Growing up summers were spent down south in Missouri and Arkansas with family. Memories from that time are rich – afternoons wading through cold creeks and rivers catching crawdads, sticky hot summer nights listening to the drone of cicadas. A lot of memories are linked to food. Biscuits and gravy at a local diner, fried fish we caught and cleaned ourselves, thick slices of my Grandfathers homegrown tomatoes eaten with nothing but a sprinkle of salt. And then there is the cornbread.
There is a definite line drawn between those who like their cornbread sweet, and those who do not. As the title of the recipe suggests, I am on the side of sweet cornbread. Not cake sweet, but just slightly honeyed. It also helped that these muffins are super moist and the recipe is a breeze. I serve these with stew, chili, at barbeques – you name it. People always ask for the recipe, which is to me the best sign of success. Don’t be alarmed by the smell of coconut when they are baking; you can’t taste it and it really helps you avoid a dry muffin. I usually have a bit of batter left over and use it to make a johnnycake while the muffins bake. I’ve included the steps for that too - consider it your reward for baking. Also make some honey butter (or jalapeno butter) to go with these. You can thank me later.
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