Can you improve my corn muffins?

[salvorhardin]

I'm looking for the best, most minimal, corn muffin recipe possible. Back in my early 20s I remember having a killer recipe but I never wrote it down and now it's lost to the middle ages.

So here's the recipe I'm working off. It's pretty good, but it frequently turns out too dry and the muffins tend to fall apart at a touch. How can I make it better without complicating it (yes, adding stuff like buttermilk is delish, but I want the most basic recipe possible).

1 C cornmeal
1 C flour
2 - 4 Tbsp sugar (depending on taste)
4 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C milk
1/4 C butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten

Normal assembly. Mix dry, mix wet, mix wet into dry. Bake at 400F for 18-20 min.

Should I add an extra egg? More flour? Less baking powder? More milk?

[Vinca]

1. How about some vegetable oil?

[salvorhardin]

2. Oops. Forgot to type the butter in.

I just added it. 1/4 C butter.

I like the taste butter adds. Do you think vegetable oil would make them hold together better and be less dry?

For some reason, I'm thinking when I used to make them all the time when I was young, I probably used Crisco.

[housewolf]

31. Oil provides more moisture, butter provides more flavor

You might try a batch with oil instead of butter and see how they turn out for you, or sub oil for half the butter.

[Tesha]

3. I always sour the milk

it makes the final product more tender.
and I wouldn't use quite so much baking powder.....
more like 2 tsp.
plus a little baking soda - like 1/2 tsp.

[salvorhardin]

14. Really?

Is it because the acid in the vinegar partly denatures the protein?

Ideally, if I had it on hand, I would use buttermilk.

What do you think of using evaporated milk in place of the milk and less sugar?

Also, have you ever tried the powdered buttermilk in baking? Does it work the same as the store-bought buttermilk?

[housewolf]

19. Powdered buttermilk works great

It's a teriffic ingredient to have on hand for folks who don't tend to keep buttermilk in their fridge. Try it! It will open a whole new world of recipes available to you at hand.

[eridani]

22. Is that a branded item or do you buy it bulk? n/t

[housewolf]

30. I know of a brand called "Saco" that I've seen in many supermarkets

it worked fine for me when I used it. Comes in a round can, found in the baking section. You might find a larger package of Bob's Red Mill in a health foods type place. I don't know that I've ever seen it in a bulk bin, but it's possible. I can't speak to differences, if any, among brands.

[salvorhardin]

26. I didn't even know it existed until a couple of days ago

I'm going to look for powdered buttermilk at the store the next time I'm there and if I don't find it I'll order some in bulk from Amazon.

[housewolf]

29. Many supermarkets carry a brand called "Saco" in their baking section

I've seen it in many stores. I only used it for a short period of time some years ago and it worked fine for me. I somehow manage to keep dairy buttermilk in the fridge just fine - it lasts a long time, much longer than the sell-by dates indicate, and though I don't use it all the time I've rarely had to throw any out. Plus I can often find pint-size containers, and that works well for me.

At any rate, powdered buttermilk should be easily available in your local supermarkets.

[Tesha]

23. Housewolf is right on...

the powdered is great for baking - especially because you can keep it on hand!

But family tradition is to sour the milk with a squeeze of lemon or a little vinegar when you set out the ingredients.
Then when it's time to add, it's clabbered just a bit and really does make a richer tasting muffin, biscuit, or quick bread.

If you want the best? Use cream instead of milk - whoa, what a difference!
So evaporated milk might be better than milk.
But don't use the sweetened condensed, that's a very different thing - all together

[salvorhardin]

25. Haha. I made that mistake once!

It was store brand and the cans were so similar that I probably just grabbed the wrong one without even thinking about it. Worst tasting fish stew ever!

[wildflower]

4. What kind of flour are you using?

Also, is the batter very liquid?

If the flour is very low in gluten and the batter is thin, that could be why they fall apart. (As cornmeal has no gluten either.) But you said the muffins often come out dry.

Also, that's a lot of baking powder. I'm not sure what so much baking powder would do though since I haven't tried it.

ON EDIT: These are the things I would try:

Decrease the milk by 1/4 cup or more
Use a little more flour and a little less cornmeal
Make sure to use all-purpose flour and not cake flour
Decrease the baking powder to a tablespoon

And to make the recipe easier, you could use light olive oil or another light oil instead of melting butter.

[salvorhardin]

13. It's just regular old store brand AP flour.

I'm not sure why I'm using so much baking powder but I saw a lot of recipes out there on the internet calling for as much. You're right that it can be reduced greatly.

Melting butter is easy. 1 min in the microwave at 40% power. Comes out perfect! I do that first and it has cooled back to room temp by the time I'm ready to use it.

I'm curious though... Why do you say to reduce the milk if they're coming out too dry?

