Cornbread Muffins.

As you know, Rosie is always on the lookout for cornbread recipes.
Here's the latest, thanks to America's Test Kitchen.

I was watching America's Test Kitchen the other day and they had this recipe for cornbread muffins.  They used a technique of whisking milk and cornmeal, then nuking and whisking some more, until it got thicker and thicker, with a consistency of polenta.  It's a good technique and one I've since used in making a corn bread pudding with excellent results.

I scribbled the recipe down as I was watching.  Glad I did, since the recipe for cornbread muffins in my "The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2015" is not the same recipe.  Doesn't have that technique.

Here are my scriblings:

Do you need that transcribed for you?
OK.

America's Test Kitchen Cornbread Muffins

For the dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 14 tsp salt
Whisk all together.

For the wet ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup cornmeal
Whisk milk and cornmeal until smooth.  Nuke for about a minute.  Whisk.  Nuke again.  Whisk until smooth.  Continue nuking for a minute, then whisking until smooth, for about 10-15 minutes until the mixture gets thick like polenta.
Add in:
1 cup sour cream
1 stick melted, unsalted butter
3 TB sugar
2 eggs, beaten

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
Ladle into greased muffin tins.
Bake at 425° for 13 - 17 minutes, rotating halfway through, until nicely browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

Excellent corn muffins!

Perfect with a schmear of butter right out of the oven.
Or sliced and sautéed in butter for breakfast.  With fresh salsa.

The Hawthornes Have A Lovely Lunch In Savannah.

 The Hawthornes love Uncle Bubba's in Savannah.

We visited a week ago, on March 21, 2014, our third time.

Our first visit was November 11, 2010.

The second time was October 9, 2012.

Mr. Hawthorne has very shapely legs.

Lush, pretty entrance way.

What good fortune for the Hawthornes!

Paula was at Bubba's the day we were there!!

Mr. Hawthorne clicked off a quick pic of me and ...

... Paula was gracious enough to pose with Mr. Hawthorne, too!

Our capable and pleasant waitress, Joy,

immediately brought us cornbread muffins

with a butter and honey spread.

I have the recipe for these and made them tonight for supper.

Quite good!

Mr. Hawthorne and I shared the grilled oysters.

Texas oysters, the sign read.

On the small size,

very gritty,

and too much cheese overload.

The ones we had on our first two visits were quite enjoyable.

These, not so much.

And that bread is addictive.

Grated Parmesan on top.

We also shared the soup de jour - "Loaded" Potato Soup.

We both found this quite bland.

I never salt food at a restaurant,

but Mr. Hawthorne and I both decided it needed salt.

And pepper.

And swirls of Uncle Bubba's hot sauce.

Then it was palatable.

Very creamy and smooth.

Liked the cheddar, scallions, and bacon.

The potato chunks were too big.

These were about a one-inch cube.

Shouldn't be bigger than pea-size.

I had nicely grilled scallops with crisp fries.

Enjoyable.
Eight scallops!

Mr. Hawthorne had the fried oysters, of course, with cole slaw.

Lightly fried, not greasy at all, fine crust.

And ... we're outta Savannah.

I made the corn muffins tonight, a week later.

 Uncle Bubba's Corn Muffins

This recipe calls for a 12-cup muffin tin.

The muffins at Bubba's were smaller - 24/sheet.

Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, mix:

1 cup self-rising yellow cornmeal

(I didn't have self-rising cornmeal

so I used plain yellow cornmeal

mixed with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder.)

 3/4 cup self-rising flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

In another bowl, beat until well-blended: 

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream

Stir in 8 ounces cream style corn.

Add corn mixture to flour mixture and stir until just mixed.

Pour into muffin tins and bake approximately 24 minutes,

until golden brown.

 Quite tasty little morsels.

Yes.  

This hit the spot.

Serve the corn muffins, sliced,

with reduced gravy from the seared London Broil,

with a rub of homemade sea salt, freshly cracked pepper,

Montreal Steak Seasoning, cayenne pepper, and ground coffee.

Add some pretty color -

orange of carrot

green of pea.

 

Along with my bread.

Serve with a heapin' spoonful of love.

Thursday Night Dinner For The Hawthornes.

Here's the Hawthornes' dinner Thursday night. Grilled barbecued chicken, broccoli, and cornbread muffins.

Mr. Hawthorne once again gets the "shit detail," as he calls it, and skins the chicken.

The butchers hide a lot of the fat underneath the chicken. They could very easily chop this off, but I imagine they like having the customers pay premium prices for fat. I do not like this.

Mr. Hawthorne, I do believe you've done this before. One of the most important kitchen tools is a good pair of scissors. We like the kind of scissors that have the removable blades so you can wash raw meat off of them easier. And do not use your kitchen scissors to cut cardboard.

Mr. Hawthorne always leaves a little bit of fat on so he can get the flare ups on the grill which gives you that flame-kissed flavor.

Out of 4.87 pounds of chicken, we ended up with 1 pound 7.3 ounces of fat. This is not acceptable to me.

Next, the ingredients for my barbecue sauce: (And these measurements are not etched in stone. They are to my taste, which is impeccable, of course. But you can add more or less of whatever.) 1 cup cider vinegar 1/3 cup molasses 1/3 cup dark corn syrup 1/2 cup ketchup 1/2 cup brown sugar 4 TB Lea & Perrins 4 TB Dijon mustard 2 TB sweet hot mustard 4 cloves garlic 1-2 tsp Mr. Stubb's Hickory Liquid Smoke (Go easy on this stuff. Add just a little bit at a time and taste.) Red pepper flakes, to taste. I use about a tablespoon.

First, I minced my garlic and added in the vinegar and the rest of the ingredients.

I waited till last to add the Liquid Smoke. Mix well, taste, and adjust if necessary.

Mr. Hawthorne put the chicken quarters on the grill, turning every so often, cooking for about 25 minutes.

He brushes on the barbecue sauce about 10-15 minutes before finishing cooking.

In the meantime, I had made these pretty little cornbread muffins.

I'm liking this texture very much.

Butter makes everything better. These were quite good (as in they were all gone that night save for 1 muffin) but I'm going to tweak this recipe a bit flavor-wise. Then I'll give you the recipe measurements.

Chicken is done. And here's my plate: Grilled chicken with a bit of extra barbecue sauce, tender, moist, and juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside. Crispy-tender steamed broccoli with lemon juice and butter. And a cornbread muffin with butter and a drizzling of barbecue sauce. Simple, easy, and dare I say it ... delicious.