Chopped jalapeño adds the perfect amount of kick to this delicious cornbread muffin recipe! Paired with the subtle sweetness of honey and brown sugar, these easy cornbread muffins are a wonderful snack and side dish.
It’s been approximately 24 hours since my last cornbread muffin. My stomach is craving. My day seems incomplete. It’s the scattered jalapeños. And the honey and melty butter. The sweet ‘n spicy. It’s all so good.
Fellow bakers, you’re going to be obsessed with these cornbread muffins too!
How to Make Cornbread Muffins
I recently shared my favorite cornbread recipe. It’s tender, buttery, and—the best part of all—it’s NOT dry. It’s supremely versatile, too. Bake the cornbread in a skillet, add blueberries, cheese, dried cranberries, walnuts, bacon, anything! You can even bake it directly on top of chili like I do in my cornbread chili casserole. It’s a quick, easy, and satisfying side dish and these savory muffins are no different.
Let’s review some power ingredients:
- Butter: Butter is one of the main flavors in this cornbread muffin recipe.
- Oil: Unlike in my cornbread, I add a little oil to the muffins. The oil lightens up the crumb and helps prevent the cornbread muffins from crumbling all over the muffin wrapper.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk makes cakes, muffins, and breads extra moist.
- Cornmeal: Equal parts cornmeal and flour makes the BEST cornbread muffins. With 1 cup of cornmeal, you get lots of flavor and mega crunchy edges. You can use stone-ground cornmeal or regular. I use Indian Head Yellow Corn Meal (not sponsored, truly a fan!).
- Brown Sugar: Brown sugar and honey complement the corn and jalapeño flavors.
Read more about how I created the cornbread recipe.
How Spicy Are These Jalapeño Cornbread Muffins?
These muffins are NOT overly spicy. I’m not normally one who flips for spicy food and I love these! In fact, I prefer them over plain cornbread muffins. The great news, however, is that you control the spice. If you prefer extra spicy food, add more chopped jalapeño. If you can’t take spicy food at all, leave it out.
These cornbread muffins are:
- Buttery
- Savory & sweet
- Mildly spicy
- Moist
- Easy to make—no mixer needed!
Cornbread muffins are my go-to forever favorite and I can’t wait for you to try them. Put them in your weekly rotation because these are delicious in an unforgettable way!
Serve Cornbread Muffins With…
- Taco Spice Chili
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Light Chicken Corn Chowder
- Slow Cooker Chicken Chili
- Sweet Chili Chicken
Jalapeño Cornbread Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes
- Yield: 14 muffins
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Chopped jalapeño adds the perfect amount of kick to this delicious cornbread muffin recipe! Paired with the subtle sweetness of honey and brown sugar, these easy cornbread muffins are a wonderful snack and side dish. These muffins are mildly spicy with 1 jalapeño. Feel free to increase or reduce the amount of jalapeño based on your preference.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (120g) cornmeal (fine or medium ground)
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) canola or vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (43g) honey
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk, at room temperature*
- 1–2 chopped jalapeño peppers*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Line a 12-count muffin pan with liners or spray with nonstick spray. This recipe makes about 14 muffins, so there will be a 2nd batch. Set pan aside.
- Whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the cooled melted butter, oil, brown sugar, and honey together until completely smooth and thick. Then, whisk in the egg until combined. Finally, whisk in the buttermilk. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Fold in the peppers. Avoid overmixing.
- Spoon batter into muffin liners, filling all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes 425°F (218°C) then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce heat to 350°F (177°C) and continue baking for another 16-17 minutes. The total time these muffins should be in the oven is around 21-23 minutes. Use a toothpick to test. If it comes out clean, the muffins are done.
- Remove muffins from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before enjoying. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: For longer storage, freeze baked cornbread muffins for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat in the microwave.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Rubber Spatula
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk is required for this recipe. If you don’t have any, you can make a DIY sour milk by adding 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Then add enough whole milk to make 1 cup total. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes before using. Whole milk is strongly recommended for moistest, richest texture, but you can use lower fat or nondairy milk in a pinch.
- Jalapeño: The heat cooks down in the oven. For mildly spicy muffins, use 1 jalapeño. For medium, use 2. Jalapeño seeds have the most heat, so add them to the batter for extra heat. I leave out the seeds in the batter.
