Butter Glazed Blueberry Cornbread Muffins

I'm a cornmeal lover. That fantastic corny, gritty, nutty, dense flavorfulness can be used for much more than just cornbread. My favorite way to use cornmeal has always been in the pancakes my family lovingly calls "cornies". We whip up these corn cakes for birthday breakfasts, late Saturday mornings and pancake dinner nights, making sure to sufficiently douse each cake in loads of butter and maple syrup.

Since I love cornmeal so much, it's high time I figured out more delicious ways to use it. In a not-so-breakfasty twist, I decided to translate the corny into a more sophisticated, grown up version of itself. A corn muffin sprinkled with blueberries and infused with browned butter, with a browned sugar, butter and honey glaze.


Upgrade. This muffin is literally dripping with goodness.

Give yourself an ample amount of time to make these; unlike the corny, these muffins take over an hour of hands-on preparation because of the browned butter. It takes awhile, but remember, it's a labor of love. If you're like me, you'll read your book while standing semi-watchfully beside the oven inhaling the aroma of the slowly browning butter. Not altogether a bad thing.

Butter Glazed Blueberry Cornbread Muffins

Before you even begin assembling the other ingredients, start with the butter. This was my first time making browned butter, and the time it took surprised me. The browning process is the time-consuming part of this recipe.

 Butter browning instructions: Melt 8 TBSP (a whole stick) of butter over medium low heat. A small skillet works best for this. Then you wait. Yep, you don't have to lift a finger. Just let the butter brown itself in the skillet. It will foam and bubble, then begin to separate and clarify. It is sufficiently browned when it is a nut brown color and smells amazing. I like mine to have some brown flecks of the browner, carmelized butter.

Mmmm. Butter.

The bubbly sputtering stage

Beginning to brown

Almost there: the clear butter is a nice brown color

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together:
1 cup cornmeal
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

In a separate bowl, whisk together:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream

* Whisk in the browned butter to the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir in. Divide the batter evenly into greased muffin tins. Bake for about 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Remove from oven and from muffin tins. While they are still hot, apply the glaze.

Glaze:
 1/8 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. maple syrup
2 TBSP butter

In the same skillet as before, melt the butter, honey, syrup and brown sugar over medium-low heat, using the same browning process as before. This will happen a lot more quickly because of the additional ingredients and smaller amount. When the glaze becomes bubbly, then begins to clear, remove from heat. The glaze will have a caramel texture and will be a pretty golden brown. Brush or spoon generously over muffins.

The syrupy buttery taste of the corn pancake, all grown-up.