Cheddar-Sausage Corn Muffins, Spicy or Sweet

I found this recipe for cheddar-sausage muffins a while ago. Sounds good, right? Somehow, either in reading this recipe or remembering it, I thought it was for cheddar-sausage corn muffins. So when I went to make these yesterday morning and realized that there was no form of corn anywhere to be found in the recipe, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I’d been thinking “corn muffin” for so long that I really wasn’t in the mood for anything else, but I didn’t know off the top of my head how to make a corn muffin. Nor did I feel like cleaning my hands, going to my computer, and finding another recipe. I have some corn flour in the pantry, and I was wondering whether simply substituting that for the regular flour called for would have given me a proper corn muffin. Anyone know? I suspect probably not. See, this is why I don’t bake more often.

I happened to have some Jiffy corn muffin mix in the pantry, which I like to keep around for just such emergencies. So I got it out, made it according to package instructions, and then added my sausage and cheese. I tossed in some chopped scallions, too, for freshness and color.

But I didn’t stop there. I knew these muffins would be good, but I wanted to see if I could make them even better. Some kind of jazzed-up butter, I thought. Adam likes things spicy, and I like them sweet, so I finally settled on two different butters: a roasted poblano butter and, my favorite, honey butter. I really liked this idea, because it allowed me to take the same muffin and enjoy it two different ways. And, as an added bonus, I used some of the leftover poblano butter to cook up some home fries this morning. Fabulous.

I served these muffins for breakfast, but I think they’d also be great as a side dish to a Mexican meal. I used breakfast sausage and sharp cheddar, but these would also be good with, say, some fresh andouille or chorizo and Monterey or pepper jack cheese. Yum!

Cheddar-Sausage Corn Muffins with Spicy and Sweet Butters

Makes 8 muffins

1 8.5-oz package Jiffy corn mix (or your favorite corn muffin recipe)
1/2 pound sausage, cooked and crumbled into small pieces
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 scallion, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare corn muffin mix according to package instructions (you’ll need one egg and 1/3 cup of milk). Add sausage, cheese, and scallion, and stir until just combined.

Grease 8 cups of a standard-size muffin tin. Distribute batter among greased cups. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until muffins are cooked through and edges begin to turn golden brown.

Honey Butter

1/2 stick butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons honey

Add ingredients to food processor, and pulse until thoroughly combined.

Roasted Poblano Butter

1 small poblano pepper
1/2 stick butter, room temperature
Juice of 1/2 lime

Heat broiler. When hot, please poblano, on a pan, on top shelf beneath broiler. Roast for 5 minutes, then turn pepper and roast for 5 minutes more, until pepper is blackened on all sides.

Place pepper in a small paper bag, closed tightly, for about ten minutes or until cool enough to handle. This allows the steam to loosen the skin. When cool, remove pepper from bag and gently remove blacked skins. Remove stem and seeds.

Chop pepper roughly and place in a food processor with softened butter and lime juice. Pulse until pepper is chopped in small pieces and evenly distributed through butter.

Note: You can use the same processor that you used for the honey butter, without washing it. Just scrape as much honey butter as you can from the food processor before beginning. I wouldn’t, however, recommend using the same processor to make the honey butter after the poblano butter. The pepper flavor may linger.