Corn Muffins with Yogurt

I have already told you how much I love making soups in the fall. One thing I like to make with soup is some kind of bread, muffin or crackers.  I love a nice crusty loaf with potato soup. I usually make some kind of cheese on bread for tomato. But there are several soups that just call for corn muffins. Bean soups, pea soup, and sometimes the butternut squash soup I shared the other day often get corn bread accompaniment. I have been making corn muffins since way back but the other day, I had a nice pot of butterbeans and black eyed peas and  I was in the mood for corn muffins that were a bit sweeter and less dense than my typical choice. I also had some buttermilk and yogurt I wanted to use up so I pieced together a few recipes for muffins and corn bread and came up with this.   I love using buttermilk in baked goods but if you don’t have any, never fear. I share a substitute that will work fine.

A few comments first. If you prefer oil instead of butter, I think that would fine. I made some very similar corn muffins with a mix of oil, coconut oil and butter. I like the butter flavor, though and prefer not to add any butter to corn muffins after they are baked so butter in the batter is nice. I use a generous amount of sugar here and it is perfectly fine to cut it down. My mom is very partial to sweet things and I like to tempt her to eat J

 I also want to point out that my photo shows these muffins in paper liners. I usually don’t use those for corn muffins but I had to be some place right after dinner and did not feel like cleaning muffin tins. Those liners do come in handy for just such an occasion but in general---corn muffins are so much better when you grease the tins and bake. They get a nice crust on them and if you skip using paper liners, you get to do your part to save the planet.  

Now this recipe is still a work in progress but I decided to share it here anyway. See what you think.

Corn muffins with Yogurt

These are sweet, tender and moist!

5-6 TBSPN unsalted butter*, melted ( may use oil )

2/3  cup sugar( or less)

2 large eggs

8 oz yogurt- honey, plain, or greek

½ cup buttermilk **

1 ½ cup corn meal

1 ½ cup flour, unbleached all-purpose preferred

1 TBSP baking powder

1 tsp salt

Oil for muffin tins

*I have been playing around with different oils such as a mix of coconut and canola and these work well too. I prefer to use a bit of butter with a bit of each of these( 2 TBSP each). This recipe does not seem to be too picky about type of oil/butter. You can vary amount to even 4 TBSP but I liked the extra butter in these.

**I love having buttermilk on hand now for baking, breading and other uses but if you don’t have any, use extra yogurt or make some by adding a TBSP of lemon juice or white vinegar to milk and let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Add yogurt and buttermilk.

In another bowl, combine dry ingredients.

Gently fold dry ingredients into wet and mix together without overworking.

Oil muffin tins- you can bake about 12-18 muffins depending on size of muffins.

Place in oven. Check after 7 minutes to make sure they are baking evenly, rotate pans if needed.

Check for doneness at 14 minutes. They should be nicely browned. It usually takes between 14-18 minutes depending on size. Let them cool a bit before serving.

Serve with honey and butter.