Cornmeal-Cherry Muffins

So the last time I talked about a mook, Casy made fun of me. And didn't believe that it was really a word that people use. For Casy's information (and potentially yours, dear reader) a mook is a magazine-book hybrid. It has a bit more substance than a magazine, but you can't quite call it a book. I tell you this because I'm about to talk about that mook again and want to make sure we're all on the same page.

This morning, Casy had to get up early to catch the train because he's having dinner (as I type this) with a group of his friends from DreamYard in NYC. Because he's partially insane, he took the 4:50AM train, which meant I was (barely) awake at 4:40 to drive him to the station.

I got home, debated crawling back into bed, and ultimately decided that I would stay awake and be productive instead sleeping through my alarm and starting the day in chaos. Go me.

So instead of going back to bed, I baked muffins for breakfast. From scratch. And the recipe I used came from the mook that Jill gave me for Christmas. We've now come full circle.

-:- Cornmeal-Cherry Muffins -:-

Fine Cooking Sweet Cakes (Holiday Baking Issue)

3 large eggs

3 tbs. finely grated lemon zest

1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

12 tbs. unsalted butter, melted

1/4 c. plus 2 tbs. veggie oil

3 c. buttermilk

3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3 cups medium cornmeal

4 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 cups dried cherries, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs, zest, lemon juice, butter, oil, and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, soda, sugar, and salt. Slowly pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Stir until just mixed. Gently fold in cherries. Scoop 1/2 cup of batter into each muffin tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

-:- my notes -:-

Another great recipe...I would only recommend using two very large bowls...when I added my dry ingredients to my wet ingredients, it was a bit of a struggle to stir without spilling flour everywhere. But that was probably the zombie in me.

I took these to work (saving a few for me and Casy...the recipe yielded 24) and everyone loved them. I ate mine this morning with my (second) cup of coffee, happy that I didn't go back to bed.

Love, T.