Jalapeño & Cheddar muffins

Being Mexican and not eating jalapeños is like being Italian and not eating pizza so, when I found this recipe in Lauren's blog (my favorite) I had to try it!

I had some difficulties finding the original ingredients so I switched some of them, the result was actually tastier than I expected!

Jalapeño & Cheddar Muffins

(makes 12):

(If you, like me, have trouble reasoning in cups, here's a good conversion table)

1 cup of cornmeal (I used white cornmeal, not yellow, but it was fine anyways)

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder (I used yeast because I couldn't find baking powder, the result was OK, but if you have baking powder, use it - here's a great explanation of the difference)

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of buttermilk ('homemade' by mixing 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, 1/3 teaspoon of lemon juice)

2 large eggs

8 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted

1 cup of grated cheddar (couldn't find cheddar so I substituted it with Edam cheese - Gouda is also OK)

chopped Jalapeños (I like spicy muffins so I added 3/4 of a cup, if you don't like spicy that much, 1/4 or 1/2 is fine)

(optional: 1/4 cup of sugar - I didn't use it)

Preheat the oven to 375°F (that's 190°C), butter 12 regular muffin cups (I used paper baking cups but next time I won't because when the cheese in the mixture melted it got stuck to the paper cups).

Mix together in a medium bowl these dry ingredients: the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt (and sugar).

In another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, the eggs and the melted butter, then add the cheese and the jalapeños. 

Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and lightly incorporate them. Pur the batter in the muffin cups and bake for about 15/18 minutes. If you want you can add a slice of jalapeño a couple of minutes before teking them out of the oven to decorate.

As I mentioned before, I wasn't expecting a huge success in this recipe but it actually came out really good, perhaps a bit dry in taste, probably I should have used a bit more cheese. 

I'm thinking this muffins can be a good meal starter, you know, like the bread baskets they have in restaurants, these with some herbs butter would be perfect - next time I'll try baking them as buns!