Carter wanted to go the airplane museum, a weekly request. I wanted to make cornmeal apple cheese muffins, a long-lost, pre-Carter recipe that turned up when I recently cleaned out my stack of recipe clippings. So first we baked, then Carter devoured a muffin on the way to the Hiller—and another two when we got home.

Carter favorite part about making this muffin recipe is that he got to turn a lot of handles: sifter, nutmeg grater, and rotary cheese grater. Equipment notes: I have a sifterwith a handle that you turn rather squeeze, which is easier for Carter (and me!) to use. I’ve mentioned before that we grind our own nutmeg, a personal preference that also gives Carter more involvement. After a few knuckle scrapes with a box cheese grater, I almost always use a rotary cheese grater, which Carter used today for the first time with very careful oversight.

I had only an old newspaper clipping with no attribution, but thanks to Google and Darlene’s Kitchen Pantry, I found out that this cornmeal apple cheese muffins recipe comes from the Apple Cookbook by Olwen Woodier. My yield using an ice cream scoop for a consistent measure was 15 small muffins. 

Cornmeal apple cheese muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup silk (skim, low-fat, soy, or rice)
1/4 cup apple juice or cider
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 medium apple (such as Braebrun, Empire, or Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and finely diced

Preheat over to 400ºF. Grease 12 large or 18 small muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, apple juice, honey, oil, and eggs. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquids and the cheese. Stir by hand to barely combine the batter. Gently fold in the diced apples so the batter is lumpy, not smooth. Do not overmix.

Fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full. Bake 15–20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the muffin cups immediately and cool on a wire rack or serve hot.

Adapted from the Apple Cookbook

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