- Skillet Cornbread: Baking cornbread in a skillet gives it an even heartier, crunchy crust. Bake this cornbread in a 9-inch or 10-inch oven safe greased skillet at the same temperature for the same amount of time.
- Why the initial high temperature? Like I instruct for most of my muffin recipes, bake the muffins for 5 minutes at a very hot temperature. Then, keeping the muffins in the oven, switch to a lower temperature for the remaining bake time. This initial high temperature will quickly lift the muffin tops, then the centers will bake during the lower temperature bake time.
- Mini Cornbread Muffins: This recipe yields around 30 mini cornbread muffins. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for around 10-12 minutes.
Keywords: jalapeno cornbread muffins
Has anyone tried to substitute maple syrup for the honey? Can you use all butter instead of oil and butter? The cornbread in a pan recipe uses just butter.
Hi Stephanie, We haven’t tested this cornbread recipe with maple syrup but it should be ok. The little bit of oil in this muffin recipe lightens up the crumb and helps prevent the cornbread muffins from crumbling all over the muffin wrapper. You could use more butter in a pinch, but we recommend sticking with the oil if you can!
Do you think these will work with whole wheat flour?
Hi Paula, they’ll taste a little heavier, but whole wheat flour should work.
I made these as mini-muffins, using 2 very finely chopped jalapenos. I also followed the suggested reduction of sweeteners, slightly more than 1/2 of the brown sugar and 1/2 the honey as I did not want a big sweet taste. They came out great, husband and guests loved them!
★★★★★
Can blueberries or raspberries be swapped for the jalapeño?
Hi Bridget! We haven’t tested it, but other bakers have reported adding berries with success.
This recipe was a hit! The texture was perfect; however, they were slightly too sweet for my taste. What is the best way to reduce the sweetness without affecting the texture too much?
★★★★★
Hi Melissa, you can reduce either the brown sugar or honey. I’ve made these without the honey, and the texture is pretty much the same. Or try halving the brown sugar.
These are moist and delicious. The brown sugar, salty butter, and jalapenos play well together.
★★★★★
Amazing! Will definitely be making this one again! I didn’t have fresh jalapeños. Canned whole jalapeños (chopped) worked well. Other than that followed recipe exactly and they came out perfect.
★★★★★
Made them exactly as written and they were perfect! Not too sweet with a nice kick (I added a lot of jalapeño seeds).
This recipe is a keeper. As mentioned by many others, this yielded about 10 muffins
★★★★★
Hi Sally, I’m craving blueberry muffins…..have you tried this recipe with blueberries instead of jalapeños? I have a lot of cornmeal!!
Sounds delicious! Let us know if you give it a try 🙂
I’m wondering if the muffins will fall apart from too much moisture??
Fresh would be a better bet than frozen!
Well it was bound to happen eventually. This was the first recipe of Sally’s that I’ve tried that wasn’t absolutely stellar. Several of her recipes are my default go-to so I was surprised at how bad these turned out. When I got 10 muffins instead of 14 I double checked the recipe. When I took them out of the oven at 16 minutes and they were already burnt, I triple checked the recipe and checked the thermometer in my oven. When I tasted them and they were dry and crumbly, I checked the recipe again. I followed the recipe exactly and made no substitutions.
★★
This recipe tastes great but the bottoms have burned while the tops are undercooked every time. The bottoms have also always stuck to the wrappers and when I use other recipes with the wrappers there is no issue.
★★★
Can I use maple syrup instead of honey?
Hi Kristin, We haven’t tested this cornbread recipe with maple syrup but it should be ok. Let us know if you try it!
I make this recipe with maple syrup all the time. It’s perfectly fine to sub 1:1 and I love the flavor from the syrup. It’s all good, honey or maple syrup.
★★★★★
I don’t have any honey or other syrup to sub for it. Will it make a difference If I leave it out?
Hi Dee, you can leave out the honey.
These were PERFECT. Excellent buttery flavor with just the right sweetness. Like others have said though, I got less than 14 muffins. Ended up with 10. But I didn’t want to have to bake a second tray anyway. I had sriracha peppers in my garden and used one of those and it had a nice hint of spice. I think two would’ve also worked without being too spicy. I’ll make these again!