Cheesy Cornbread Muffins With Hot Honey Butter

By Alexa Weibel

Cheesy Cornbread Muffins With Hot Honey Butter
Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich.
Total Time
40 minutes, plus cooling
Rating
4(568)
Notes
Read community notes

Smoky chipotle takes these muffins into savory territory, but this recipe can be used purely as a blueprint: Want them a bit sweeter? Lose the minced chipotle chiles, and increase the sugar by a couple of tablespoons. Need them to hold up to a heavily spiced pot of chili? Double the chipotles en adobo, add ¼ cup minced red onion and a dash of ground cumin, onion powder or garlic, perhaps. Whatever you add, don’t overmix: Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined (a few lumps are O.K.) before folding in the cheese for muffins that are rich but not dense.

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Ingredients

Yield:12 muffins

    For the Hot Honey Butter

    • ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
    • 3tablespoons honey
    • 1½teaspoons chipotle en adobo sauce

    For the Cornbread Muffins

    • Unsalted butter, for greasing the pan
    • 1¼cups/195 grams medium cornmeal
    • 1cup/130 grams all-purpose flour
    • ¼cup/50 grams granulated sugar
    • 2½teaspoons baking powder
    • ¾teaspoon baking soda
    • 1¼teaspoons black pepper
    • 1teaspoon kosher salt
    • ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick)
    • ⅔cup/160 milliliters whole milk
    • ½cup/120 milliliters sour cream
    • 2large eggs
    • 2tablespoons minced chiles en adobo (optional)
    • 1cup/115 grams grated sharp white Cheddar (about 3 ounces)
    • 3tablespoons very thinly sliced scallions or chives
    • Sliced jalapeño, for garnish (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

347 calories; 22 grams fat; 13 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 32 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 234 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Prepare the hot honey butter: In a small bowl, stir ½ cup/1 stick softened butter with the honey and chipotle en adobo sauce. Refrigerate while muffins bake.

  2. Step 2

    Heat the oven to 400 degrees, and generously grease the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin.

  3. Step 3

    In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pepper and salt.

  4. Step 4

    In a small saucepan, melt the remaining ½ cup/1 stick softened butter over low heat. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sour cream, eggs, melted butter and the minced chipotle chiles, if using.

  5. Step 5

    Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir using a rubber spatula until almost combined but still a little lumpy. Fold in the Cheddar and scallions, and stir until just combined.

  6. Step 6

    Transfer the muffin batter in ¼-cup portions to the prepared muffin tin. Top each muffin with a jalapeño slice, if desired, and bake until the tops are golden and the muffins are cooked through, about 18 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes in the muffin tins before carefully transferring to a wire rack, running a knife around the rims to release the muffins, if necessary. Serve warm or at room temperature, with honey butter.

Ratings

4 out of 5
568 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Carol

Also, we made them with Greek Yogurt rather than sour cream.

Carol

These are delicious. I followed the recipe as written and the result was moist, hearty muffins that were sweet, savory and slightly spicy. I didn't prepare the Honey Butter, as the muffins were perfect as they were. Served with Tortilla Soup. They also freeze well.

jocelyn

Made as directed. As noted in the write up, the recipe can be modified to suit your taste. I don't think it needs both the sugar in the batter and the honey. Too sweet. Also, the muffins are quite rich, so doesn't need butter either. Otherwise, good.

Houston500

I'm from Texas and we don't like sweet cornbread - so I reduced the sugar to 1 tablespoon. We like most of our food with a spicy kick, so I added about 1/2 teaspoon of garlic and onion powder and 3/4 teaspoon cumin as suggested in the upper notes. I left out the chipotle chilies and added one fresh jalapeno, diced very small. I have never used black pepper in my cornbread before, but I really liked the added level of spice it gave the muffins. My family loved these spicy, cheesy muffins.

Michael

Most measuring cups are liquid measuring cups. So 8oz of liquid. Cheese doesn't weigh the same as water. The cheese amount doesn't need to be super precise. Just fill up roughly a cup with cheese and you'll be fine.

Katie

We loved this! Didn’t have scallions and used whole wheat instead of AP flour, reduced sugar to 40g, Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Hearty and delicious, nice mix of slightly sweet and savory - a breakfast the whole fam devoured!

Jane

Didn’t have sour cream, yogurt, or adobo. Used whole plain kefir, and jalapeño Jack. Oven temp: 380, 18 minutes, turned pan half way through. Didn’t do honey butter, very good without it, but wonderful with honey.

todd sf

I diced smoked mozzarella into small cubes, instead of grating it, makes for wonderful little hits of cheese in the warm muffins…..

Viv

I halved the recipe because I only have a six hole muffin pan, which turned out well. I prefer coarse ground corn meal for a little extra texture so that is what I used. The muffins were fantastic with turkey chili and I’m already wishing I made a full batch to have leftovers for breakfast.

lydia

Cut corners and microwave the butter to melt it and just spray the cupcake pan. They came out great.

Dondra

We decided we’d like them spicy and added seeded diced jalapeño’s to the batter with the scallions. Delicious! This recipe is a keeper.

cat

I made everything as directed. The muffins were delicious but the honey butter was a broken mess. It tasted great but what did I do wrong with the butter?

Courtney

The honey butter wouldn't come together for me, but the muffins had a unique texture and were good.

Jessie

Answered my own question... I don't own a muffin tray so I baked it in an 8" square pan. Came out great! Total baking time more like 40 minutes. Used only 1/8 cup of sugar. Otherwise made as directed and loved it.

Jessie

I don't have a muffin pan - anyone tried making this as a loaf?

urs

Do you need to refrigerate these after a day?

dicamp

Has anyone used buttermilk instead of regular milk? Going to try that and have some freshly roasted Hatch chilies to use

nancy

I made this into cornbread using my 10” iron skillet. Heated skillet on stove top before adding batter. Preheated oven to 400 and then reduced to 375. Done in 25 min. Tender crumb but still held shape when cut in wedges.

Maureen Callahan

These are awesome... I've made them in the cardboard give away tiny loaf pans from KAF for the Mexican & Tibetan guys who work my greenmarket.. They are over the moon every time. Tonight bcz it is nasty and cold and rainy I made 4 in Lodge's (USA) individual abt 6.75" cast iron pans to serve with CHILI. Awesome yet again

Gargi

What is minced chiles en adobo - is that a kind of chilly

Name

Plant milk/Greek yogurt/4oz cheese

Katrina

Wow these turned out soooo delicious! Served with bbq country ribs and braised garlicky collard greens. I didn't make the hot honey butter per this recipe, but to serve, I cut a muffin in half, schmeared butter on each side and drizzled with a hot honey that I had on hand in my pantry. Swaps / changes: - Subbed coconut milk for whole milk (just what I had on hand) - Used 1/4 c. labne + 1/4 c. sour cream - Didn't have chiles en adobo so left those out

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