{TWD} Maple Cornmeal Drop Biscuits

I'm busy this week dashing to and fro, so this post will be short and sweet. Which is perfect because these biscuits were exactly the same: quick to throw together, and just sweet enough to make me feel that I was eating something a little bit special.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- This week Lindsay from A Little Something...Sweet chose the recipes for the Tuesdays With Dorie members to bake. If you'd have a couple of minutes available for baking, and would like to try these biscuits, you can find the recipe on her post.

- I made 1/4 recipe and ended up with 3 biscuits.

- The recipe honestly could not be easier. The biscuits have both flour and cornmeal, and maple syrup provides the sole sweetener.

- I followed a tip from Caitlin of Engineerbaker and grated frozen butter into my dough and it worked perfectly - the butter gets mixed into the flour without working the dough too much.

the verdict:

The biscuits were lovely and moist inside but a little bit crumbly. We liked the crispy outside edges and the little crunch of the cornmeal. The maple flavor added wonderful flavor.

{TWD} Slightly Less Corny Corn Muffins

The selection for this week's Tuesdays With Dorie baking group is Dorie Greenspan's Corniest Corn Muffins. Ever since I've joined this group I've heard rave reviews of these corn muffins, so I was definitely interested in trying them out for myself. Since they are kin to cornbread, there is the inevitable North/South/West divide as to the amount of sweetener that is appropriate. Luckily I sidestep all those differences of opinion and eat my cornbread any way that it is served to me. Except, however, with kernels of corn in it. If I chop the corn kernels when adding them to corn bread or muffins they will pass muster, but whole kernels are pretty much unacceptable.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The muffins were picked for the group this week by Jill of the blog My Next Life. If you don't happen to have the book, you can visit Jill's blog for the recipe.

- I love honey alongside my corn muffins, so this time I decided to bake it right into the muffins. I substituted 5 T honey crystals for the recipe's 6 T sugar. Next time I think I'd cut at least one more tablespoon.

- For oil I used light tasting olive oil rather than corn oil, because that's what I had handy.

- I omitted the corn kernels.

- The batter filled the muffin cups about half way. As they baked, they rose nicely and filled the muffins cups to the top.

the verdict:

These muffins lived up to their hype. They were fluffy and moist, lightly sweet, with a subtle crunch. My daughter JDE tasted one and observed: "these are really nice." They definitely beat out the box muffins from Jiffy!

Corn and Vegetable Gratin with Cumin

Back during the holiday season I saw or heard in a news story about some scientific study which found that people tend to be less satisfied with gifts that they pick out for themselves; preferring the excitement and surprise of a gift chosen by others. I have no doubt that's a true, but just the same I was thrilled to find these individual-sized square gratin dishes under the tree on Christmas morning, even if I had shopped for them, bought them, and wrapped them for myself!

Fast forward 8 months, and I still hadn't used my gratin dishes, at least not for gratins. So imagine my excitement when I came across the NY Times recipe for Corn and Vegetable Gratin with Cumin. Yay! a chance to use my gratin dishes AND the bounty of corn I ended up with from my farm box (mistakenly ordered twice as much as I meant to)

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I made 1/2 recipe in 2 gratin dishes.

- In place of the 1.5 eggs for half the recipe I used one very large duck egg

- Although I was dying to use gruyere, I didn't have any and I did have jarlsburg cheese (1 oz)

- With all that richness, I felt pretty safe using skim milk.

- My garden had some wonderful, sweet red and green anaheim peppers

- I used wild garlic from farm box (bigger but milder cloves)

the verdict:

Although I usually think of "gratins" as dripping with cheese, but this one was more of an egg dish - kind of like crustless quiche. Enough quibbling about semantics! This gratin was delicious, with a Southwestern accent from the cumin and the peppers. I was glad I had such a tasty recipe to inaugurate my gratin dishes...

Bobby Flay Rebounds for Corn Muffin Throwdown!

