We escaped the frozen north this week to a warm, tropical place and it almost feels like cheating. Shouldn’t we be shaking? Shouldn’t we eat comfort food that sticks to ribs and not sip fresh fruit from the passion of a spoon? How can we have the audacity to drag our feet in sandy flip-flops while our arctic blowers gather dust in the closet?
It turns out that it is not so difficult at all. But I’m not here to gloat, I promise; I was freezing too, silently resentful of people anywhere their face didn’t freeze half a block from their apartment and questioning all the life choices that had led me to settle in such a place just a few days ago. Instead, I’d like to offer small packets of what goes through the sun until the real heat returns: the best corn muffins I’ve ever made.
<img
src=”https://i1.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7308/16559150932_539dc443ff_z.jpg” alt=”dry ingredients” /> <img src="https://i0.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7428/16372804440_0ef01ff389_z.jpg" alt="
cooked cornmeal porridge” />
I’ve been looking for a great corn muffin recipe, well, for as long as I can remember. My mom made them when I was growing up and I had assumed she got her recipe for Joy of Cooking or Silver Palate, two of our cookbook bibles back then, but no, she tells me they were from the back of Jiffy’s box, sending me back to the drawing board if I wanted to make them from scratch. I made Dorie Greenspan’s cheesiest corn muffins many years ago, and while they’re lovely, the corn muffins I’m nostalgic for didn’t have fresh corn in them. I heard great things about the corn muffins from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, but found them almost too buttery and flat. I should have known after a decade of perfect blueberry muffin search that ended with Cook’s Illustrated that this would too.
Cook’s Illustrated understands the value of a large, steep, tanned muffin dome. They understand that while a denser dough can make pretty muffins, you’ll want a thick, creamy ingredient inside to prevent the final muffin from having a dry, mealy flavor. Often, we use applesauce or mashed bananas to soften the final crumb, but I don’t need any of that in my corn muffins. In this month’s magazine, they did something I had never considered: cook some of the cornmeal with milk until the porridge thickens to give the muffins a cuteness that otherwise seems impossible with this volume of dry ingredients. Divided and heated with a pat of salted butter (or salted brown honey butter, I’m just saying), if cold weather could have a consolation prize, it would be this one.
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7308/15937691814_09480f9fbd_z.jpg" alt="steep and perfect corn muffins" /
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Thank you: For all your good cheers and kind words about last week’s crazy news. As a second kid, I always thought we were old news, but you’ve made this feel like anything but and reminded me, once again, how fun it is to have this little corner of the web as your own.
One year ago: Rice stuck with lentils and yogurt Two years ago: Blood orange daisies Three years ago: Double coconut muffins Four years ago: Green bean salad with pickled red onions and fried almonds Five years ago: Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe (Cheese and Black Pepper)Six years ago: Devil’s chicken thighs and stewed leeks Seven years ago: Puttanesca Pasta and Broken Artichoke Heart SaladEight years ago: Dill bread + Many tips for making bread
And for the other side of the world: Six months ago: Smoked eggplant sauce 1.5 years ago: tomatoes stuffed with rice 2.5 years ago: My favorite brownies3.5 years ago: Hazelnut plum crumb cake
