Corn Muffins with Italian Sausage and Goat Cheese

These quick and easy to prepare corn muffins, are the perfect breakfast or brunch bread. They are moist and crumbly, savory and a bit sweet and hot at the same time, and with the added sausage and goat cheese, they make a meal on their own. For brunch, or light lunch, serve them with a green salad, or with a bowl of light soup.

* I chose Italian sausages for the filling, as they are seasoned with fennel seeds, which add such wonderful flavor here. Obviously, any other good quality fresh sausage can be used instead.
* If you’re not a fan of goat cheese, you can substitute it with fresh Mozzarella or Feta cheese.

Makes: 12
Prep time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
6 sun dried tomatoes
3 scallions
½ small jalapeno
1 cup flour
1 ½ cups stone ground cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
2 L eggs
1 ½ cups milk, at room temperature
½ cup melted butter, at room temperature
½ cup corn kernels (fresh steamed, frozen and thawed or canned, drained)
2 fresh good quality Italian sausages, cut into 12 pieces x 0.6” (1.5cm)
½ cup crumbled fresh goat cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 360F (180C). Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cups.
2. Roughly chop the sun dried tomatoes and scallions. Small dice the jalapeno.
3. In a large bowl, place the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and baking powder and whisk to combine.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and melted butter. Add to the flour mixture and whisk to a smooth batter. Add the chopped sun dried tomatoes, scallions, jalapeno and corn kernels and mix briefly.

5. Fill the muffin holes with ¾ of the batter. Place 1 piece of sausage in each hole, pushing it gently almost to the bottom, but not all the way down. Add the crumbled goat cheese on top and finish with the rest of the batter.

6. Bake for 30 minutes. Take out of the oven and keep in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool. Serve at room temperature.