Unsuppressable Cornbread or Cornmeal Muffin Craving

Quick and Easy Awesome Cheesy Spicy Cornmeal Muffins (or Cornbread)

For over a month now, I've had a craving for Cornbread.  It didn't help that we were in Roncey and looking for brunch, we stopped to read the menu at Hey! and saw that they had Cornbread on the menu.  We ended  up eating at Barque which has a pretty good Brunch menu PLUS they have a kid brunch menu that isn't junkfood!!  Anyhoo, haven't been able to shake it and you can't easily find bakeries that sell it.  WTF?  And we don't live near a Mmmmuffins.  Have you ever tried to google that stupid bakery anyway?  You have to have the correct number of M's! 

So I decided to make some.  I played with the Cornmeal and Flour balance and the BP because of the acid from the Lemon Juice.  So After three batches, I think these are pretty Awesome.  It wasn't great I forgot the prepped Cheese in the fridge.  D laughs whenever I do that because I do it fairly often and it's often not an insignificant ingredient.  His mom used to do that too. HA!

Mixing to finishing baking these took me 30 minutes. But I had the routine down and my baking stuff is all to hand.

Quick and Awesome Cheesy Spicy Cornbread or Cornmeal Muffins

3 T or 15 g Unsalted Butter
3/4 c Cornmeal
1/2 c + 1/8 c Wholewheat Flour 
1 T Agave Syrup
1/2 t Baking Powder
1/2 t Baking Soda
1/4 t Salt (up to 1/2 t if you leave out the Cheese)
1/4 t Cayenne Pepper
1 large egg, room temperature or at least in the room for a few minutes
3/4 c Milk, room temperature
1/2 T Lemon Juice, fresh (or Vinegar)
1/2 Jalapeño, minced
1/2 c Shredded Cheddar (optional.... especially when you forget to put it in)
1/4 t ground Cumin (optional)

Preheat Toaster Oven or regular Oven to 400F

Melt the butter in a small oven proof dish with the spices and Jalapeno in the microwave for 30s. Fat carries aromatics better than anything else so I like to infuse the Butter with the spice. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the Cornmeal, Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt.

In a large (2c measuring cup) or small mixing bowl, add the room temp Milk, Egg, and Lemon Juice... or you can replace the Milk and Lemon Juice with Buttermilk but who keeps Buttermilk in the fridge for such small quantities, right?

Mix the Dries together. Mix the Wets together to breakdown the Egg. Add the Wets to the Dries and Mix until combined but do not over mix or you'll have tough muffins.

The batter will make 6 Medium Muffins or 1 Loaf. Spread the batter evenly across the 6 cups... approximately half way up. Or just pour into the loaf pan and shake sort of flat but don't over do it. It will spread on it's own. 20 minutes for Loaf Pan or 17-18 minutes for Muffin Cups. Remove from pan or cups. Let cool on rack enough for you not to burn your fingers or tongue :)