Recipes Cooking

Cornbread or Muffins

When Mr. Ferdzy and I were courting - if you can call a single month between meeting and moving in together courting - he invited me to dinner at his co-operative house, and I brought this in the form of a pan of cornbread, in the hopes of seducing him with my culinary skills. It didnt exactly work, since he ate it cheerfully enough but somewhat obliviously. On the other hand it did no harm, and in another month we will have been together for 23 years. Not bad, considering we gave all our parents spasms from the speed at which we moved in together.

Ive had this recipe for at least 10 years longer than that, and maybe more like 15, so it definitely comes under the heading of "tried and true". Not tired of it yet either.

The amount of sugar you put in is very flexible. Half a cup will make them sweet and cake-like which may be what you want sometimes. Two tablespoons will give just a touch of sweetness and make them suitable to serve as an accompaniment to a main dish such as chili or stew. For normal breakfast purposes I usually put in about 1/4 cup of sugar.

12 muffins
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time


1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 3/4 cups milk or buttermilk

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons to 1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg
1/3 cup mild vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin papers, or butter and flour them well.

Mix the cornmeal with the milk and let sit for 10 minutes.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat the egg and oil into the cornmeal and stir in the flour, until just mixed. Do not overmix.

Divide the batter evenly amongst the muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes. You could also put it in a well buttered and floured 9" x 9" pan, but I did not record and no longer remember the time it took to bake. Probably a few minutes longer.





Last year at this time I made Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits.