Absolute Best Jalapeño Cheddar Corn Muffins, Ever

I may as well admit right here to an addiction for real fluff, as far as some (not all :)) of my reading goes.  What the hey, it's also called light entertainment.  Or the written version of daytime soaps I suppose.  Along those lines are some that feature food.  Such as Christine Wenger's Comfort Food Mysteries, of which my latest read was Diners, Drive-ins and Death.

Our plucky heroine owns, runs and cooks the graveyard shift at the Silver Bullet Diner, as well as renting out 11 vacation cottages by the lake, and investigating various murders in her spare time.  She's also in denial about her love for the local sheriff in his white Stetson and cowboy boots.  Trixie serves up Diner style, basic comfort food, and the books include some recipes at the end.

Mostly not my sort of recipes, but substitutions can always be made.  For instance the Potato-Cheese Soup sounded pretty good, in which I'm sure Velveeta cheese is not absolutely necessary.   Indeed,  I almost subbed out the creamed corn in these comfort food muffins.  But the can's ingredient list seemed okay, and I went with the flow.

And just saying, these muffins cannot be beat, or raved on enough.  Tender, moist and so flavorful, even comforting, though they weren't mentioned in the book. We get a twice monthly little coupon book with recipes included, from a local supermarket, and I was snagged by their Jalapeño White Cheddar Cornbread in the latest edition.  They looked like they might be good, though should have been called muffins, being that they're baked in a muffin tin.

Butternut Ginger Muffins with Macadamia Nuts

        HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Yet another recipe that involves BUTTERNUT SQUASH or PUMPKIN??  Yes, guilty as charged.  But, you can always use a wonderful muffin, right?  These are not only wonderful, but the best.  Seriously.  Plus they use up some of that extra, cooked squash you have in your fridge, and make a super addition to your New Year's Breakfast.

I did post the recipe for the Queen's Surf Banana Muffins a few years ago, and this is a riff off that.  A superior riff, if I do say so.  There were no bananas, but I wanted to use some roasted butternut squash in my muffins, and thought hey, mashed up squash could easily sub in for those bananas, right??  Add some fresh ginger, nutmeg and cardamom, top everything off with chopped mac nuts and crystallized ginger, and you get a winner, lovely tender crumb and quite delicious.

The old Queen's Surf Waikiki nightclub and restaurant burned down years ago, but I managed to get their secret Banana Muffin recipe.  Wrote it down on a 3x5 card and neglected to note who gave it to me.  Sigh.  But, trust me, the chef won't roll in his grave over this variation.

Blue Blueberry Muffins

I confess. I have a love for murder mysteries. And food. And humor. Then, when you combine it all, you get triple enjoyment. These muffins are from a book I'm now in the middle of, Blueberry Muffin Murder, by Joanne Fluke. There's a mystery here, as well as wit and good recipes. Nothing deep folks, it's light entertainment for the end of my day.

The secret to these Blue Blueberry Muffins is the addition of blueberry pie filling, which gives an extra zap of the berry flavor and color. Then, they're finished with a Crumb Topping, to which I made my only change. For part of the flour I substituted some oat bran, to give a bit more crunch and taste. I had a late breakfast this morning, but it was worth the wait.



I've read some of her other mysteries and would recommend them also, if you're into this particular genre. I like to mix them in with other sorts of fiction. Now, to mix up the muffins:

Blue Blueberry Muffins
From the Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joanne Fluke

Preheat oven to 375F
rack in the middle position

3/4 cup melted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 cup sugar
2 beaten eggs (just whip them up with a fork)
2 teaspoons baking powder (make sure there's no lumps)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (no need to thaw if they're frozen)
1/2 cup blueberry pie filling
2 cups, plus 1 tablespoon flour (no need to sift)
1/2 cup milk

Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup sugar (I would probably use brown next time)
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons oat bran
1/4 cup softened butter (1/2 stick)

Butter the bottoms only of a 12-cup muffin pan (or line the cups with cupcake papers). Melt the butter. Mix in the sugar. Then add the beaten eggs, baking powder and salt, and mix thoroughly.

Put the extra one tablespoon of flour in a plastic bag with your cup of fresh or frozen blueberries. Shake it gently to coat the berries, and leave them in the bag for now.

Add 1 cup of the remaining flour to your bowl and mix it in with 1/2 of the milk. Then add the rest of the flour and milk and mix thoroughly.

Now, the fun part: Add 1/2 cup blueberry pie filling to your bowl and mix it in. (Your dough will turn a shade of blue, but don't let that stop you - once the muffins are baked, they'll look just fine.) When your dough is well mixed, fold in the flour-coated berries.

