What's Cooking Wednesday: World Food Day Entry - Apple Maple Corn Muffins

Please go to Shan's place for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.



Bellini Valli of More Than Burnt Toast and Ivy of Kopiaste had a wonderful idea: put together a blogging event that would honor World Food Day, October 16, 2008.

The basics of the event are the following:

*Create a dish that would serve 6 and have it represent your country.
*Send your creations (virtually, via photo) back to Val and Ivy and see how far our dishes will spread back to back. Maybe we can feed the world, eh?

To get the full details for participation in this worthy event, please go here.

When I think of the world's food needs, I immediately think of sustainable agriculture. I also think about world as a basic need, not a luxury. The areas I feel are most important as we try to solve the world's hunger issues are encapsulated in a very important document: The Food Declaration. If you agree with the principles listed, you can sign this document and help to make it a reality.

Sustainability comes with treating our environment well, taking care of our local agriculture, buying locally, and supporting those who follow sustainable agriculture principles.

For that reason, I wanted to come up with a dish that not only reflects my country, but also reflects my own principles in terms of hunger. So I wanted to create something that reflects local products and can be made with food stuffs produced within Michigan, preferably, within a 50-mile radius and by farmers who follow sustainable agriculture practices.

Now... the tough part - what on earth would represent the United States? Native American foods are traditional, but they certainly don't represent the United States, since the U.S. took away the lands and lives of the original inhabitants.

Okay, so scratch that.

So now the choice is "just" narrowed down to.... oh, I don't know... every culture in the world? Okay, and we have the regional issue, cultural issues, ethnic backgrounds... hmmm.

This brought me back to the original sustainability issue. Thinking seasonally, I began to put together ingredients. For my final dish, I used Apples from Nemeth Orchards, eggs from Ernst Farm, buttermilk from Guernsey Dairy, whole wheat flour and cornmeal from the Ernsts again, Michigan maple syrup and Clabber Girl products. With the exception of salt and vanilla, everything is local. Not too bad.

I decided to make a breakfast dish because a good breakfast is solidly tied to a stronger ability to learn, a subject near and dear to my heart (learning, that is, not breakfast).

My final result was a batch of muffins that taste like pancakes - and at two muffins a serving, local ingredients, all the important food groups, and a frugal breakfast, I was pretty happy. Here are:

Apple Maple Corn Muffins



Ingredients

2 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
2 eggs
1 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatbran
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon


1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Grease 12 muffin tin with spray.
3. Beat eggs. Add buttermilk, vanilla and syrup - beat well.
4. Mix dry ingredients, except for the apples.
5. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Whisk until well blended.
6. Stir in chopped apples.
7. Using an cookie scoop or equivalent, fill the muffin cups with batter.
8. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
9. Remove to cooling rack.
10. Cool muffins in tin for 2 minutes, then remove and leave to cool on rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Number of Servings: 6


Nutritional Info


Fat: 3g
Carbohydrates: 38.0g
Calories: 193
Protein: 6.2g

Nutritional info provided by www.sparkpeople.com.