TWD: Corniest Corn Muffins

Jill of My Next Life chose Corniest Corn Muffins for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.

I was thinking about an old co-worker as I made these. (I'll call him Joe, to protect the innocent.) Joe was Irish, like, from-Ireland Irish, complete with an adorable Irish accent.

Joe had this thing about corn.


And it wasn't "A Good Thing", as Martha would say. It was a bad thing.

Joe despised corn. The mere mention of corn would send him off on a tirade (and this from a normally mild-mannered fellow). According to Joe, during the potato famine period in Irish history, a lot of people were starving, but somehow they got ahold of some corn. According to Joe, corn has no nutritional value, and so it didn't solve the famine problem and people were still starving.

My husband also worked with me at the time and he was witness to at least one lecture on the evils of corn. Nowadays, every so often, one of us will say to the other "remember how Joe used to get so upset when someone mentioned corn?".

I think Joe just might have approved of these muffins, though. They were just barely sweet, hearty muffins, chock full of corn. I haven't made cornbread many times, but when I have it usually turns out crumbly. These muffins weren't crumbly at all. I think these will be the "corn muffins" I turn to if I'm ever in need of a good recipe.

Thanks, Jill, for a great pick. Please check out Jill's site (at the link above) if you'd like to see the recipe, or see Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking From my Home to Yours".