Bakery style, high domed, moist and sweet corn muffins made using the muffin method. Simple and quick to prepare, and they maintain their moist crumb for days.
What’s a bakery style corn muffin? It’s a sweet, high domed corn muffin with a soft tender texture. There has to be a good amount of cornmeal in them without the texture being grainy or crumbly. You can describe these as fluffy, cake-like, and delicious.
Have you ever gone to a bakery or cafe, and tried a corn muffin? How about those ginormous muffins at Costco? Now try to duplicate that at home. Remember, you're making a muffin and not a cupcake so please, no creaming of butter and alternating flour and milk into the batter because that's making a cupcake and not a muffin. You need to follow the rules, dry in one bowl, wet in another, mix, bake, and eat. What I just described is the muffin method.
Corn muffins have been my nemesis. I have spent years trying to perfect them. They're the official state muffin of Massachusetts, which added some pressure since I'm a born and raised Bay Stater.
Goals:
- A corn muffin that isn’t flat and has a high dome preferably with cracks on top
- Has a decent amount of cornmeal in it
- Sweet and tasty
- Moist and delicate crumb
- Won’t turn into hockey pucks after a few hours or next day
Well my beautiful friends, I’ve done it. These corn muffins:
- Aren’t flat
- Have a good amount of corn with a little extra corn ingredient
- Are sweet and moist (remember, sugar is considered a wet ingredient thereby adding moisture)
- Maintain their moist crumb until next day or two or three!
How, Natalie, how?!
Well, we’re going to bake these in a 400 degrees oven to give a boost to the leavenings. There’s no need to lower the temperature either. It’s a constant temperature from start to finish.
I use a good amount of flour and cornmeal and I use stone ground cornmeal instead of coarse cornmeal.
One and a quarter cups of sugar adds flavor and moisture. You can use 1 cup if you like, but I felt the extra ¼ cup was perfect. Remember, I’m a Northerner.
Sour cream is added for richness and moisture.
Oil is used rather than butter to keep it moist. I’ve actually put a muffin aside and after 3 days it was still moist.
Finally, cornstarch is used to make a tender crumb and it’s a corn ingredient - so there.
This batter is thick and it may seem like you have too much batter for the pan, but it’s just enough for each cup and will mound slightly above the rim of the pan. I use a muffin tin that has ½ cup capacity.
I place the muffin tin on a baking sheet for 2 reasons:
- The first time I made these, I wasn’t absolutely sure they wouldn’t overflow. They didn't.
- Using a baking sheet makes for easy removal of the pan from the oven. I've indented too many muffin tops with the thumb of my oven mitt to count.
As you can see, these rose beautifully. You can use parchment paper liners or just grease the muffin tin.
Tools you'll need to make these delicious corn muffins:
Want more breakfast treats? Try:
- Maple Scones
- Strawberry Cream Scones
- Cranberry Orange Scones
- Best Blueberry Muffins
- German Pancakes
- Perfect Homemade Pancakes
Life is too short for mediocre food.
Have you seen these?
Bakery Style Corn Muffins
PRINT PINIngredients
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- 1 ¼ cup sugar*
- 1 cup cornmeal
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon fine salt
- ⅔ cup neutral oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk whole or 2%
- 1 cup sour cream full fat
Instructions
- Preheat oven 400°.
- Grease or line tins with cupcake liners. You can also spray the liners for easy release.
- Whisk together dry ingredients together in large bowl.
- In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, sour cream, and oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Don’t overmix.
- Scoop or ladle batter into muffin tins and fill each cup to the very top. This batter is thick and it may seem like you have too much batter for the pan, but it’s just enough and will mound slightly above the rim of the pan. I use a muffin tin that has ½ cup capacity per cup.
- I like to place the muffin tin on top of a baking sheet for easy removal after baking. I have indented too many muffin tops with my oven mitts. It's also a precaution to prevent any spillage - although that has never happened to me.
- Place muffins in oven and bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. You could rotate the muffin tin halfway through baking to ensure even cooking. Honestly, most of the time I skip this step because I don’t mind them being slightly off. I’m going to eat them, not look at them. If you are using the parchment paper liners, you may have to cook them a few minutes more because they allow the muffins to bake upwards instead of outwards like they would if using cupcake or no liners. I cook them closer to 25 minutes, but please check after 22 minutes since all ovens vary.
