Adapted from a New York TImes recipe by Melissa Clark and surely the best corn muffins I have ever had.
We downsized the original recipe, then added cranberries because they had just showed up in the grocery store. The puckery cranberries complemented the rich sweet muffins perfectly. Plain muffins weren’t as appealing, but maybe that’s because I couldn’t resist eating them at odd times instead of with a proper meal. The jewel-like tones of the cranberries against the golden yellow muffins are beautiful.
We bake these as mini-muffins in a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. The crust of the muffins is so delectable that buttering every cup is worth the effort, though of course you could use paper mini-muffin cups to line the pan.
1 cup medium-grind cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (fine)
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup whole milk
2 large eggs at room temperature
12-ounce bag of washed fresh cranberries
Heat oven to 400°F. Butter a 24-cup muffin tin (or 6-8 cups of a standard muffin tin.)
Whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix very well the melted butter, buttermilk, whole milk, and eggs.
Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add the cranberries and mix just until all ingredients are moistened. Do not overmix. Fill muffin cups with batter and bake for 15-18 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. If you use a standard muffin tin, bake a few minutes longer.
Remove these little muffins from the muffin tin and allow to cool a bit. As Melissa Clark says in the original recipe, “Serve with even more butter.”