Hot, buttery corn muffins can be the perfect companion to a hot bowl of chili or a southern style fried chicken meal. If you have ever sought out corn muffin mix it is likely you have come across the famous Jiffy brand.
I love these little Jiffy brand boxes because they are inexpensive (sub $0.50), the steps are easy and they make a lot of muffins! The tricky thing with Jiffy is that they can be delicious but even if you follow the directions on the box exactly they 100% always come out dry and crumbly. Maybe it’s just me (it’s not) and maybe I’m over mixing or under calculating the milk but I can never rely on the instructions on the side of the box alone.
I made these corn muffins with my son today. They turned out perfectly moist and kept their shape when I took them out of the cupcake/muffin pan. We found out that the secret to sprucing up a box of Jiffy is more eggs and oil! I don’t know why Jiffy has never adjusted this recipe on the box, but I’m guessing these things still fly off the shelves regardless.
Cheesy Corn Bread Muffins
What we love about a corn muffin base like Jiffy is it also lets you be creative. Cheddar cheese was the highlight of this recipe but if I wasn’t feeding this to my spice-averse family I would also add some chopped jalapeños. Some mornings I make corn cakes on a griddle and soon I want to try adjusting this to be a corn biscuit base which we can bake on a sheet in the oven. The possibilities are endless.
For delicious, buttery, cheesy corn bread muffins with a crunchy & caramelized cheddar muffin top, here is what you need.
Ingredients
- 1 box of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 – 1/2 Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Butter to grease muffin pan and to top
Steps
- Preheat oven to 400F per the box instructions.
- In a large mixing bowl mix the cornbread, eggs, milk, oil and cheese together. Make sure your eggs get incorporated well and let that sit for 3-4 minutes. The cheese will give the batter some chunk and help hold it together.
- While that’s resting take a cupcake/muffin pan and grease the inside of the cups with butter. I don’t use paper or foil cupcake cups for this recipe as I like the heat from the metal pan to caramelize the sides and the cheese directly.
- Take your batter and fill each cup about 1/2 of the way. They will rise so don’t be over eager with filling. This made about 9 perfectly proportional muffins for us.
- Top each one with more cheddar cheese and place into the oven for 15-20 minutes. We went 17 minutes in our oven and they came out perfect.
- After baking, remove and let cool for 10-15 minutes before you remove. While they rest you can brush with extra butter or do so while eating.
This entire process took us about 30 minutes and made a perfect mid-day snack for the kids. You can be creative with the batter and add other things to your mix depending on what you’re pairing with (like have you ever tried honey butter?) or do the recipe above with no cheese and have a perfectly good corn muffin. However, as in all things, butter is always recommended 🙂
Enjoy!