Fill the muffin tins 3/4's full and set them aside. If you have dough left over, butter the bottom of a small tea-bread size loaf pan and fill it with your remaining batter. My muffin tin is the regular size and I had extra for the tea loaf. If you have the bigger size muffin pan, there will be just enough.

Make the crumb topping: Mix the sugar, flour and oat bran (if using) in a small bowl. Add the softened butter and cut in until crumbly. Sprinkle the topping over the muffins and bake at 375F for 25-30 minutes. The tea bread should bake about 10 minutes longer than the muffins.)

The author recommends freezing the remaining pie filling in 1/2 cup portions (paper cups in zip-lock bags) for making muffins later. You could also heat and use it for topping waffles!

These are now my favorite blueberry muffins. Sooo good. Enjoy.

As an addendum, I am adding a recipe for Blueberry Pie Filling, as it is so simple, I usually make my own. Cut the amounts down as you wish.

Blueberry Pie Filling

5 cups (~150 g)  blueberries
3/4 cup (131 g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons strained blueberry juice

1. Combine sugar, flour, cornstarch, and cinnamon in separate bowl and set aside.

2. Put frozen blueberries in a glass bowl and microwave on high to thaw, about 1 to 2 minutes. Put thawed berries into a mesh strainer and strain well, reserving 2 tablespoons of the liquid. This is important because too much liquid will make a soggy pie (or muffin).

3. Combine dry ingredients and blueberries in stainless pan. Stir gently until mixture is well-blended while adding the strained juice.

4. Simmer over medium heat until thickened.   Let it cool and bottle or freeze in plastic bags.

Queen's Surf Banana Muffins

Well, after my silly rants on the last post, I thought I'd share these awesome banana muffins with you. They're an old favorite, and I do mean old. The recipe originally came from the popular Queen's Surf restaurant in Waikiki, which was torn down years ago. Note below for a bit more of the history.  I occasionally make a few updates, of course. There's crunchy, toasted macadamia nuts and chunky, crystals of raw sugar on top. I added some grated lemon zest, for a bit of citrus zing, and a little nutmeg and ground cardamom to heighten that mellow banana flavor.

What usually sets me off on a recipe quest is the sight of something like this. And the awareness of 4, yes four more large bunches of bananas in various stages of ripening. Have I mentioned just how good these sweet little Apple Bananas are? Got to be the most sought after variety for growing here in Hawaii.



So, out comes the faithful recipe card for banana muffins from the Queen's Surf. I'm also going to try Ilva's Chocolate Banana Bread, posted just the other day (her April 10th entry). Maybe with big chunks of dark chocolate. Yum.

Over the years, I've tried various and sundry additions to the basic recipe, dried or fresh fruits - pineapple is especially good, nuts in or on top, brown sugar, or honey, instead of the original plain sugar. This time I used brown sugar, a full, packed 1/2 cup, instead of the 3/4s cup sugar called for, which to me, is sweeter than I prefer. The flavors were heightened with lemon zest from one lemon, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom and 1/2 teas. nutmeg. Also, I used AP flour instead of cake, which I never seem to have on hand, and sifted only once with all the other dry ingredients, instead of three times. One day, I'm actually going to do what I'm told, just to observe the difference, if any. I may also separate the eggs and whip the whites to fold in next time. Here, I'll give you the historic, original version, for tradition sake, cut down to proportions for one dozen.

The Queen's Surf Banana Muffins

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter (4 oz)
3 ripe bananas, mashed (a few bigger chunks are ok) and double the amount for smaller varieties like the Apple Banana
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 teas. salt
1 teas. baking soda

Cream sugar and softened butter, add bananas and well beaten eggs. Sift dry ingredients together three times and blend with batter. Don't over-mix.

Pour into greased muffin pan and bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes. Cool on rack and enjoy!



These muffins were topped with sprinkles of raw Turbinado sugar and toasted, chopped macadamia nuts. If you don't happen to have macadamia trees in your garden, like I do, pecans or walnuts would be great. And, since the bananas, lemon and mac nuts are grown by us, I'm entering this post in April's edition of the Grow Your Own event.



For some background information notes:

Queen's Surf Restaurant and Nightclub

Queen’s Surf, built 1916 across from Kapiolani Park on Waikiki Beach, became Fleischmann’s Yeast heir, Chris Holmes' beach house in1933. Acquired by the city of Honolulu around 1946, following Holmes’ death, it was leased to Spencecliff Corporation which operated it as the hugely popular Queen’s Surf Restaurant and Nightclub. Closed down 1969 by Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi in a lease dispute the building was demolished in1971.