Simple Cornmeal Muffins with Olive Oil and Orange
In case you haven’t noticed yet, I love me a muffin! I am trying to keep the ratio of posts about muffins to posts not-about-muffins under control, but it is a struggle.
It needs to be said, however, that not all muffins are created equal. I am not of a fan of those heavy, oil-and-sugar-laden-cupcakes-masquerading-as-muffins that you find in the grocery store. No Ma’am! If you want a cupcake, eat a cupcake! But at the same time, I reject the kind of dry, cardboard-y bricks that usually result from any muffin recipe advertised as “healthy.”
What I am after is something that hits that perfect sweet-spot between a decadent dessert and a dense, dusty rock. I want something with just enough sweetness to make it feel like a treat, and just enough fat to keep it moist and delicate. It must also be ridiculously easy and dirty a minimum number of dishes.
These corny little babies tick all of those boxes. They are not fancy or ground breaking. On the contrary, they are perfect in their simplicity—rich and moist from a combination of olive oil and yogurt, and subtly sweet from the orange. They are healthy enough for breakfast, pop handily into a lunch box, and are not so sweet that you couldn’t serve them along side a bowl of chilli. And they are easy enough that even my 3 year-old can make them almost on her own!
Simple Cornmeal Muffins with Olive Oil and Orange
Makes 12 muffin
Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients:
1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. yellow cornmeal
1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Wet Ingredients:
1 cup plain, full-fat yogurt*
6 tbs olive oil**
2 large egg
zest and juice of a medium orange
Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Centre a rack in the middle of your oven.
Butter or line 12 muffin cups. Set the muffin tin on a cookie sheet.
Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Add wet ingredients to a medium bowl or glass measuring cup and whisk well.
Dump the wet ingredients into the dry and gently stir until no dry streaks remain. Do not over mix!
Portion batter into muffin cups (I like to use an ice cream scoop for this).
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or just until the tops look dry and a toothpick or skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Try your best not to over bake, unless you enjoy sad, dry muffins.
Cool in the pan for a few minutes before moving them to a rack. Once totally cooled, store in an air-tight container.
*If you are using Greek yogurt, I would go with half a cup of yogurt and half a cup of milk. Don’t have yogurt on hand? Buttermilk would work as well, or sour cream, or even just milk soured with a tsp or two of lemon juice or vinegar and left to stand for 10 minutes.
**Vegetable oil would also work, though you won’t get quite the same flavour.
