Pure Hunger

I recently wrote that cornbread was just an excuse to slather honey and butter on something and eat it. I must admit I love the delectable combination of salty rich butter mixed with sweet sticky honey. I must use every bit of will power, which isn’t much, that has been given to this body to not dash into the kitchen, pull out a muffin, press 30 seconds on the microwave and slather and consume. Just writing about pairing those to items makes my stomach smile. This post is not about honey or butter, as sad as that is for me to say. It’s about making something that you can use as an excuse to consume those two together. This particular recipe was attempted due to an overabundance of baked butternut squash and a personal flaw that does not allow me to throw out food.

Ingredients

Adapted from “Feeding the Whole Family” by Cynthia Lair
1.5 cups cornmeal (I used fine ground)
1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup baked and mashed winter squash or red garnet yam
1/2 cup + 3 Tbsp water or milk (I used almond/rice milk)
1/2 cup coconut oil/butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds for topping (optional)

I knew the squash was quickly approaching a throw out date and I had incorporated so much of it into dinners we were all tired of the taste. Then I stumbled upon this recipe and I was saved. It’s incredibly simple once you have prepared the squash. It usually takes me less than 30 minutes to put everything together and then another 25 to bake.

While I had been making the recipe as written, with butter and eggs, I decided to try to make a vegan version so my son could eat them. I also promised to share my favorite side dish to my most recent post. That salty salad with this sweet bread keeps me happily full for hours and hours.

This recipe uses a blender but if you mash the squash then you can really just mix everything together without the blender. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil muffin tins or line with paper muffin cups. Mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt together in large bowl. Set aside.

Put mashed squash or yam in blender with water (this can be food for 6 month or older baby) and blend until smooth. Add oil, maple syrup and ground flax. Pulse a few times to blend.  Let sit 3-5 minutes. This allows the flax the soak in the wet ingredients and act as an egg replacement.

Add wet ingredients to dry mixture and mix with a minimum of strokes. Fill muffin cups full with batter. Decorate top of each muffin with a few pumpkin seeds.

Bake 25-30 minutes. Top of muffin with crack slightly when done.

Slather with honey and butter and consume happily.