Honey and Fig Cornbread Muffins

Preheat the oven to 325°. Butter and flour a 6-cup muffin pan and set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add 7 ounces of chopped figs, honey, orange juice and salt to the pan. Let the figs cook down and become syrupy for about 8 minutes. Take off the heat, grate in the lemon zest, and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until well combined then stir in the buttermilk, milk, honey, and molasses. Pour half of the wet mixture in with the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the dry and continue to mix until smooth again. Gently fold in the warm figs and their syrup, just enough so that batter leaves a light swirling trail of fig syrup.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cornbread has risen and the centers are slightly firm but still soft to the touch. Let cool on a wire rack. Once muffins are cool run a knife around the edges of the pan to release them. To serve, garnish each muffin with a few quarters of the remaining fresh figs. The muffins are best served warm with a drizzling of honey.