Sorry I’ve been AWOL for the past couple of weeks! I got an amazing if challenging new job writing up reports for an organization that does assessments for asylum cases, so my plate (so to speak) is a lot fuller. I had a few disappointing trysts with Yukon Gold potatoes in the meantime – I won’t bore you with the details – but in the end I wound up coming back to corn.

Recently someone reminded me of the expression “grinding the corn,” a certain method employed to make the most basic positional preference of missionaries and heter-bros everywhere into something women can actually enjoy. So I thought, hey – I’ll make muffins this week, with ground corn (cornmeal). It’ll be all about the ladies! Sadly, you won’t get to grind the corn yourself, but the good news is that it’s already done for you. By men (and women) whose faces you never even saw, you naughty monkey. But you will find sweet Southerly satisfaction in the end*… at the same time that your muffins satisfy the lucky stiffs with whom you share them.

Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 T flaxseed meal
• 1 cup plain almond milk
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup applesauce**
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup all purpose or 1-to-1 gluten free flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Combine the flaxseed and almond milk in a bowl and set aside to gel for a few minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a large bowl combine and mix the rest of the dry ingredients. Stir together the applesauce and maple syrup and add them and the almond milk mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix with a spoon or spatula until well combined, but avoid overmixing the batter.

Spoon the batter in even portions into the muffin cups and bake for about 20-23 minutes, or until they pass the toothpick test. Serve as a side with chili (stay tuned for my favorite recipe!) or soups, or enjoy warm with jam and/or vegan butter for breakfast. There’s nothing quite like a warmed up muffin first thing in the morning, is there.

*Yes, I know sweet cornbread is more of a Northern thing, but I was talking about a different kind of Deep South.

**You can make your own unprocessed applesauce (I always do) by poaching the pieces of a medium sized peeled apple until soft in an inch or two of water and then pureeing the cooked apple with a few tablespoons of the water to get the desired consistency. One average apple will make about a half cup of sauce.