Thursday, August 6, 2009

Blackberry Cornbread Muffins

Blackberries are yummy. They are in season and we eat a lot of them. I saw this recipe for Blackberry Cornbread a couple of months ago in Southern Living Magazine. I figured I should make it since I live in the south. The only problem is, no one in my family really likes cornbread.

Except me.

I grew up eating cornbread every once in awhile and we always had it with honey. My mom made it in a cast iron skillet.

My hubby did trick me once when we were newlyweds. We were eating dinner at someone's house and they had made some kind of cornbread that looked like little corncobs (some sort of cornbread pan), and he ate it.

I decided that was enough of a reason to make it at home. When I did, he wouldn't eat it. I told him I saw him eating it at someone else's house and he told me he was being polite. Those darn Southerners and their manners.
I went back and forth about making this, but the curious side of me won out. I decided to make the recipe into muffins, luckily the people at the magazine had already thought of this and had also made directions for muffins. I decided to reduce the recipe and make 1/4 of it. I would only end up with 6 muffins, which really isn't that many.

I was going to substitute greek yogurt for the sour cream and when I was mixing these up, I realized that I grabbed vanilla bean flavored greek yogurt instead of plain. Since I like my cornbread on the sweet side and these had blackberries in them, I decided to go ahead and use the yogurt I had anyway.
I also used some egg white substitute instead of trying to divide an egg into 4 parts.

The results? I really liked them! I thought they were a nice twist on cornbread. There was just enough sweetness that they didn't need any honey and the blackberries added a yummy little tart hint of goodness.
My 2 year old liked them too. My 4 year old discovered she doesn't like the texture of cornmeal and my 7 year old and my hubby wouldn't even touch them.
Since I only made 6 muffins, none of that even mattered. My baby and I enjoyed them for breakfast the next day.


Blackberry Cornbread Muffins adapted from Southern Living Magazine, June 2009

Prep: 15 min., Bake: 15 min., Cool: 5 min.
We also tested this recipe using 1/2 cup melted butter in place of the canola oil and loved the rich, pound cake-like flavor it gave to these sweet cornbread muffins. They're delicious with peach preserves.



2 cups self-rising white cornmeal ( I used 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar (I used 2 Tbls)
5 large eggs (I used 1 egg and 1 Tbls egg white substitute)
1 (16-oz.) container sour cream (I used 4 oz. vanilla bean flavored Greek yogurt)
1/2 cup canola oil (I used 2 Tbls canola oil)
2 cups fresh blackberries (I used 2/3 cup blackberries, plus a few on top for decoration)

1. Preheat oven to 450°. Stir together cornmeal and sugar in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Whisk together eggs, sour cream, and oil; add to cornmeal mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in blackberries. Coat 2 muffin pans with vegetable cooking spray; spoon batter into muffin pans, filling three-fourths full.

2. Bake at 450° for (I baked mine for 14 minutes) 15 to 17 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack.



Yield: Makes 2 dozen muffins (I made 6 muffins)



17 comments:

  1. I love this idea. I think I'll have to give it a try sometime/

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  2. I am in love with these. I really like cornbread too.

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  3. So cute! I love the little blackberry peeking out the top!

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  4. I love the idea of combining cornbread with fruit! I'm not a big blackberry fan but I'll have to try this with a different fruit.

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  5. I have the same problem at my house. I love them and would love these at breakfast too!

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  6. Mary Ann,
    I love making cornbread in my cast iron skillet and me and my daughter always put honey on it too. What a different idea with the blackberries.

    Also, glad to see you submitted a recipe to the Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club that I'm in.

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  7. I think it is kind of funny. I made two kinds of muffins today. One was a combo, blackberry, blueberry and cranberry muffins and the other was mini cornbread pudding muffins.

    It sounds like you put them together and got the perfect solution.

    Did your muffins have craters in them where the blackberries were? My regular dough did.

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  8. Love cornbread, love muffins. I think these are fabulous!

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  9. I'm glad you decided to go ahead with these because your muffins look delicious! I've put blueberries in my corn muffins but never blackberries - what a great idea.

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  10. Oh my gosh I never even thought to put berries in cornbread - genius! My hubby and I both LOVE cornbread (especially in muffin form!) I'm sorry your fam is anti-corn bread, but you (and your 2 yr old!) deserve a treat for yourself every once in a while! :)

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  11. Oh, Mare! Those look like they would so hit the spot!

    I am lame, lame, lame, lame, lame (and will write that on the chalkboard 200 more times)! I am ashamed to say that I just today finally sent your package. I am sooooo sorry it took me so long. The sky has been falling left and right around here, so that is my only excuse. I hope you'll forgive me!

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  12. Blackberries and cornbread sound amazing together. YUM.

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  13. I've never had sweet cornbread before - I'll have to try this. I'm a huge sucker for blackberries in (almost) anything!

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  14. I am the originator of the 1st blackberry corn bread and I am so happy to see the different variations of it since 2009. Thanks to you all!

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Thank you for taking the time to make a comment on my blog! I appreciate you checking out my creations and leaving your thoughts. I will try to get back to you, through comments here or by visiting your blog. Thanks again!
Mary Ann