After losing in my kitchen's red chili throwdown, Bobby Flay just begged for a rematch. "Really?" you say. "Well," I reply, "we didn't actually speak about it. But out of the kindness of my heart I decided to give him another chance."

Right after baking Dorie Greenspan's spicy corn muffins, I came across the Mesa Grill Blue Corn muffin recipe, and just had to bake them immediately! (Edit: I saw these muffins mentioned on Katrina's TWD post - thank you for the tip!)

Since I baked Bobby Flay's muffins right after Dorie's, and the recipes are so similar, I think conditions are ideal for another throwdown post!

(As a little bloggy aside, I'm posting this from out of town, and don't have access to all my photos, so if you come back in a couple of days, I'll have added some more pix)

Dorie Greenspan's Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

First up was Dorie Greenspan's muffin recipe. You can read my recent post about these muffins, and see the recipe here. To summarize my experience with Dorie's muffins: I made some changes in the interest of health (reduced the fat, upped the whole grain quotient) and stepped up the spice and heat a bit.

the verdict on Dorie Greenspan's muffins:

Recapping: We liked the muffins a lot, finding them very moist and tasty. They had lots of flavor, but were not really hot per se. A great recipe and one that I'd gladly make again (I have a zipper bag of the dry ingredients all pre-measured out for another batch).

Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Blue Corn Muffins

You've probably already noticed that Mesa Grill muffins, pictured up top, are not blue. I love the thought of using blue cornmeal in muffins - I love blue corn chips - but I didn't locate any in the ordinary course of grocery shopping. My choice was: (1) to wait until I located blue cornmeal (if I even could locate any), or (2) bake the muffins with yellow cornmeal - the same cornmeal that I used for Dorie's, in fact. I had all the other ingredients, and there was a pot of black bean soup on the stove, so I went ahead and baked the muffins.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- Trader Joe's Desert Mesquite Honey was perfect for these muffins. [edit: I saw two very similar versions of the Mesa Grill recipe online. I linked to one, above, but actually baked from the other, whose link I didn't save. It had 1T honey instead of granulated sugar. Other differences: 2 cloves garlic instead of 1, 1/4 cup diced onion in place of 3T. ]

- My jalapeno was very large - and very hot - so I used most but not all of it.

- [As with Dorie's muffins, I chopped the corn kernels roughly]

- I baked the muffins in the same silicone muffin pan as Dorie's. They cooked with a lovely golden brown bottom and edges but an incredible moist yet sturdy but not tough crumb.

- The kitchen was filled with the most amazing smell while these muffins were in the oven.

the verdict: Mesa Grill Corn Muffins

With the fresh and cooked ingredients, these muffins had lots of crunch and flavors. I love the complex flavor that the sauteed onion and garlic gave to the muffins. The slight hint of an outer crust was my favorite part. Well, and the taste! They were just about perfect, although I might experiment with adding a tiny bit of chili powder the next time.

As for the ever-pressing question of sweetness, these were not "sweet" corn muffins by Northern standards. There was a sweetness to them, however, and we thought 1 T was plenty of honey. I could see cutting it next time by a third or so. With all those savory ingredients stirred in, I personally wouldn't want them any sweeter.

Despite the quantity - and the undeniable heat - of the jalapeno I put in the batter, the muffins were not hot or spicy, just flavorful. My husband, who recently read an interesting article about hot peppers, reminded me that dairy products bind the capsaicin in the pepper, and so does bread. I guess that by stirring the jalapenos into the muffins (along with milk) they lose most of their heat, but transmit their pepper flavor.

Winner of the Throwdown

Although I previously described Dorie's savory corn muffins as "perfect", Bobby Flay was the indisputable winner of the throwdown! His muffins had great texture and flavor, and I will make them again in a heartbeat. Now I'm ready to track down some blue cornmeal to see if it improved the taste.

To be perfectly fair to the contesting muffins, I need to admit right up front that I made changes to both recipes, mostly to reduce the fat content of the muffins. I believe the fat content ended up roughly equivalent, as I cut some butter in Dorie's and used skim milk and egg substitute in Bobby's. I meant to use part whole-wheat flour in Bobby's muffins as I had done in Dorie's, but I forgot when the time came. I don't think that would have changed out vote, however, and I intend to make the Mesa Grill muffins with part whole wheat flour next time.

