Very Berry Corn Muffins
While at Trader Joe's not too long ago, I impulsively grabbed a bag of frozen berries because the bag included cherries in the mix, not your normal fare in a bag of mixed frozen berries. I figured I'd probably use the frozen fruit in some smoothies for lunch, but then I decided to whip up some muffins I saw in the Macrina cookbook Dustin bought me for Christmas, modified slightly to make a little healthier for breakfast. I bought a bag of corn flour (different from cornmeal, FYI) to experiment with some new flours in baking, and that's the special ingredient you will taste in these muffins.
Very Berry Corn Muffins
yields 12 standard muffins
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons corn flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 2 cups mixed frozen berries (cherries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries— Trader Joe's Very Cherry Berry Blend)
- Preheat the oven to 425º. Grease the top of a muffin tin and place liners in cavities.
- Sift together the flours, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a medium-sized bowl.
- Stir in the orange zest.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, butter and applesauce until smooth.
- Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture.
- Fold in the berries.
- Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling each to the top. Liberally sprinkle the streusel topping (recipe below) over the tops.
- Bake for 5 minutes before lowering the temperature to 350º and bake for another 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out cleanly.
- Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
Streusel Topping
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
- 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
- Combine the flour, cornmeal and sugar.
- Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles crumbs.
- Add in the almond extract and mix.
adapted from More From Macrina
