While camping in Mammoth earlier this week, I bought a “One Pan Recipe” magazine published by Better Homes & Gardens.  I am a total kitchen geek… I take great joy in reading cookbooks, recipes, cooking magazines, whatever.  I blame my cooking/baking  nerdiness on my mother who does the exact same thing.  Where do you think I got this obsession from?

Anyway, I saw this recipe and thought, “Holy hell!  That sounds awesome!”

The recipe is simple as pie, or should I say muffin?  Ha, ha!  I crack myself up!  Okay, sorry, back to the point.  The muffins are yummy but I must say they’re not as knock-my-socks-off-fabulous as I thought they’d be.  See my note #2 below.  I think adding butter to the maple syrup drizzle/brushing at the end would make them much more special.

Regardless, give them a go and let me know what you think.

Notes:

1.  I didn’t use paper bake cups, I rarely do.  It drives me nuts when you’ve worked hard to create this amazing muffin/cupcake only to have a big chunk of it stick to the bake cup (even if they’re sprayed with cooking spray).  Plus, I’m lazy and if it’s not absolutely necessary, I don’t use it.
2. Once the muffins cooled a bit, I removed them from the muffin tin and generously brushed them with maple syrup.  I thought of melting some butter and stirring it in with the syrup, just to add a bit of richness.  In hind sight I wish I would have.

Maple Bacon Corn NonMuffins (recipe care of Better Homes & Gardens)

INGREDIENTS:  1 cup yellow cornmeal, 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 3/4 tsp. salt, 2 eggs (lightly beaten), 3/4 cup maple syrup, 3/4 cup milk, 1/4 plain low-fat yogurt, 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil, 10 slices crisp-cooked bacon (crumbled)

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line fifteen 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups; lightly coat bake cups with cooking spray.  In a medium bowl stir together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.  Make a well in center of cornmeal mixture.  In a small bowl combine eggs, syrup, milk, yogurt, and oil.  Add to cornmeal mixture; stir just until moistened.  Fold in eight of the crumbled bacon slices.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Top with remaining two crumbled bacon slices.  Serve warm.  If desired, serve with additional maple syrup.