To any of you who, like me, enjoy breaking out one of those blue boxes of cornbread muffin mix to accompany a nice homemade dinner: After you try this recipe, you will never feel the need to buy another box of mix again. I was surfing the web for a cornbread muffin recipe and somehow ended up with another nugget from the Neelys. These cornbread muffins are just as easy as fixing up the boxed muffins, and are easily more delicious:

Honey Cornbread Muffins

I actually made these as part of Mario’s birthday dinner Pt. 1, and he had a hard time believing they were made from scratch. These came out moist but still a tad crumbly with a kiss of honey goodness.

These cornbread muffins are so. easy. Prepare to be amazed. Mix together all the wet ingredients (milk, eggs, butter, honey) and all the dry ingredients (corn meal, flour, baking powder, sugar, salt) separately. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined (too much mixing will result in a tough muffin). Divide among paper muffin cups in a muffin tin. Bake for 15 min at 400F. That’s it! Is that not just as easy as the box??

The recipe calls for whole milk, but since I always have 1% or 2% in my house, I decided to be creative and do a 50/50 mix of 1% milk and Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is strained of its whey to make it thicker and richer than regular yogurt (although that would work fine in this case, or you could strain it yourself for homemade Greek yogurt). The milk/yogurt mix made for great texture in the cornbread muffins.

Honey Cornbread Muffins
Recipe courtesy The Neelys, foodnetwork.com

Ingredients
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup honey
Special equipment: paper muffin cups and a 12-cup muffin tin

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Into a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the whole milk, eggs, butter, and honey. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.

Place muffin paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin. Evenly divide the cornbread mixture into the papers. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden.