Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie
Some things, for better or worse, are guaranteed in my baking. First, when making jam or jelly, I will always cut down on the amount of sugar that the recipe calls for. Secondly, my biscuits will spread out instead of rising up. And thirdly, if I see a recipe that calls for cornmeal in a muffin or quick bread, I will make it immediately.
I don’t know why I have such a fascination with cornmeal in sweet goods. I don’t LOVE cornbread, but there’s something about the combination of cornmeal and fruit and sugar that just gets me humming.
Anyway, I knew I was going to make these muffins as soon as I read the title. This is a standard muffin recipe with cornmeal subbed in for some of the flour. In a twist, though, Mackie calls for a cup of diced pineapple, along with a cup of pineapple juice. Once the muffins are baked, the tops are dented and filled with raspberry jam.
Alas, cornmeal + pineapple + raspberry jam did not equal cornbready muffin nirvana.
The muffins tasted like they had cornmeal in them, but they weren’t sweet at all. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, but I’d probably up that a bit next time. Also, Mackie never tells you what size of muffins these make. The recipe states that it makes 6 to 8 muffins. I have to assume that those are jumbo-size muffins, since I used a standard 12-muffin pan and ended up throwing away almost of a third of my batter. Also, my muffins didn’t rise at all, so there wasn’t anything to dent. I ended up just dolloping each muffin with the jam. And finally, the chunks of pineapple were too big and most of them sank to the bottom of the muffins. Next time, I’ll use crushed pineapple so it spread through the batter a little better.
I just can’t get past the idea of cornbread being sweet. I love cornbread but would be the total opposite of you… cornmeal in a muffin, nope. But, alas, I would love to try one just to see what it’s like. I have on occasion accidentally bitten into sweet cornbread and have gagged as a reflex but maybe if I were already thinking sweet, then maybe I wouldn’t react that way. I love that you are learning all this cool stuff and giving us tips about how to make it better.
These do sound good the way you are suggesting although I guess I always think of cornmeal and beans together and don’t think I have ever had a sweet version of it.