Rosemary & maple make these easy cornbread muffins lightly sweet & cozy-tasting. I love to serve them at Thanksgiving or with a big bowl of chili.
Move over, dinner rolls, and make way for… cornbread muffins! Maybe it’s my Midwestern background, but I love corn, especially in this sweet & savory corn muffin recipe.
My Cornbread Muffin Recipe Ingredients
In my opinion, good cornbread should be golden & crumbly and walk the line between sweet and savory. These corn muffins do just that. Here’s what I use to make them healthy & delicious:
- Maple syrup sweetens them naturally and adds depth of flavor to this corn muffin recipe.
- Rosemary flecks them with green and brings its cozy, fresh wintry taste.
- Canola oil or olive oil is a healthier substitute for butter.
- Spelt flour gives them whole grain power.
- And apple cider vinegar helps them rise and adds a nice tangy flavor.
With apple cider vinegar as a rising agent, almond milk instead of dairy milk, and oil instead of butter, this cornbread muffin recipe is actually vegan. If you have vegan skeptics in your house, don’t worry. These muffins are so good that they’ll never know if you don’t tell them.
What to Serve with Corn Muffins
I made this recipe to serve at my Thanksgiving dinner along with green beans, mashed potatoes, roasted beets, squash, and apple pie for dessert. Make a double batch, and use the extras to make poblano cornbread stuffing!
Cornbread muffins are also one of my favorite sides with a big bowl of soup. Of course, they’re great with chili, but I also like them with my lentil soup, butternut squash soup, red pepper soup, or many-veggie soup.
If you love these cornbread muffins…
Try my corn chowder, cornbread, or simple corn on the cob next!
Maple Cornbread Muffins
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup spelt flour (or regular all-purpose flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary
- ¾ cup unsweetened Almond Breeze Almond Milk
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and, using a wooden spoon, stir together until just combined. Don't overmix.
- Fill muffin cups ¾ of the way full, and bake 18-20 minutes.
- Let them cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, remove them, and let them finish cooling on a wire rack.
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Oat flour or a gluten free blend will likely work in place of the spelt flour, I didn’t try it so I don’t know what the exact result would be.
I tried out a variety of types of cornmeal, and I like this one best for the muffin texture.
These smell so good my neighbors are going to think I moved and a Baker moved in. I did pick the rosemary less than a minute before chopping it up. They taste lovely and hold together well. I had to use the lactose free milk I had on hand. Will absolutely make again.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Used oat flour—worked great. Substituted pumpkin spice for rosemary. Substituted olive oil for canola. Used 1/3 C maple syrup and they were still very, very sweet. Loved these!
I have coarse ground corn (polenta) on hand…what do you think about subbing that for cornmeal for these muffins? Can I grind
it a bit finer in our coffeebean mill (hasn’t been used for coffee beans for years!)?
thanks!
Hi Barbara, the muffins will be more coarse and crumbly. The coffee grinder should work great (I’ve done it in successfully in a blender)
This is the second time I made these muffins. I added an egg to make them less crumbly. This recipe is so easy and they taste great.
Just made these last night. Absolutely lovely!
These are really beautiful corn muffins. The rosemary and maple syrup combo was great. I used all-purpose flour, and regular milk, without any issues. Thanks for a great recipe!
These are super delicious and mine were very crumbly. Any tips for that, have you tried a flax/regular egg?
Hi Rebecca, I use flax in this cornbread recipe, I haven’t tried it as muffins: https://www.loveandlemons.com/spicy-chipotle-cornbread/
Hi.. These came out delicious! I used regular flour and vegetable oil instead of canola b/c that is what I had. Muffins didn’t totally fall apart but were really crumbly (still delicious, just crumbly). I saw you mentioned a flax egg. How does that work? Do I just add in when I combine the wet and dry ingredients? Does anything have to be removed? Thanks!
These are wonderful! Have made three times in last few weeks. They were a hit at thanksgiving dinner but also amazing next to your simple butternut squash soup. I make them gluten free by using a mix of millet, oat, brown rice, and almond flours. I also cut the oil in half this most recent batch by replacing with 1/4 cup applesauce. Also knocked down maple syrup to 1/4 cup. They’re delicious as written and also this slightly more lightened version. Thanks for a relatively easy keeper! Cornbread vegan is tough – sometimes too dry or too mushy – but this recipe is just right!
Hi Elizabeth, I’m so glad you’ve been loving the recipe! I’m curious what ratios of those 4 flours you used?
Hello! I’m not very scientific about this but I would say about 1/4 of each to total a full cup. I’ve been doing this general blend to GF-ize recipes for many years. Always comes up better for me than most commercial GF blends for some reason, especially now that arrowhead mills doesn’t make the whole grain one I loved. And I don’t mess with xantham gums or whatever. I will say that I think the oat is pretty critical and best replacement in my experience 1:1 for spelt. Without that I’ve run into some texture issues before (mushy or failure to rise). Too much almond is a recipe for mush and too much only mullet or only brown rice imo doesn’t taste as good. So that’s my method! Not scientific lol!
This has been my favorite go-to cornbread muffin recipe for years! Thanks!
I made these for my celiac husband last night….subbed the spelt for Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 flour and they were FANTASTIC! They were not too crumbly for my taste, so moist and absolutely delicious. They are VERY rosemary flavored (duh-right up my alley) but my mom thought to lessen the 2 tablespoons of rosemary to 1….to each their own.
Thank you for a wonderful new take on cornbread. I would never have thought to change them up. The maple was just lovely!
Hi Micaela,
I’m so happy these worked so well with Bob’s Red Mill’s gf flour! Thanks for letting me know, I’m so glad you enjoyed the muffins!
Great looking muffins. I will have to try these soon, my rosemary is ready to start harvesting.
I have been using very finely ground cornmeal in my muffins & cornbread for several years now. Just a hint for those who are having a hard time getting the Arrowhead Mills cornmeal, check the International section in your supermarket. You may be able to find a very finely ground cornmeal that comes from India.
Could I replace the maple syrup with honey?
Really enjoyed these muffins. They are good and easy to make. I had them for breakfast, so I left out the rosemary. I also halved the salt and used 1/2 extra dark maple syrup mixed with 1/2 buckwheat honey for the maple flavour. Good maple syrup is too expensive. I thought the batter was too liquid, but everything worked out fine. I baked 12, at 350 in convection oven for 14 minutes. They would probably be good with chopped pecans mixed in the batter or placed on top. Very good with a rosemary-rhubarb jam.
I made these as directed, but I used coconut oil in place of canola oil and whole cow’s milk in place of almond milk. It did not work at all. They turned out so crumbly that I could not get them out of the muffin tin in one piece.
Delicious!! Not dry at all and not too sweet (as I was afraid it might be).
Hi Rachel, I’m so glad you liked them!
I knew I didn’t want my muffins to be crumbly, so I added a flax egg. The muffins came out soft, with fantastic texture and flavor. They were SO good. I substituted blue cornmeal, because I love the flavor and texture. Thank you so much for the recipe! I’m going to make it for the rest of my life.
I made these last night for my family, and they were amazing!! They were the perfect compliment to Vegetarian Chili. I followed your recommendation, and I used Arrowhead Mills Organic Cornmeal, and it has such a nice texture. Some of the other cornmeals that I have tried before are too gritty, but this one is so nice. I am eager to make polenta with it.
If I was going to use a mini muffin pan, how long do you think I’d bake for? Thanks!
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