Blueberry Cornbread
After work yesterday, I sat down with the latest issue of Vogue and a little snack--blueberry cornbread muffins. I know that it might seem weird that I'm using blueberries in a lot of my baking, especially since I griped about how they ruined my pie, but they work so well in quick breads. Also, Bread & Honey recently featured this recipe, and its loveliness pushed me to try it out myself.

This was another easy day in the kitchen. The batter came together without the help of a mixer, which was really nice because I hate cleaning the whisks and beaters of mixers. I didn't have any yogurt or honey in the house, so I used clabbered milk (milk + lemon juice) and sugar. Wrong move.

The cornbread didn't turn out as fantastic as it did for Summer, and I'm convinced the ingredients I used are to blame. Yogurt would have made the cornbread much richer and creamier than the clabbered milk I put together, especially since I used skim milk to make it. I also used reduced fat margarine. With the lower fat content, the cornbread was bound to come out of the oven dry, and it did. This was compounded by the blandness of the cornbread. Honey would have added a much deeper sweetness to the bread than sugar and would have probably contributed some moisture.

I'm not too excited about the end result, but I think I will give the recipe another try if I ever get around to stocking up on some yogurt and honey. This cornbread really reminds me of the Polenta-Ricotta Cake I made for Tuesdays with Dorie, and that one turned out super well. So I have to give this recipe another shot.

Blueberry Cornbread (adapted from Bread & Honey for 8 muffins)
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup clabbered milk (1/2 cup skim milk + 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice; set for 10 min)
  • 1/2 egg
  • 1/8 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons margarine
  • 3/4 cup fresh blueberries
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a muffin tin by lining it with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. In another container, combine the liquid ingredients, and then stir then into the dry mixture. Be careful not to overstir; mix just until the dry ingredients are full incorporated. Fold in the blueberries.

Divide into the muffin tin. Bake for about 18 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.


9 comments:

  1. Heather B said...

    yum! I love blueberry muffins and the cornbread addition sounds delicious! Will have to try!  

  2. Megan said...

    Hi Cecilia! I've tagged you - visit my blog for the details!  

  3. Prudy said...

    I love blueberry cornmeal pancakes, so I bet I'd like these too. Wouldn't they be good with a maple glaze?  

  4. Katie said...

    Beautiful muffins :) I love your blog!  

  5. Anonymous said...

    Too bad the muffins didn't turn out as you'd hoped. Blueberry muffin + cornbread sounds like a great combo, and the pictures of the muffins look great. Though cornbread can be tough. Sometimes it works, and other times it just isn't good enough (too dry, etc.).  

  6. Mari said...

    You can never go wrong with cornbread muffins!  

  7. Cecilia said...

    Mevrouw Cupcake: Oh, but these cornbread muffins did go wrong. They tasted all right fresh out of the oven, but the taste progressively worsened over the next few days. I ended up throwing out half of the batch.

    S: Cornbread is tough! I'm thinking a creamier dairy ingredient would have worked better than the clabbered milk. Ricotta cheese? Yogurt?

    Prudy: I hadn't thought about doing a maple glaze. How does one make a maple glaze?  

  8. Michelle H said...

    I never thought of using blueberries in cornbread, I will definitely be trying this recipe. I'm a HUGE cornbread fan. :-D  

  9. Anonymous said...

    my husband and I are huge cornbread fans and we also happen to love blueberries. what a cool combo I think I am going to make these today!