Home › Quick Breads, Griddle Cakes and Waffles › Jelly Corn Muffins
Jelly Corn Muffins
Use the recipe for corn-meal muffins. Fill greased muffin-tins one-fourth full, put a teaspoon of jelly on the top of the batter in each cup, cover the jelly with more batter and bake in a hot oven (400 degrees-425 degrees F.) fifteen or twenty minutes.
A variation rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you have the book's corn-meal muffin batter already mixed. The points below cover what the shorthand leaves out.
- The base batterThe book's corn-meal muffin recipe is not reproduced on this page. Any standard corn-meal muffin batter will serve; typical proportions run to about 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 cup milk, 1 egg, 3 tablespoons melted fat. It should be a thick drop batter, not pourable.
- Batter thickness is the hingeA slack batter lets the jelly sink to the bottom and weld itself to the tin. Keep the batter stiff enough to hold a spoonful in place, and add the second layer of batter gently over the jelly rather than stirring it in.
- "One-fourth full" is conservativeA quarter-fill plus jelly plus a cover of batter should end up somewhere around two-thirds full, which is about right for muffins. Filling the cups higher risks pushing jelly out over the rim as the muffins rise.
- Oven400–425°F as written is correct for muffins and needs no adjustment. Use the lower end with dark or nonstick tins.
- Choose a firm jellyA stiff currant, apple or grape jelly holds its shape in the crumb. Loose jam or preserves with fruit pieces spread and weep, leaving a wet seam.
- Greasing and paper linersGrease well, including the top surface between cups. Paper liners are easier here — any jelly that does escape stays contained instead of caramelising onto the pan.
- Serving and yieldServing -- The recipe gives no yield. Warn anyone eating them straight from the oven: the pocket of jelly stays scalding well after the muffin feels merely warm.