Cheddar Corn Muffins

For approximately five years now, my friend Stacie and I have been saying that we should take one of the cooking classes offered at Whole Foods. Last month, we finally made this happen and took a muffin-making class. The woman teaching the class shared some excellent recipes, including this one for cheddar corn muffins. The main thing we learned was not to overmix the muffin batter. I'd heard this before, but it helped to have someone demonstrate when exactly to stop mixing. I always have to mix until I can't see any spots of flour, but apparently I was over-mixing. When everything is just barely incorporated... stop! And you'll end up with fluffy, tender, delicious muffins.

We had some special guests for dinner last night: John's aunt Linda and uncle Mike. Linda is a faithful reader and commenter here on our blog, so we wanted to make a nice dinner for her. We made these to go along with our fabulous barbeque pulled pork. The muffins have an awesome crispy crust on the top, due to a generous sprinkling of cheddar before they go in the oven. There is more cheddar in the batter, along with some oregano and cayenne. The end result is a really tasty, savory muffin... I'll definitely be making these next time we have chili!

Cheddar Corn Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cups sharp cheddar, grated

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray muffin tins. Combine all dry ingredients. Add half of the grated cheese.

2. In another bowl, mix together the melted butter, milk, and egg. Combine wet into dry, mixing only enough to incorporate the dry ingredients.

3. Fill muffin tins to 3/4 full. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and add an additional sprinkling of cayenne, if desired. Bake for 20 minutes, or until tops feel firm to the touch.

Makes 10-12 muffins.

Download a printable recipe
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