While being lazy one Saturday morning, I flipped to the Food Network and caught an episode of “Down Home with the Neelys” and they were making these delicious looking spicy corn bread muffins. I looked up the recipe and made a few tweaks (like I usually do) to make this variety, perfect for Southwest-style brunch or Mexican dinner.

The original recipe called for poblano and fresno peppers, which can be hot. I used a mixture of mild green bell pepper with yellow and red sweet bell peppers. There are a few ways you can control the heat in this recipe:

1. Use mild or sweet bell peppers and add cayenne pepper to taste
2. Use medium to hot peppers of your choice and omit cayenne pepper
3. Use mild or sweet peppers and omit cayenne pepper, then select salsa or picante of an appropriate heat level to suit your tastes

Pepper-Cheddar Corn Bread Muffins
adapted from the Food Network

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup diced peppers (of your choice)
Salt, to taste
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 cayenne pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400F and coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add onion and garlic, salt to taste, and saute 3-5 minutes until softened. Add peppers and saute an additional 2-3 minutes. Add paprika and cayenne pepper and saute an additional minute until fragrant. Remove from heat and add remaining butter to pan. Set aside and allow butter to melt.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk and eggs. Create a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk mixture. Using a large wooden spoon, fold in buttermilk mixture until all the dry ingredients are moistened (do not overmix). Fold in shredded cheese and pepper mixture. Batter will be very thick.

Using a 1/2 cup measure, evenly scoop batter into prepared muffin tin. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before serving.  Spoon salsa or picante sauce on top of muffins if desired.

Makes 12 muffins.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 5:05 am and is filed under Breads & Muffins, Breakfast & Brunch, Muffin Madness, Recipes, Special Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.