Sweet Corn Muffins

My boy Bladen is a serious muffin head. A few years ago I was poking around, looking for a way to lessen the sugar in his favorite food. I came across a sweet corn muffin recipe - and it was magic. Now - it completely failed as far as lessening the sugar thing. But the flavor of these little beauties was fantastic. It faintly dawned no me that it was a variation of the heretical cornbread made up north of the Mason Dixon line, but Bladen was so enamored of them that I couldn't bring myself to care. Besides - these were sweet muffins, not made as cornbread, so I felt like I wasn't violating my Southern roots. Too much.



These are just delicious - they are tender, moist and sweet - but with a few kudos to me, not too sweet, although there is definitely sugar in them. Feel free to cut it back a bit if you like. They're less sweet than a standard muffin, and far more so than a typical dinner roll, and all of the kids eat them like crazy. They go great in place of bread with pork or chicken either one, and I often make these with different types of soup - especially lentils or split peas. The sweet cornbready thing goes really well with the hearty dried beans. Hey - for that matter, if you nuke them for a second they're great leftover for breakfast. Give these a shot - you'll like how different they are from typical muffins, and find yourself reaching for this recipe time and again!

Ingredients


• 1/2 cups all-purpose flour



•1 cup sugar

•3/4 cup cornmeal

•1 tablespoon baking powder

•1/2 teaspoon salt

•2 eggs

•1/2 cup shortening

•1 cup milk, divided

Directions


1.Preheat oven to 350F.

2.Grease and flour, or line with paper muffin cups, a 12 cup muffin pan.

3.In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cornmeal and baking powder.

4.In a second bowl combine eggs, shortening and 1/2 cup of milk. Beat well, until fully combined.

5.Add flour mixture to egg mixture and beat well, until fully combined. Add remaining half cup of milk.

6.Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full - an ice cream scoop or disher works best for this since they'll all be exactly the same.

7.Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester or wooden skewer inserted into the middle of an interior muffin (interior of the muffin pan) tests done by coming out clean. The tops of the muffins should be springy to the touch.

8.Allow muffins to cool for ten minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or room temperature. Wrap extras well and store for up to 2 days.