This year, Joan of Foodalogue is taking us on a journey south of the border as part of her Culinary Tour Around the World, featuring the cuisines of 10 countries including Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Mexico is the first stop on the Culinary Tour Around The World. I have never been to Mexico myself but my parents and my mother-in-law have just returned from their vacation in Riviera Maya and brought me some wonderful ingredients to experiment with: an excellent high quality Mexican Cocoa Powder and a special Mexican Vanilla.
I also was able to get Piloncillo, unrefined Mexican brown sugar. Piloncillo is different from regular brown sugar, offering complex flavors of smokiness and caramel in addition to mild sweetness. Piloncillo comes hardened in a shape of a cone and requires some amount of effort to process. You can wrap the cones in a kitchen towel and crush with a hammer to fine crumbs. It is easier if you warm Piloncillo up a little bit in a microwave first.
Using these authentic ingredients, I created my Mexican-inspired dessert, Chocolate Corn Muffins. The muffins were cake-like and rich with a deep chocolate flavor and hints of caramel, not overly sweet.
For the frosting, I made Cajeta, a Mexican confection usually made of sweetened caramelized milk, and known in most of the other Latin American countries as dulce de leche. I used the dulce de leche recipe that Erica at My Colombian Recipes has shared as a guest post on my site this summer. I added the Mexican Vanilla instead of cinnamon for flavoring my cajeta as more typical to the Mexican style of this sweet treat. Cajeta perfectly complimented the chocolate flavor of the corn muffins and highlighted the notes of vanilla in the overall taste.
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup corn flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Piloncillo, finely crushed
1/2 cup regular brown sugar
2/3 cup Mexican Cocoa Powder
1 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoon Mexican Vanilla
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Butter or cooking spray for greasing
Cajeta (dulce de leche)
Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Grease the 12-cup muffin pan with butter.
In a large bowl, mix all-purpose flour, corn flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, Piloncillo, and brown sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, eggs, and vanilla. Stir into the flour mixture and mix until blended well. Add melted butter.
Pour equal scoops of batter into the muffin cups, filling them 3/4 full. Bake for about 15 minutes or until puffed up and firm on top. Cool. Spoon a generous amount of cajeta on each muffin.
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As I was writing this post on Mexican-style dessert "makeover" of cornbread, I thought of a perfect theme for this month's 5 Star Makeover.
This month's 5 Star Makeover Challenge is to create A CORNBREAD OR A DISH USING CORNBREAD with a twist (such as modern, healthy, fusion, molecular gastronomy, seasonal, or adapting to a particular cuisine style). You can create all kinds of versions of cornbread in all shapes and sizes, sweet or savory, with any kinds of ingredients mixed in, inspired by any number of cuisines of the world. Alternatively, you can also create dishes (puddings, casseroles, etc.) that use cornbread.
To participate, please post about your creation mentioning "5 Star Makeover" and linking to this post or you can copy and paste this code to insert the new 5 Star Makeover logo as follows:
Then, send me an email at natasha@5starfoodie.com or leave a comment here with a link to your blog post. If you've made a cornbread or a dish with a cornbread recently and already posted about it, you are welcome to submit it as well. Please send your entries by Monday, February 1. The round-up will be posted on Tuesday, February 2 (a day later due to the upcoming travel at the end of January).
