Lemon Cornmeal Muffins

I bought some blue cornmeal the other day. I couldn't help myself, it was BLUE! Unfortunately, this cornmeal hasn't lived up to its awesome blueness, its actually more purple than blue, and if you cook with it, it sort of fades, and ends up just looking ... dirty. Thats exactly what I'm looking for in a baked good, dirty! Hmm.

Anyway, its also a very fine grind, which I don't like so much. I made muffins out of it, and I wanted more of a crunchy, big grain texture. I actually think I wanted polenta, I had a cake in mind when I made these muffins that I had had in London when I was last there. There is this little pastry shop around the corner from where my grandfather lives that makes the most amazing desserts, and the last time I was there I had this lemon polenta cake with pistachios that was out of this world amazing. I haven't really tried to replicate the recipe, yet, but I'd say that these muffins were polenta-cake-inspired. They were quite good, and because of the squash they stayed pretty moist, and they were healthier than eating cake for breakfast. Although I have been known to do that. I would make these again!

(sorry for the uninspired picture, the other muffins all got eaten and this muffin didn't last too long before it suffered a similar fate).

Lemon Cornmeal Squash Muffins

1 yellow summer squash
1C white whole wheat flour
1C blue corn meal
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2C sugar
2 eggs
1C milk
juice of 1/2 lemon
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tbs oil

Mix all the dry stuff in a big bowl. In a different bowl, mix all the wet stuff. Grate the squash using a cheese grater into the wet bowl. Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff, stir just to combine. Bake 25-35minutes at 350F, until a tester comes out clean. I found that because of the squash, the muffins took a little longer to cook all the way through, but they stayed moist for two days.

The Ed rating was a "good", even after I ascertained that he knew that they contained squash. Apparently squash is ok, but zucchini is still out. He wanted them to be more like a regular corn muffin, though, skipping the lemon flavor altogether. I disagree. Keep the lemon.