This month’s “Chopped Challenge Kosher” Linkup was anything but boring. The challenge: make a food item that includes corn, pears and Mike and Ike candy. I love corn and I love pears; not so much with the Mike and Ike but my 7 year old daughter is a big fan so she happily helped me with the prep and baking last night.

We decided to liven up a plain old corn muffin and make it into a dessert type food that’s OK to eat with your dinner – say hello to the Mike and Ike Corn Cake Muffins with creamy pear frosting. Here’s how it went down:

I started with a Corn bread Muffins recipe from AllRecipes.com:

Corn Bread Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed (I used can corn kernels instead)
Mike and Ike Original Fruits, chopped into small pieces (I used a handful – see photo below)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease or line 12 muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt. Mix in flour, cornmeal and baking powder; blend thoroughly. Stir in milk and corn. Mix in the chopped up Mike and Ike candy. Add a bit more milk if needed. My batter was thick but not so much so that I couldn’t spoon it into the muffin cups.
3. Pour or spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Next, I borrowed a frosting recipe from the Cupcake Project: Riesling Cupcakes with Pear Mascarpone Frosting (Gluten-Free Cupcakes) but I only used the frosting piece of the recipe:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 ounces mascarpone cheese, room temperature (I found Kosher Mascarpone at Wholefoods)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 ripe pear
Finely chopped walnuts, to taste (I didn’t use the walnuts but they might add another fun element to the Mike and Ike corn cake muffins)
Cream Cheese – I ended up adding some cream cheese to make the frosting thicker so have some on-hand just in case.

Directions:

1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix butter on high speed with an electric mixer for two minutes.
2. Add mascarpone and mix until just combined.
3. Add powdered sugar a little bit at a time until just combined.
4. Peel and slice the pear.
5. Puree the pear slices in a food processor.
6. Use a sieve to remove any excess liquid from the pear puree. (I did not do a good job with this part so my frosting was too thin)
7. Mix two tablespoons of pear puree into the frosting.
8. Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes.
9. Top with walnuts.  (I skipped the walnuts)

I must not have drained enough of the liquid from the pear because my frosting was way too thin. I ended up adding more powdered sugar and some cream cheese to make it thicker. Then I used a frosting bag and star tip to pipe the frosting onto the muffins. I topped each with one piece of Mike and Ike candy.

Both my daughter and hubbie were a fan of this weird little dessert/bread treat. It combines salty and sweet flavor in a nice way and the Mike and Ike candy and the corn give it a fun and unexpected crunch. Plus the frosting is creamy and delicious with just a hint of pear. It was a fun experiment and will be a nice surprise in my daughter’s lunch box today!

Happy Kosher Treif Cooking!

The Kosher Connection, an informal group of creative kosher food bloggers from all around the world, proudly present our monthly kosher recipe challenge.  Each month we will present you with recipes on a different theme from all the kosher food bloggers.

This month we tried something new and different, a Chopped Style Challenge.  Each participant had to use at least two of the following items: canned corn, pears and Mike and Ike candies !  Follow our recipes on Twitter with #KosherRecipes.

Since this month is a chopped style challenge, go ahead and vote for your favorite.  Let’s see who is the winner of our Chopped Challenge!!