Honey Cornbread Muffins with Pepitas

I made several attempts at creating some kind of innovative cornbread with avocado…let’s just say I couldn’t post any of those attempts on this blog and maintain my honesty.

So finally I decided to throw in the towel on being creative. When my grandmother wanted a side bread for our family dinner, I went with a tried-and-true recipe that’s been worn over by generations of bakers: honey cornbread muffins.

But you know me, always itching to mess with a perfectly good recipe and make it more “unique.” So on a whim I decided to sprinkle some pepitas, or pumpkin seeds, on top of the muffins several minutes before they finished baking, so the seeds would stick on top of the muffins rather than sinking, and would get marvelously toasted. The outcome? A delicious, classic muffin with a bit of fun crunch.

Everyone at my grandmother’s table enjoyed these muffins. And since they are low in fat, made with whole wheat pastry flour, and have only 140 calories apiece, this easy recipe is one that can fit into a number of healthy eating plans. Feel free to mix in some fresh sweet corn kernels; I would have done so if we’d had any in the house.

Honey Cornbread Muffins with Pepitas

based on recipe from Allrecipes.com

makes 12 regular-sized muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cornmeal flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup plain almond milk (or other milk of your choice)
• 1/3 cup organic honey
• 2 tbs Earth Balance Whipped or Original Buttery Spread, melted
• 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit. Spray a standard muffin tin with nonstick spray, or line with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, and salt. Mix.

Beat in the egg. Add almond milk, honey, and melted Earth Balance. Mix thoroughly.

Spoon batter into muffin tin, filling each muffin cup 3/4-7/8 of the way full.

Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes. Then remove, but do not turn off the oven. Sprinkle pepitas evenly over the surface of each muffin.

Return to oven for another 4-7 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of each muffin comes out clean (bake time is 12-15 minutes total.)

Remove from oven and serve warm!