I've been making these savory dinner muffins for a long time and I just love them!. They are a great accompaniment to chili in the winter--particularly spicy chilies. But, in the summer, these muffins also fare well alongside grilled vegetables and meats because zucchini are so readily available and cheap in this season. So during hot months, I just make try to make them early on in the morning.
These muffins do not rise as much as regular breakfast muffins, but they are moist and tender. I have actually noticed that they are even more delicious when you use organic or stone-ground cornmeal. If you don't like feta, use goat cheese. And dried dill works fine if you can't locate fresh dill. I've always wondered how good they would be with some fresh corn kernels thrown in....Serve these muffins at room temperature or warmed a bit, with butter.
SAVORY ZUCCHINI DILL CORN MUFFINS
Makes one dozen savory dinner muffins
- 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 4-5 Tbsp. butter, melted (half a stick or 1 Tbsp. more)
- 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
- 1 egg + 1 egg white
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (or about 1/2 tsp. dried dill)
- 2 zucchini, grated (~2-2 1/2 cups)
- 1/4-1/3 cup grated or crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese OR regular crumbled goat chese
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or spray a muffin pan with Pam or other cooking spray or line muffin pan with paper cups. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the melted butter and buttermilk. Then whisk in the egg, egg white, and dill. Using a spatula, mix in the shredded zucchini and cheese.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently mix until a batter is formed.
Fill muffin cups with batter and bake for about 25 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Yield: 12 muffins
(Note: if using paper liners, in order to prevent muffins from sticking to the liners, wait to peel them after they have nearly cooled).
I made these the other night and they were great! I threw in some fresh corn like you suggested. Connor loved them too! Any ideas on what to make with leftover buttermilk? I never know what to do with it and end up throwing it out when I use just a little for recipes.
ReplyDeleteHolly, sorry it took me a bit to respond--I'm guessing your buttermilk has gone bad by now...however, I tend to make muffins (just learned you can replace yogurt with buttermilk), cakes (see the salted buttermilk cake recipe I posted), waffles, my buttermilk ranch dressing, or that gelato recipe my friend Nancy posted recently that I then also posted on.
ReplyDeleteI read that you can actually FREEZE buttermilk! Someone on a food forum recently posted they freeze it in ice-cube trays or 1 cup portions to use later on for recipes that call it. Never thought of that...
My next goal would be to dredge fish or chicken in it before coating it with panko crumbs or crushed chips prior to baking or frying. Someone suggested it for marinating okra. Wow. I like those ideas. OR, I read you can replace cream for buttermilk in soups....yum! I want to try it in panna cotta or a buttermilk pie recipe.
I'm thinking I may need to do a post on this actually....:)))