My Best Sweet Corn Muffins with Creamed Corn

These sweet corn muffins are a muffin-sized version of my easy cornbread skillet recipe. They've got a whole can of sweet creamed corn in the batter and are topped with lots of brown sugar, which adds such a nice texture and crackly sweetness.

This recipe makes 12 standard-sized cornbread muffins, perfect for passing around the Thanksgiving table!

My cornbread muffin recipe is an oil-based muffin batter that gets all the moisture and creaminess it needs from a whole can of cream-style sweet corn and olive oil in the batter. There's no dairy in this recipe, which means no messing with melted butter, no fussing with brown butter, and no need to go buy buttermilk just for one recipe!

That said, if you don't have any reason to avoid dairy, I recommend serving these with a pat of my easy homemade butter recipe. There's few things better than a warm corn muffin with homemade butter, imo.

Like I said, this recipe is a riff on my skillet cornbread. I've added a bit of baking soda to it, as well as a 20-minute resting period before baking, two changes that help the muffins rise tall and domed in the oven.

You don't need a mixer to make these corn muffins. It's super quick to mix up the batter, there's that a 20-minute resting period, and then the muffins take just 20 minutes to bake. The whole recipe takes just under an hour start-to-finish.

These sweet corn muffins are best served warm so while I do recommend letting them cool slightly before serving, you can get them on the table fast! They also reheat well in the oven (notes on this below) in case you want to make them ahead of time.

Special Ingredient Notes

Pictured here are all the ingredients that you'll need to make these sweet cornbread muffins! Below I've included notes for specific ingredients so you can be sure to pick up the right ones at the grocery store. See recipe card (at the end of the blog post) for quantities.

Canned Corn - My corn muffins recipe uses a whole can (14.5 oz) of sweet creamed corn, which is sometimes also called "cream style sweet corn" or "sweet corn cream style". I've tested this recipe with several brands of sweet creamed corn and all of them have worked fine.

Yellow Corn Meal - I've tested these corn muffins with both stone-ground and fine-ground yellow corn meal. I prefer the fine ground corn meal, but both work in this recipe. Because of the resting period for the batter, if you use stone ground corn meal, you won't get any of that slightly gritty texture you sometimes get because it will have had time to absorb more of the liquid in the batter.

Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which is half as salty as other brands by volume. If measuring by weight (which you should be), it doesn't matter what brand of salt you use. But if you're measuring by volume and using a different brand of salt, even a different brand of kosher salt, cut the amount of salt in half.

Baking Powder & Baking Soda - Using both baking powder and baking soda gives my corn muffin recipe an extra boost of rising power in the oven so they bake up with tall domed tops.

Brown Sugar - I prefer dark brown sugar for my corn muffins because it has a stronger flavor, but light brown sugar will also work.

This is a Super Simple Muffin Recipe

It follows what bakers call "the muffin method" and it could not be any easier.

First you mix the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda) in one bowl. In a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup, you whisk together the wet ingredients (creamed corn, olive oil, brown sugar, and egg).

Then, you pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix them just until combined. Stop mixing as soon as there are no streaks of flour left in the bowl. That's it! Easy! If you want more details or step-by-step visuals for how to mix the batter, check out my cornbread skillet recipe post.

It's super important that you don't over mix the batter or else your corn muffins will end up dense, dry, and tough. No one wants that!

Lightly grease a muffin pan. I use non-stick spray, but you can also use olive oil or melted butter on a paper towel or pastry brush. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin tins.

Let the muffins rest in the pan for 20-30 minutes before baking. This gives the baking powder and baking soda time to activate and the cornmeal time to hydrate.

While the corn muffins will turn out okay if you bake them immediately, giving them time to rest first is the best way to make sure they are moist, tender, and most importantly—develop nice round domes on top!

Immediately before baking, top each muffin generously with brown sugar. I usually do about ½ to ¾ teaspoon of brown sugar per muffin, but you can do more or less depending on how sweet you want them to be.

These sweet corn muffins bake for about 20 minutes in a 400°F oven. You're looking for an internal temperature of 195°F for doneness, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let the muffins cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before you take them out. Then let them cool at least 15-20 minutes (almost completely) on the rack before serving.

Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

• I use a standard sized 12-well muffin tin for this easy cornbread muffin recipe. The one I use is non-stick so I just spray it with non-stick spray and don't bother with muffin papers. If your muffin pan is prone to sticking, use muffin papers!
• I use this #20 cookie scoop to divide the muffin batter evenly. There's usually a bit of batter left over that I just eyeball to divide between the muffins but using the scoop helps make sure they're all pretty close to evenly sized!
• For a more savory twist on these corn muffins, stir shredded cheddar cheese or crumbled feta (measure with your heart) into the batter and replace the brown sugar on top with more of whichever cheese you used.
• Corn muffins can be stored in an airtight container for 4-5 days! The sugar starts to get a bit sticky after the first day or so, but who doesn't like sticky sugar? Yum!
• You can reheat these muffins in a 350°F oven for 5 minutes if you'd like to enjoy them warm.

📖 Recipe