Cracklin Cornbread Mini-Muffins

Before we go any further, there may be those blog readers who are asking themselves:  "What are cracklins?"  The answer is very simple.  Cracklins are the crispy, golden pieces of deep fried pork fat.  Now before any of you start thinking "There's no way I'd eat that" let me go a tad further.  Do you like bacon?  Let that question work it's way through your brain.  Bacon:  fried pork fat.

I am a Southern Traditionalist cornbread baker.  No flour, no oil, no sugar (THE HORROR) and no eggs.  My cornbread always has three ingredients:  1) self-rising white cornmeal; 2) buttermilk; 3) bacon grease.

I simply made my normal recipe for cornbread and added about 1/3 cup of cracklins to the batter.  If you can't find them, dice up and fry some bacon and add to your batter.

This recipe can be cooked in a loaf pan, a cast iron skillet, regular muffin tins or, like I chose to do, mini-muffins. They were a perfect bite sized treat.  

1 cup of self-rising white cornmeal

1 cups buttermilk

1 T. bacon grease
1/3 cup cracklins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  

In a medium mixing bowl, add cornmeal and then slowly stir in buttermilk until it's well blended.   Add the cracklins and stir to blend.

Put the bacon grease in a cast iron skillet and heat it over medium heat until a drop of the batter sizzles.  If you're using a muffin pan, using a pastry brush, brush the inside of each tin with the bacon grease.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake until golden brown about 12 - 15 minutes. Depending on whether you are using a skillet or muffin tins, adjust the baking time accordingly.  Remove from oven and let rest for a few minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.