- Let muffins cool in muffin tin on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then remove muffins from tin and continue to cool.
Notes
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Natalie Gandelsman
Can I substitute full fat yogurt for the sour cream?
Natalie
I don't see a problem with it. 🙂 Let me know how they turn out.
Kim
Can u add blueberries to the recipe ??
Natalie
Yes, you can. In fact, I was going to post a recipe for that soon. If adding blueberries, you will have leftover batter since the blueberries will add volume. I use a muffin tin that has 1/2 cup capacity. You can use leftovers in another muffin tin or use a small loaf pan or just bake in batches. I haven't done that so I don't know if the batter sitting will affect the rise since this does have baking soda in it. Let me know how it comes out! 🙂
Ed209
I use to buy Costco muffins until Costco stopped selling these muffins for a short time. When I asked for the recipe, the Costco bakers refused to share, so enter the internet. I found your recipe and I will never buy Costco muffins again ( unless I want my wife to do a number on me). I have made these muffins numerous times (I am presently gathering the ingredients to make a another batch). Your recipe is my one and only go-to muffin recipe. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Natalie
Thank you so much for commenting! I'm so happy you liked them. It took me years to get the recipe right and I think they're the best too. 🙂
Antonette
These corn muffins are exactly as described. I wasn’t sure all of the batter would fit, but it did. I was concerned they wouldn’t crown, but they did. Being from the northeast also, this recipe checked most of the boxes. I’m in the south now and corn muffins are very different here. I was missing just a little “corn grit” (texture). Maybe what I’m finding down here as corn meal is different than up north. Delicious nonetheless. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into this recipe.
Natalie
Thank you for visiting and your comment! 🙂 So happy you liked them.
Susie
I've tried countless cornbread muffin recipes and I am happy to say my search is over! Thank you so much for sharing.
Natalie
You're very welcome!
Rosemary
These are hands down the best corn muffins! I have made plenty and this recipe will be the only one I make from now on!
Thank you!
Natalie
Thank you for the comment! I am proud of this recipe and so happy you gave it a try. Thanks for visiting. 🙂
Tracy
Omg. These are amazing…!!! The *only* cornbread muffins I ever liked are from a local bbq chain called Armadillo Willy’s (NorCal), and this is almost the exact same muffin! I’m trying to type and cram a warm muffin in my mouth at the same time bc I’m so excited and happy and these are SO GOOD. It’s a taste of home. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ When we moved to the south, I learned that cornbread here is a very different beast. 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing this fantastic recipe!
Natalie
You are very welcome! Thanks for visiting and commenting. You made my day. I really appreciate it. Check out my blueberry muffins too. 🙂
Karen
I’ve been looking for a bakery style corn muffin for a long time - the search is over! Delicious 🙂
Natalie
Yes! Thank you for letting me know. I have worked on that recipe for years and it's my favorite muffin. I'm so happy you like it. 🙂
Sandra Myers
I hope these taste as good as they came out. For the flour, I used a mix of regular and corn flour, in add to the corn meal and corn starch. We need to be careful about sugar, so I used a Truvia stevia blend. Everything else remained the same. I look forward to these, as does my husband,
Martha
I just made these, doubled the recipe, and now I have to make another double batch!! Delicious! Thank you so much, the best corn muffins I've ever made (and I've made plenty lol).
Natalie
I'm so happy you enjoyed them! It took me a long time to perfect this recipe and everyone loves them. Thank you for visiting and commenting. You may want to try my blueberry muffins too as they are excellent. 🙂
Sarah
These were delicious! We are a big family so I tripled the recipe!
Do you have a recipe that have a stronger corn flavor (more corn meal)?
Natalie
I'm so happy you liked them. When developing this recipe, I tried different amounts of cornmeal but found by adding more, the muffins lose their soft texture and became more dense and crumbly. I've even tried blending corn with the wet ingredients but they weren't as good as these. I do have a cornbread recipe you could also try which would have more corn flavor. Enjoy.
Marie
Just made these for our Christmas dinner and they are just the recipe I was looking for. I do love my corn bits, so I dumped a generous helping in. You do not want to halve this recipe.
Natalie
I'm glad you enjoyed them. You may also like my cornbread recipe and it's easy to make. Merry Christmas!