Corn Meal Varieties Can Revolutionize Your Muffins

by Elyse Beasley
04/02/2008

Choosing which type of frozen pizza you’re in the mood for tonight might be a bit of challenge. There’s pepperoni, vegetarian, white, plain cheese, and more. And ice cream. Countless flavors of Mayfield, Ben & Jerry’s, and Breyers line the shelves of the freezer section. So when is the last time you stood in front of the corn meal section and couldn’t decide which type to buy? Probably never.

Corn meal is actually an important ingredient in everyday dishes – including many Southern favorites, such as cornbread, hushpuppies, and grits. So, if you’re looking for an alternative to instant or boxed foods, this comparison of three types of cornmeal – by substituting each one into a recipe for homemade corn muffins – will give you a better idea of what’s out there.

Hodgson Mill whole grain, all natural stone ground yellow corn meal can be found at any grocery store for $2.49. A serving is ¼ cup (the same for all three types), which contains 100 calories, one gram of fat, 22 carbohydrates, and three grams of fiber. It does not have any saturated fat, trans-fat, cholesterol or sodium. Unfortunately, considering the healthy set of nutrition facts, the yellow corn meal did not make great muffins. Perhaps with butter added, these would have a better flavor.

The next batch was cooked with Arrowhead Mills organic blue cornmeal, which made purple corn muffins. These muffins tasted a bit dry and had an unusual after-taste. The organic cornmeal had 130 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 25 carbohydrates and five grams of fiber. A package costs $2.50.

Whitelily white cornmeal mix is the cheapest corn meal, priced at $1.75, and was baked into the last batch of corn muffins. It’s self rising and ground from the whole kernel. The white mix contains the exact same nutrition facts as the Hodgson Mill yellow cornmeal, except it has two grams of fiber instead of three. Not so bad, until the sodium count - 430 milligrams. Compared to the other types, this corn meal is the least healthy option of the three; however, the corn muffins were fluffy and had the best flavor by far.

Next time you’re at the grocery store, stroll down and check out the cornmeal options. With a little more information about nutrition facts and taste, it will be even easier to choose the best one. That leaves even more time to peruse the pizza and ice cream.

Here’s the recipe used for each batch of corn bread:

Ingredients:
1 cup cornmeal
4 tsp baking powder
¼ cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 eggs
¼ cup shortening

Sift dry ingredients and stir in cornmeal. Use beater to mix in remaining ingredients until smooth. Do not over-beat.

Bake at 450 for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!

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