A is for Agave Cornbread Muffins (Jessica)

Greetings!

For the first recipe in the Alphabet Challenge, I picked a recipe that fulfilled two roles at once: (1) it starts with an A and (2) it is a (vaguely) Mexican recipe I could use for this month’s Mexican-themed Cooking Club dinner. (Side note about Cooking Club: we meet up once a month and everyone makes something to contribute to the dinner in accordance with the pre-selected theme).

This recipe for Agave Cornbread Muffins came from allrecipes.com which is one of my favorite sites for picking new recipes. I followed some of the users' comments and altered the recipe to the following (after the jump). For the original recipe (which is vegan), look here.

Agave Cornbread Muffins

(makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

1 cup cornmeal (found in the baking aisle)

½ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup regular flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Slightly more than 1 cup unsweetened applesauce

Slightly more than 1 cup skim milk

Slightly less than ½ cup agave nectar (found in the baking aisle, typically near honey)

¼ cup canola oil

Directions:

1)    Preheat oven to 325° F. Lightly grease muffin pan

2)    Combine cornmeal, both flours, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. 

3)    Stir in the applesauce, milk, and agave nectar. Slowly add the oil while stirring.

4)    Pour mixture into pan. Muffin tins will be filled almost to the top.

5)    Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

6)    Let stand in muffin pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Run a butter knife around each muffin to remove from pan without damage. 

Review:

These muffins made my kitchen smell amazing and reminded me of getting corn muffins when I was a kid from Dunkin’ Donuts. Except these were better. They had the traditional corn muffin texture (from the cornmeal) and weren’t dry at all, they were delicious! I think the applesauce was the key here because it kept the muffins moist. This recipe was easy and took about 40 minutes from start to finish, including baking and cleaning time. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone with or without baking experience; no complicated ingredients or kitchen appliances, just a great taste. Yum!

Happy baking,

-Jessica