tailgate treat

There is another home game this Saturday, and after a few weeks off from the tailgate scene we will back at Commonwealth! It's an early afternoon game so we are taking lunch food...chili. I wanted to make some cornbread muffins to take.

Have you all eaten at Jim 'N Nick's? When I lived in Charleston, Ben and I would often walk downtown to shop and eat lunch there on Saturdays. We don't have one here, or anywhere in KY, which is sad because their food is soo amazing! And lets not forget their signature cheese muffins! I could seriously eat like five (and have). But unfortunately for us the recipe is kept secret. However, I was thinking that these would be really good to take to the tailgate to have with the chili so I got to searching the Internet and found a few recipes that claim to be just like the real deal. This one sounds promising and I'm going to try it out for Saturday.

Jim 'N Nick's Cheese Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• beaten well4 tablespoon butter
• melted1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

** note -- the comments on the website suggest swapping the regular milk for buttermilk, using less sugar, and using equal amounts self-rising flour and self-rising cornmeal -- so I'll be modifying the recipe with these changes **

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan.
2. Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl and set aside. Whisk egg, milk, butter, and vanilla together in a medium-sized bowl and set aside. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend.
3. Incorporate shredded cheese into batter. Do not over mix.
4. Divide batter evenly among greased muffin tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the biscuits will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the biscuits will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each biscuit from its mold.

Makes 10 to 12 biscuits.

Recipe and pictures from here.