TWD--Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

The recipe for today's Tuesday's With Dorie as we bake our way through the book, Baking From My Home To Yours was chosen by Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake.  It was nice to have a quick, savory baked good to throw together this week and I really like corn bread/muffins.  In fact when I went to New York City this past November, we ate at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill and in the bread basket with our dinner was the most amazing corn muffins I'd ever had.  They were made with blue corn and had jalapenos and spices and corn inside and were so moist and perfect.  I loved them.  When I got home from the trip, I Googled  the recipe and found it.  Now I just need to find blue cornmeal!  BUT, these TWD muffins ARE really good.  I really liked them.  They have just a bit of a kick  from the peppers and chili powder and are moist and slightly crumbly like cornbread should be.  GREAT recipe, Dorie and GREAT pick, Rebecca!

I made two small mistakes that I was rather bummed about, but all still worked out!

1--I had baked something on the almost bottom rack of the oven earlier in the day and popped these muffins in to bake without even thinking about it.  I made six little mini corn muffins and after they had baked for 10 minutes, I went to take them out of the oven and realized the rack was not in the right position!  I fixed that and then baked the bigger muffins just five more minutes.  While I thought the outsides were darker than I'd have liked, the muffins were still good.

2--I totally spaced putting the cilantro in the muffins--even had it on the cutting board ready to add in.  Sigh!  I was so bummed about it, but I was clever and made some cilantro butter to put on the muffins.

These went great with the Chicken Black Bean Tortilla Bake I made for dinner to go with it.

Sour cream and chopped avocado on top.  I thought it was really good, especially with a savory corn and pepper muffin on the side!

The cilantro butter

Thanks for the great savory pick, Rebecca!

There was lots of chopping involved with the taco bake and getting these muffins ready--a perfect time to try my new Vidalia Chop Wizard that my parents gave me for Christmas.  This thing, even though I loathe onions and will never chop them in this, worked great for chopping everything from the jalapeno and sweet peppers, to the avocado!  Thanks, Mom and Dad--love it!