Making Me Some Corn Muffins

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Anticipating Hatch Chile season, I cleaned out my final package from last year’s precious stash while Special Fork was on hiatus. Each new season, I freeze some so I never run out.

I used the last of the Hatch Chiles in corn muffins that were simply scrumptious, laced with the prized chiles and speckled with corn kernels.

It was the perfect dinner muffin to go with some pulled pork and coleslaw I made that night. These muffins would also go well for brunch, to accompany a frittata or an omelet.

The chiles give this muffin its distinctive flavor and fragrance. If you dash out now, you can probably still get some (in the San Francisco Bay Area, Molly Stone’s has a last chile roast in Palo Alto on September 18), but we are at the tail end of a very short season.

If you don’t have Hatch Chiles, you could go with cooked, chopped bacon, instead, or skip the chiles or bacon entirely. It will still be delicious.

Corn Muffins
1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
¼ cup melted butter, slightly cooled
1/3 cup roasted, peeled, stemmed, seeded and diced Hatch chiles (about 3 chiles)
1/3 cup fresh corn kernels or frozen corn, thawed

Heat oven to 425°F. Grease 12 muffin tins or spray with cooking spray

In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt, and whisk to mix dry ingredients thoroughly. In a small bowl, combine milk, egg and melted butter and stir with a fork. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not overmix. Gently stir in the chiles and corn.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups and bake about 12 to 15 minutes until edges of the muffins are lightly browned and a pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

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