Corn Muffins, Filled with Strawberry Jam

It all started with my typical wake up call. Somewhere in between my dream of one day offering cooking classes, devoid of those horrible reality cooking TV shows now plaguing the Food Network, I had a foggy vision about a sweet corn muffin. I must have envisioned the rich, buttery smell of a fresh baked breakfast quite strongly because, by 8 am this Saturday morning, I had already jumped out of bed and ran into the kitchen.

See, for most weekday workers, weekends are a perfect time to sleep in. No noisy neighbors, honking cars or rowdy television sets. No alarm clock or business calls. All of these things make people want to skip breakfast and just make it in time for lunch.

But I’m not like that. Early mornings make me want to bake. It’s the perfect time to invent sweet pastries for breakfasts, and pair them with a fresh brewed cup of coffee. It’s just you, your coffee and a muffin. What can be more perfect than that?

So, on this bright Saturday morning, I spotted a bag of cornmeal and a jar of strawberry jam sitting quietly in my pantry. After a few scurried moments searching through my dozens of cookbooks for guidance, I spotted a corn muffin recipe, stuffed with jam, in Flour Bakery’s cookbook. Bless you Joanne Chang for your sticky buns and for your corn muffins, because this recipe is incredible. So incredible, in fact, that I ate two for breakfast. And I’m eyeing one more right now.

Corn Muffins, Filled with Strawberry Jam

Makes 12 flawless muffins

Ingredients:

385 grams unbleached all-purpose flour

200 grams medium-coarse yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

56 grams (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

165 grams light brown sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

240 grams almond milk, at room temperature (the recipe calls for regular milk, but I only had almond milk on hand)

70 grams canola oil

180 grams crème fraîche, at room temperature

255 grams strawberry jam

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 F degrees. Butter a 12-cup muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well mixed. In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and melted butter to form a thick slurry. In a second large bowl, whisk the eggs until well blended. One at a time, whisk the almond milk, oil, then the crème fraîche into the eggs. Finish by adding in the brown sugar and butter slurry. Whisk to combine.

3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and fold carefully until well combined.

4. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each prepared muffin cup. Spoon 1 tablespoon of jam on top of each cup. Finish off with about 1/4 cup more of the batter. It will be filled to the rim, or a little above the rim.

5. Bake for 25 to 28 minutes until the muffins have browned slightly. Let cool in the pan atop a wire rack for about 20 minutes, then remove the muffins and enjoy while warm.