Cornbread Muffins ~ Kenny Rogers Muffin Wannabe

I remember when Kenny Rogers Roasters first hit town in Malaysia. My friends and I will go there for lunch after school and they make the only southern style cornbread muffins in Malaysia at the time. It was a realtively new food to me as the muffins I was used to were either chocolate or berries flavored. To combine corn in sweets, that was something new.

My first venture in making cornbread muffins is not a unique story. Just like any novice cook at the time, Jiffy mix cornbread seems like the perfect good solution. It was easy, convenient and cheap. Most of all, it works.

Years later after endless dabbling in baking and researching for recipes, the faithful day came when I finally venture into cornbread baking from scratch. I found many recipes online but few of the recips meet my criteria of making the Kenny Rogers style cornbread muffins. See, in the south, the cornbread recipe is not sweet. However, what they did not tell you is that cook usually poured gallons of honey after the baking process onto the cornbread to sweeten it. Something that a friend from the south told me.

Well, I want my Kenny Rogers style cornbread muffins and after some un-numbered times of trial and error, may I present to you my Sweet Cornbread Muffins.

 Cornbread Muffins
(Makes 12)

Ingredients
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 - 1 cup sugar (depending on the sweetness you like)
2 tsp  baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup corn kernels plus 1/2 cup for mixing into the batter
1 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
4 Tbsp melted butter

Directions
Step 1: Preheat oven to 450F or 232C

Step 2: Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well.

Step 3: In a food processor, combine the eggs, 1 cup of corn kernels and sour cream. Process for a minute till mixture is well blended. If you are using cream-style corn, just use a cup of the cream style corn and 1/2 cup of sour cream in the mix.

Step 4: Pour the liquid mix into the flour mix. Pour in the melted butter. Fold lightly to combine.

Step 5: Stir in the 1/2 cup of corn kernels. Batter will be thick.

Step 6: Prepare a muffin tin lined with muffin cups. Spoon cornbread batter into cups. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cups.

Continue till all batter has been used.
Step 7: Bake for 12-15 minutes till cornbread is done and golden in color. Test with a skewer. Skewer should come out clean when insert into the center of a cornbread muffin.

Let cool on wire rack. Serve as is or with a bowl of chilli.