Corn muffins 1

In my ear­ly days in NYC, I was on a mis­sion to find the best and biggest muffins in town. Two places stand out — Lin­coln Square Deli and a bak­ery near NYU, where I was tak­ing cours­es toward my Mas­ter’s degree. I think the muffins weighed 4–6 ounces, for about 500 calo­ries. The only thing sav­ing me from devel­op­ing a muf­fin top was that I ate only the muf­fin top.

Fast for­ward to today, sev­er­al years removed from my grad school days. I’m not real­ly inter­est­ed in eat­ing huge muffins these days; it’s hard to jus­ti­fy spend­ing one-third or so of my dai­ly calo­ries on a plain muf­fin and even more if I include but­ter. So one of my kitchen favorites is our mini-muf­fin pan. It holds enough bat­ter for 24 1‑ounce muffins and eat­ing two or even three max­es out at about 300 calo­ries. I make most­ly bran, but some­times berry or corn.

My friends at Culi­nary Col­lec­tive recent­ly sent me three Peru­vian flour sam­ples, includ­ing pur­ple corn.   Corn mealI imme­di­ate­ly got to work mak­ing pur­ple corn mini-muffins. The Culi­nary Col­lec­tive rec­om­mend­ed adding jalapeños, which I did, and that inspired me to riff on the Mex­i­can theme and throw in some roast­ed red pep­pers and corn ker­nels too. The muffins are sweet and savory, great part­ners for eggs at break­fast or chili at din­ner.

Sweet and Savory Pur­ple Peru­vian Corn Muffins
Makes 24 mini- or 12 2‑ounce muffins

2 cups all-pur­pose flour
1 cup pur­ple corn­meal
1 tea­spoon bak­ing pow­der
1 tea­spoon bak­ing soda
1/2 tea­spoon salt
1/2 cup hon­ey
1/2 cup veg­etable oil
2 large eggs
3/4 cup low-fat milk
1 can corn ker­nels, drained
1/4 cup diced roast­ed red pep­per
2 table­spoons diced jalapeños

  1.  Pre­heat oven to 400° F. Spray a 24-cup mini-muf­fin pan with cook­ing spray.
  2. Whisk togeth­er the flour, corn­meal, bak­ing pow­der, bak­ing soda, and salt in a large bowl.
  3. Whisk togeth­er the hon­ey, oil, eggs, and milk in a medi­um bowl.
  4. Com­bine the corn, red pep­per, and jalapeños in a small bowl.
  5. Add the hon­ey mix­ture to the dry ingre­di­ents and stir until just com­bined. Avoid over-mix­ing. Fold in the corn mix­ture.
  6. Fill the cups 3/4 full. Bake for about 13 min­utes, until the tops begin to brown and the muffins are firm but not dry.
  7. Cool for 5 min­utes; then remove from the pan.

Corn muffins 2