did with the liners in your photo! And how you substituted - I bet they tasted as good as they look!

~Chris~ January 14, 2009 at 5:21:00 AM EST  

Thanks for the TWD welcome!
The chipotles sounds wonderful.

Anonymous January 14, 2009 at 1:36:00 PM EST  

Absolutely gorgeous! I like the chipotle addition! That sounds delicious!

Anonymous January 14, 2009 at 2:51:00 PM EST  

LOVE chipotles. What a great addition - and it was nice to have a break from the sweets after the holidays.

Lillian January 14, 2009 at 7:10:00 PM EST  

Those are adorable -- like little corn balls. I bet the different texture was worth trying.

Cooking for Comfort by Jennifer January 15, 2009 at 6:26:00 AM EST  

You did a wonderful job!

Nancy/n.o.e January 25, 2009 at 9:13:00 PM EST  

Your muffins look really good - great job! Who knew that pre-cooked cornmeal even existed?
Nancy

  © Blogger templates 'Sunshine' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP