Sweet Potato Corn Muffins

Things didn't go exactly as planned this week. Husband was sick and not in the mood for hearty eating. I had a few sweet potatoes left that I was planning on making oven fries with, but instead I figured I'd try to make something less perishable from them. Never mind all the baking stuff I already have around the house. I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Cornbread and was off to the races.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 sweet potatoes or 1 (16 ounce) can sweet potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil (I used canola)

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately; pour into 12 muffin cups. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Notes:
-Given my repeated failures baking any kind of cornbread with GF flour, I used regular old wheat baking flour just like the recipe says.
-I baked three sweet potatoes at 375 degrees for 45 minutes and probably should have kept them in there for an hour.
-I added a half teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
-I used light brown sugar, not regular sugar, and probably used closer to 3/4 a cup than a half.

The result was a little nutty, a little sweet, perfect for breakfast or a dinner side. I'll definitely make these again someday.

Cornbread Misadventures

I am trying--and failing--to figure out how to make FODMAP-friendly cornbread before Thanksgiving.

The first experiment involved a packet of Kalustyan's GF cornbread mix with half the instructions rubbed off. I added frozen corn and cheese and let's just say that didn't work. The consistency was terrible, the bread was flavorless, and overall it was just embarrassing.

The second was a variation on this Betty Crocker recipe.
1/2 stick butter
1 cup water plus 3 teaspoons coconut oil
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup GF flour (I used a combination of quinoa and rice flour)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

I cooked it on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet. The consistency was great; however, I'm afraid I used rancid butter, because the smell was off and a minute after eating it I wasn't feeling so hot. Next time, use fresh butter!

For my third and hopefully final attempt, I'm going to (a) use fresh butter, and (b) rely more heavily on rice flour than quinoa flour, which has a kind of overpowering nutty/chalky taste, and (c) add cheese and corn, and (4) bake it in the oven. Stay tuned.