Broccoli Corn Muffins with Honey Orange Butter

At Virginia's on King in Charleston, they started us out with a basket of cornbread bites served with some honey butter on the side.  Took a few minutes to figure out what the green in the cornbread was...it was not jalapeno like I thought it would be.  Turns out it was broccoli.  Now it's not a favorite green veg of mine, but everyone really loved them and so I thought I would work up a variation for you to try at home.

Broccoli Corn Muffins with Honey Orange Butter

Muffins

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk
1/3 cup frozen chopped broccoli, thawed to room temp

Butter

1 stick unsalted butter, softened to room temp
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp orange zest

Mix the butter, honey, and orange zest in a food processor or mixer until the zest and honey are evenly distributed.

Put in a small dish and cover, refrigerate until ready to use.  In order to give the butter flavors more time to work together, I made my butter before starting my muffins.

In a large bowl mix together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, oil and milk.  Pour the egg mix into the flour mixture and stir gently until it comes together.

Gently fold your chopped broccoli into the batter until well blended.

Grease a muffin pan or line with cupcake holders and spoon the batter in (makes 1 dozen muffins).

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

When the muffins are done, generously slather the honey orange butter on and enjoy.  Goes well with chili, soup, or a nice hot beverage.

NOTES

If your butter is completely softened, it's just as easy (and makes less clean-up) to mix it up with a fork in the bowl you're going to serve it in.

I actually used 1/4 cup of broccoli in mine (because I am not a big fan), so if you want to add a bit more or take some out, it will still be fine.  I would not use less than 1/4 cup though or you loose the broccoli flavor to the cornmeal.

Even though my frozen broccoli was technically "chopped" already, I put it on a board and chop it up a bit more so that there would be a more even distribution of broccoli bits throughout each muffin.

These are your par for the course crumbly-type corn muffins so don't be shy with the butter!