[wildflower]

17. Well, I was suggesting that depending on the consistency of your batter

Looking at your recipe, it seemed to me like too much milk, and I wondered if your batter was thin/liquid and that was one possible reason for the muffins falling apart. Dryness can have several causes.

[hippywife]

5. A couple of things...

My recipe differs from yours as follows:

One less T. of baking powder, 1/2 c. sugar or maybe a little less. Up your butter to 1/3 c. And I love, love, love to thaw out about a 1/2 c. of frozen corn niblets and stir them in at the end before baking. It's delicious!


:hi:

[noamnety]

6. Another vote for adding actual corn

I grew up with the basic corn bread and liked it, but I discovered I like cornbread even more with the corn added and a handful of grated cheese mixed into the batter. Not enough to taste cheesy, but it moistens it just enough to be really good. (And I am utterly embarrassed that I learned to do these things when my daughter was young and got a cookbook designed for 1st graders that had those variations written into the recipe.)

[Arkansas Granny]

24. I sometimes add corn to by basic corn bread, too. I prefer to use cream style corn

when I do. It adds extra moisture along with the extra flavor.

[salvorhardin]

11. Aye, I like adding corn too

One of the things I'm trying to do is reduce a lot of my recipes down to their bare essentials so I can write them down, and then build off of them. That's why I was going for the barebones variety.

[Jazzgirl]

7. Jiffy!

:evilgrin:

[salvorhardin]

10. I like the Jiffy mix but its too cakey.

Krusteaz is even more so.

I like my corn muffins to have gravitas.

[FreeState]

8. Id change a few things

Id make these changes:

1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 C milk (at room temperature)
1/2 C butter, melted
2 large egg

Sugar dries things out - so I would leave it out. Use honey on top when served if you want some sweetness :)

[salvorhardin]

9. But I wants my sugar! ;-)

You are probably right that I should let my milk come up to room temp.

[FreeState]

12. If your looking to save time...

try melting your butter in your milk:) I do that with my rolls and it works great.

[salvorhardin]

15. Great idea!

I'll have to do that the next time.

[FreeState]

18. Just got home and opened my Bakers Illustrated to see what they say for Cornbread

Im assuming you want Northern (southern is the crumbly kind)

heres is their ingredient list - it has sugar too! :) :

2 tbs butter, melted
1 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably stone-ground)
1 cup AP Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup whole milk

(if you don't have this book I highly recommend it - that and The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition
Bo Friberg - seriously the Fribeg is the best baking book I have ever owned, it has 860 recipes and all of them that I have tried are fantastic)

[salvorhardin]

27. Thanks. I'll have to try this recipe the next time I make corn muffins/corn bread

I'll keep an eye out for a good used copy of that book too at my neighborhood used book store. I don't buy a whole lot of cookbooks, mostly relying on my 1972 version of Better Homes & Gardens (although why I didn't check it for corn bread/muffins I don't know).

[wildflower]

32. I see there's an extra egg in this recipe

Does the southern crumbly kind only use one egg?

[FreeState]

33. Ill check when I get home tonight :) n/t

[FreeState]

34. I just found it online - so here it is (yes one egg, less sugar, no flour, less dairy)

Southern Cornbread

4 teaspoons bacon drippings or 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal , preferably stone ground
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup water (rapidly boiling)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg , beaten lightly

[wildflower]

35. Ah, okay, that explains it

Less egg and less gluten to hold them together.

Thanks!

[housewolf]

20. "Sugar dries things out"

I'm not so sure that's correct.

Especially in baked goods like pie dough, cakes and muffins, sugar "tenderizes and moisturizes" (Shirley Corriher, "CookWise"). From David Lebovitz, renouned pastry chef and culinary instructor, "Because sugar is partially water, heat liquefies it. That's why many of those low-fat desserts were full of sugar. Sugar makes things moist. Remember that next time you're thinking about reducing sugar in a recipe."

Why do you think that sugar dries things out?

[FreeState]

21. Your correct

Sorry I've been working with cookies the last couple of weeks and I'm getting confused lol:) With cookies it makes them spread - so somehow I illogically thought it was drying them out. Thanks for the correction :)

[salvorhardin]

28. Interesting

I would never have thought in baked goods that sugar makes things more tender. I kind of always thought it just sort of melted and then recrystalized around those long springy proteins in the eggs. Sort of like structural reinforcement, and yummy yummy goodness.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. I throw in a few extra things...

a cup or so of yogurt, or sour cream, instead of milk and butter

sometimes a can of creamed corn (or just corn if bothered by what's in the canned stuff)

berries-- blackberries tend to be a favorite, but I've used blueberries, cranberries and craisins and all are well received (as in not a crumb left)

for the fat, instead of butter, full fat yogurt or sour cream, try a good lard. If leaf lard isn't available(and it probasbly won't be) try bacon drippings.

An extra egg might help hold it together better-- I usually use two or three, so I don't know what one does.