Molly Makes Cornbread Muffins with Honey Butter

Normally I abbreviate in my videos,

but I just feel like I--

[Tommy] There's like a lack of that today.

Well I was, you can't call them muffs.

[Woman] Mmm-mmm.

(mellow jazz music)

Okay, so here's the story.

I accidentally sent a reference photo of these muffins

to every single employee at Conde Nast,

meaning to just send it to my team,

and basically the crowds went wild,

and they demanded the recipe,

so here it is.

It's on the website, and now it's in video form.

So, these are extra-corny cornbread muffins,

so it's a cornbread batter.

It has stone-ground cornmeal,

but then we amp up the corn flavor with fresh corn.

(relaxed music)

We're gonna start by shucking the corn off the cob.

This is an Andy Baraghani special.

He wanted to make sure that I gave him a shout out.

There's a small bowl inside the larger bowl,

so it's a little platform for standing your corn up,

so then you can just shuck right down,

and the corn falls into the larger bowl.

This isn't called shucking?

What's this called, de-kerneling?

So, apparently shucking is taking the husks off.

Whatever, you get the point.

Taking the stuff off the stuff.

Okay, so that was super easy, thank you, Andy.

(drawer closes)

[Tommy] Thank you, Andy.

Thank you, Andy.

Now we'll just get rid of this inside bowl,

and I'm gonna reserve 1/2 a cup of these kernels

for sprinkling later on.

So, we're starting with AP flour and cornmeal, sugar.

These aren't necessarily sweet muffins,

but there is some sugar to bring out

sort of, the natural sweetness in the corn

and to balance all the black pepper

that's coming in later on.

Baking powder, baking soda, good amount of salt,

and 1 1/2 teaspoons of pep, which is a lot.

I'm adding 1 1/2 cups corn

to the dry ingredients,

stir that to combine and coat all the kernels,

and then I'm gonna make a well in the center,

which is where all of our wet ingredients will go.

The wet ingredients include two whole eggs,

one yolk, 3/4 of a cup of sour cream,

2/3 a cup of whole milk.

I'm just gonna whisk that to combine,

and then I'm gonna stream in one stick of

unsalted, melted and then cooled butter.

And we're gonna add that into the well.

And, I'm just stirring in circular motions

to start to combine all of the dry ingredients

into the wet ones.

I don't want to overwork this batter.

All right, so I'm gonna just spray

a regular ol' muffin tin here.

I'm using an ice cream scoop

to divide the batter amongst all the muffin cups,

but you could also just use a cup measure,

and you could also just do it with a spoon.

It doesn't have to be super precise.

A little bit more over here.

Okay, so we're all full here,

and I'm gonna take the reserved corn

and just sprinkle it on top,

this way, you'll know that there's corn in the muffins

when they come out.

And then a sprinkle of flaky sea salt.

It looks a little whackadoodle right now,

but the corn will all sink into the batter

and it'll rise, and it'll look like a muffin

when it comes out, which is the goal.

Okay, into a 400 degree oven for 18-20 minutes.

(dreamy music)

The muffins are in the oven, and in the mean time,

we're gonna make some honey butter.

This isn't really a recipe,

but we decided why not serve it with honey butter?

Because everyone loves honey butter.

(drawer closes)

So, there's two sticks of unsalted butter in here.

(whirs)

I'm just gonna beat it until it smooths out all the lumps

and starts to incorporate a little bit of air.

And then, I'm just gonna drizzle some honey in.

I'm doing this to taste, like I said, it's not a recipe.

We'll taste it as we go, and see how sweet we want it.

And then, I'm just gonna put a pinch of flaky salt

in there also,

which'll bring out the sweetness of the honey.

Give it a taste.

It's a little bit weird that I'm gonna eat

straight up butter right now, but.

Mmmm, tasty.

All right, it's light and fluffy.

There's a lot of air incorporated into it,

so it's very spreadable,

so you can slather it all over the muffin.

Ooh, that sounded kinda gross.

And I think it goes really nicely

with the savory nature of the corn muffins.

There's a lot of black pepper in them,

cornmeal is super savory,

so it's nice to have this as a complement.

Time to check on the muffins.

Ooh, they're getting nice and brown.

Rotating half-way through so they get even browning.

Not done yet.

All right, nine more minutes on the clock.

Ooh.

It has been 17 minutes

and these look nice and golden brown,

so we're gonna just test them with a cake tester

and make sure it comes out clean as a whistle.

If they feel like they're sticking a little bit

to the muffin pan,

you can just use a little off-set spatula or butter knife

to help lift them out,

and then, it's best to cool them on a wire rack

the rest of the way.

These can and should be eaten warm,

so they don't need to completely cool.

I'm gonna eat it warm.

Should we crack into one?

[Tommy] Let's crack into one.

Which one?

[Tommy] Which one?

You choose, Tommy.

I like, this one.

This one's for Tommy.

Okay, alright, let's crack in.

(magical music)

Throw some honey butter on this.

I mean, come on, look at it melting.

You get a muffin, Joel.

Joel, tell us what you think.

It's delicious.

So delicious, so corny, so hot and steamy, buttery.

What is it not?

Make sure to send this recipe out

to everyone in your inbox, like I did.

[Tommy] Great.

Roll out?

♪ Roll out ♪