I'm glad that Bobby redeemed himself on the rematch!

{TWD} Extra Spicy Corn Muffins

After lots (and lots) of sweet food - homemade and otherwise - over the Christmas holidays, it was very refreshing to have a savory pick for this week's Tuesdays With Dorie assignment. Thanks so much to Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake (her corn muffin post here) for choosing Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins!

cook's notes:

We're big fans of spicy food, so I amped up the heat for these muffins. I also made some changes to improve their nutritional profile:

- I used 6 T butter and substituted 2 T fat free Greek yogurt for the rest of the butter. This cut the fat content and provided a great moistness to the muffins.

- My flour was a white/whole wheat blend. I figured the extra heartiness of the whole wheat would match the savory ingredients of these muffins.

- Dorie says to add chili powder to taste - in my case 2 tsp. Of the stash of chili powder in my spice cupboard, the stuff I bought at Fresh Market tasted like it would be the best for adding to muffins - it was the mellowest. Since jarred chili powder is a mixture of spices and chile peppers, its flavor can vary quite substantially.

- There was no bell pepper in my fridge, so I used 1/8 c. canned green chiles and 1/4 c. chopped scallions (the light green parts).

- I used a red finger hot pepper instead of a jalapeno.

[edit: I chopped my frozen corn kernels because I don't like whole corn in my muffins.]

- It was extremely tempting to add some cheese, but I figured I'd better leave well enough alone!

- I tasted the dry ingredients after I whisked them and I could tell the muffins would be too sweet for us. Without getting too mathematical (!) here's what I did: I added another round of all the dry ingredients (except the sugar), divided the mixture in half (thank goodness for digital scales), and baked one recipe’s worth. I found that with half the sugar, they still have a hint of sweetness but it didn’t ruin the muffins for me. I actually like sweet cornbread just fine (and also un-sweet cornbread), but I figured less sweet would fit with all of the savory and hot ingredients I had stirred into the batter.

the verdict:

I served these muffins straight from the oven with some chili (two chili recipes will be posted on Wednesday, I hope). They were moist (I think the yogurt helped), not too sweet, and packed quite a flavor kick with the hot peppers, scallions, and extra chili powder. The whole wheat paired quite well with all of the savory and hot ingredients I'd stirred in. We thought the muffins were perfect!

By the day after I baked these, the chili powder had "bled" at bit. I thought the muffins looked like they had the chicken pox.

I popped the leftover muffins in the freezer and pulled them out a few days later for Sunday brunch, accompanying my version of Huevos Rancheros - essentially eggs scrambled with onions, hot peppers, salsa and cheese (my secret ingredient is Asiago cheese, which gives a great sharp edge to the eggs). I re-warmed the muffins and they were great with the eggs. This recipe is a winner in our book!

I'm excited to have a bag of the dry ingredients all ready to whip up another batch of these yummy muffins.

You can find the recipe for these treasures on page 6 of of Dorie Greenspan's wonderful book Baking From My Home to Yours., or on Rebecca's post for these muffins. To see a bunch more corn muffin posts, check out the blogs of TWD blogroll. We're up to 388 members now (!) and there are sure to be lots of muffins out there.

Summer Dinner Party II (Mexican): black bean and corn salad

This evening we invited another couple to dinner on the spur of the minute. We share a love of Mexican flavors, and I wanted them to try the chicken enchiladas verdes recipe that I found earlier this week. To complement the enchiladas, I made a black bean and corn salad. The original recipe, from the Georgia Pecan Commission recipe page, has orzo in it and it makes an all-in-one side dish, but this evening I served it without the orzo as a salad on a bed of lettuce. I've seen a similar dish called "Texas caviar" - this one is different because it has black beans, toasted Georgia pecans, and a very simple healthy dressing of lime juice, olive oil and cumin.