Sea Island has a habit of winning the hospitality industry’s top awards, racking up five stars for luxurious accommodations, world-famous golf and wonderful Southern-accented food.

Although the resort’s dining venues include the fancy formal, casual clubby and beachside basic, all of the restaurants serve bacon-packed cornbread muffins on request.

“We don’t dare stop making these muffins,” said one chef,  “generations of guests returning to Sea Island year after year wouldn’t stand for it.”

The chef also said that the muffins are best if the batter is made in advance and refrigerated about 24 hours before baking. This advance prep works to the advantage of busy home cooks who can, with almost no effort, serve home-made hot muffins in a variety of situations including breakfast for houseguests, informal family dinners and dinner-party extravaganzas.

BACON CORNBREAD MUFFINS Photo by Katherine Bish

SEA ISLAND RESORT’S

BACON CORNBREAD MUFFINS

Yield: 24 muffins

1 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup (2 to 3 strips) cooked crumbled bacon

1 (14-3/4 ounces) can creamed corn

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1-1/2 cups yellow cornmeal

1-1/4 cups bread flour

3 tablespoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons milk

Shortening to grease muffin cups

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Refrigerate batter in a covered container for at least 24 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400°F.  Generously grease 24 (2-1/2 inch) muffin cups. Spoon batter into cups and bake until muffins are set and golden brown, about 18 minutes. Serve muffins while they are warm.

Michaël Dessimiroff gave me the recipe many years ago, when he was chef on the Horizon II, a hotel barge floating the canals of France. Trained as a pastry chef before joining the barge staff, Michaël baked particularly marvelous quiches, one for every day of the trip.  He said that the secret to a great crust is to not overwork the dough and to refrigerate the dough after each handling. He also said that cooks can make a variety of different quiches by using one basic recipe and altering a few flavoring ingredients.

Although it can be done, I can’t imagine altering Michaël’s Pear and Roquefort Quiche as to me it was the pièce de résistance of his entire quiche repertoire, offering a flawless balance of delicate flavors and a perfect ratio of rich buttery crust to soft custard filling. Also I can’t imagine any real man refusing this quiche—although, mon dieu, I do keep trying to find one.

PEAR AND ROQUEFORT QUICHE

2-1/2 ounces (about 1/3 cup) Roquefort cheese (or good quality blue cheese)

1/2 cup whipping cream

3 eggs

1/4 cup sour cream

1-1/2 cups whole milk 

Pinch each: nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon fine, dry bread crumbs

1 partly baked 10-inch pastry shell (recipe follows)

1 small pear, peeled, cored and thickly sliced

1 to 2 teaspoons honey

On a plate, using a fork, mash cheese with some of the cream to form a smooth paste; transfer to a medium bowl. Gently beat in remaining cream. Add eggs and beat until mixture is blended, but not foamy. Whisk in sour cream, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt and pepper; set aside.

Sprinkle bread crumbs in center of pastry shell. Arrange pear slices in a circular pattern over crumbs and drizzle with honey. Set pan on a baking sheet. Stir egg mixture and pour into shell. Bake in a preheated 375°F oven until quiche has puffed slightly and top has lightly browned, 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool slightly on a rack. Release side and bottom of pan and slide quiche onto a serving platter. Serve quiche warm or at room temperature.

Yield: About 8 servings.

PASTRY SHELL

2 cups all-purpose flour plus additional flour for rolling dough

12 tablespoons chilled salted butter, cut into pieces

1 egg, beaten

Pinch salt

Sift 2 cups flour into a mixing bowl. Add butter. With fingertips, rapidly rub butter and flour together until mixture is in small crumbs. Make a well in center; add egg and salt. Stir gently with a fork to incorporate egg, then gather ingredients into a rough ball and knead gently and quickly to form a dough. Put dough on a flat surface and, with the heel of your hand, smear about three tablespoons of the dough into a thin streak; repeat until all dough has been smeared once. Gather dough into a smooth ball, flatten ball, wrap with plastic or foil, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Roll dough on a lightly floured surface to an 11- to 12-inch circle. Transfer to a 10-inch, false-bottomed quiche pan and gently maneuver dough to line pan. Turn excess overhang into pan and press to make double-thick sides to the pastry case. Trim off excess dough. Prick at 1/4-inch intervals with the tines of a fork. Place a sheet of foil, shiny side down, in pan and smooth over dough. (The foil should be large enough to come about 2 inches above rim of pan on all sides.) Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Fill foil lining with pastry weights, dried beans or uncooked rice. Bake in preheated 425°F oven until bottom of shell is set and sides are beginning to brown, 14 to 16 minutes. Remove foil and weights. Return shell to oven and bake 2 minutes. Remove pan from oven and put on a rack to cool.

Yield: One 10-inch pastry shell, partly baked.