Cranberry Corn Muffins

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!  Please excuse this deviation to my Friday posting schedule (that probably no one pays attention to aside from myself) and accept this Thursday post from The Gourmet Gourmand.

Primarily this is because I will be travelling all day tomorrow to go visit the family and anticipate that were I to attempt a post tomorrow-  a rather haggard self, sitting amongst piles of luggage, laden with bags of presents, chewing on a croissant, typing away on WordPress- Dave would undoubtedly side-eye me judgmentally.  

But really, in addition to spousal peer-pressure, I am in general attempting to set blog-limits, and thus intend to not post on Christmas.  Because it’s vacation time and the right thing to do!

(Blogaholism is real, my friends).

But before I sign out for the next several days, please let me grace your screens with photos of the best cranberry corn muffins I ever did eat.I have been craving the perfect fruit-laden corn muffins ever since having the.most.perfect. corn muffin in San Francisco (or was it Oakland?).. I can’t remember even where we were or why we were there but this muffin is forever burned into my memory.

The muffins were dense and moist, textured, yet tender, and topped with fresh strawberries baked into these little golden nuggets.. adding additional flavor and moistness that “till this moment I never knew myself” (yes I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice for the 10,000th time…). So here is my contribution to the world of corn muffin recipes.  This recipe decidedly has a higher quantity of eggs than most corn muffins, so I think this accounts for the difference in texture.  This muffin really does the original justice- it is light and moist, with subtle sweetness, and pockets of tart cranberries, and of course a delightful chewiness from the cornmeal that adds to the texture without becoming problematically crunchy or dry.  In fact, these are the antithesis of the dry, crumbly corn bread that makes me want to hang my head in shame on the baker’s behalf.

And I think it goes without saying that cranberries are the perfect addition to this recipe. While I deeply enjoyed the original strawberry version, fresh cranberries are in season right now, and really go exceptionally well with the corn flavor.  Their tartness plays off the delicate sweetness well, and release just a little bit of juice to add extra moisture to the muffins.

(Cook’s note- I really would not substitute dried fruit here, unless you are looking to fundamentally change the recipe.)

(Also thanks to Emily for her hand-modeling debut… 🙂 )

Merry Christmas all!

Cranberry Corn Muffins

Adapted from Pioneer Thinking

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 17 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups yellow cornmeal I used Bob's Red Mill
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 4 large eggs
• ½ cup melted butter plus more butter (softened) for greasing muffin tins
• 1 cup real maple syrup
• 2 cups fresh cranberries

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Using pastry brush and softened butter, grease the muffin tin.
• In a large mixing bowl combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk ingredients together.
• Gradually pour in milk, eggs, melted butter, and maple syrup. Whisk until just combined, but don't over-mix.
• Gently stir in cranberries.
• Using a 1/3 cup measuring spoon, fill muffin tins.
• Bake for 13-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. (Mine took exactly 15 minutes).