Photo Credit: Ashley E. Cummings
Hoppin' John
Cornbread Muffins
Traditional
components of the Southern New Year's staple, Hoppin' John, work in harmony to
create these yummy muffins. What a way
to ring in a year of prosperity! Serve
warm with butter as a brunch feature or hearty on-the-go snack. You can also serve them with soup to complete
the meal.
Prep Time: 30
minutes
Baking Time: 30
minutes
Yield: 6 jumbo
muffins
Ingredients:
6 slices of bacon, roughly chopped
½ cup white onion, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
½ pound collard greens, finely chopped
salt to taste
black pepper to
taste
hot sauce to
taste
1 ¼ cup cornmeal
½ cup white flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons, butter melted
2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup canned black-eyed peas, rinsed, drained, and slightly
smashed
Directions:
1.) Preheat oven
to 350°F. Grease the inside of a jumbo
muffin pan.
2.) Slowly cook
the bacon in a wide skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon and
place on paper towel. Carefully pour off
all but a tablespoon of the resulting bacon drippings. Reserve the drippings for later use. Sauté the onion in the pan drippings. Once the onions are tender and begin to brown,
add the vinegar to the hot pan with the onions.
Watch out! The steam from the
vinegar is going to hit you in the face!
Stir the onions and vinegar around while removing any brown bits from
the pan. Reduce the vinegar until most
of the liquid has evaporated. Add the
greens to the pan. Slowly move around
the greens with the onion. The volume
will decrease. Cook down the greens
until the stems are soft. Season the
greens with salt, pepper, and hot sauce; set aside to cool.
3.) Whisk together
the cornmeal, white flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a
large mixing bowl until well combined.
In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, melted butter,
honey, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of the
remaining bacon drippings.
4.) Combine the
contents of both bowls until just incorporated.
The batter will be thick and somewhat lumpy. Coarsely chop the cooked bacon and fold into
the batter with the beans and cooled greens.
5.) Evenly
distribute the batter into the greased muffin cups. An ice cream scoop works great for this.
6.) Bake until tops turn golden brown and a toothpick can be
cleanly removed from the center of the muffins.
About 30 minutes.
NOTE: A standard
muffin pan for 12 can also be used for this recipe. The baking time will go down to about 20
minutes.