First off, let me just say, I am in love with this cookbook. I’ve had it for a few years and only used it once before, but I love flipping through it. There are all kinds of great resources in it for all things organic and it almost reads like a story. Part of me wants to add it to my reading list and keep it on my night stand for some evening reading. The other part of me thinks I might be too obsessed with food and I shouldn’t read it as it’s a novel. Anyway, another reason why I love this cookbook is because the recipes are in the form of a menu and the menus are organized by season. I’m becoming a huge fan of seasonal cooking! Don’t tell, but the menu that this recipe comes from is actually a winter menu. Well, in all honesty, I got collard greens in the latest co-op pick-up and this menu was the only menu in the cookbook that used collard greens. So perhaps North Texas is still stuck in winter when collard greens are going strong! Ha. Okay, so this recipe if the first of four recipes in the New Millennium Soul Food menu.
Ginger Cornbread Muffins
Grub: Ideas For An Urban Organic Kitchen by Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry
Makes 6 large or 12 regular muffins
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Ingredients:
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon organic raw cane sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Fine seal salt
1/4 large ripe banana
1/4 cup fresh ginger juice (from about 1 packed cup freshly grated ginger root)
1 cup plain soymilk (I used regular skim milk)
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons organic corn oil
Set a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350*F. Grease a 6-cup large muffin tin with corn oil. (I used a 12-cup tin)
In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and 3/4 teaspoon salt.
In a large bowl, using a fork, mash the banana with the ginger juice.
Add the soy milk and mix until well combined.
Add the maple syrup and corn oil and whisk well.
Using a rubber spatula, fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Don’t over mix or the muffins will be dense.
Spoon the batter into the muffins cups three-quarters full. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are golden.
Place a wet towel beneath the muffin pan and lift the muffins out.
My Thoughts:
Yum! These cornbread muffins have a totally unexpected flavor if you don’t know ginger juice is on the ingredient list. Speaking of ginger juice, here is the recipe’s tip for making ginger juice: The easiest way to get juice from ginger is to feed it into an electric juicer and let the technology do all the work. But if you don’t have a juicer, here’s another way: First, grate your ginger knobs on a fine grater (don’t worry about peeling them). If you’re in a hurry you can pulverize them in a food processor to get pulp. Next, wrap the pulp in cheesecloth and squeeze to extract all the juice. You can also squeeze the pulp through your hands without the cheesecloth, in batches, and then strain the juice. I grated by hand and squeezed by hand in case you were curious. And while we are on the topic of ginger, Nick had an upset stomach the night before so he was excited when I told him these cornbread muffins were packed with a ginger punch! Nothing like ginger to calm the tummy! So I made these muffins on Sunday night and they were gone by Tuesday if that tells you anything. Coming in at 107 calories per muffin at 12 muffins or 214 calories per muffin at 6 muffins, these are tasty little gems worth the ginger juice labor!
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