Cornmeal Blini Bites

I've been trying a lot of new recipes lately. One reason, is because I love to try new recipes (duh!) and the other is because I'm in charge of the food for a Women's Spa Event this Spring at my son's school. Being that the menu should revolve around a Spa theme, I am looking for light bites and some indulgent mini desserts. One of the recipes I came across on the Food Network (of course) was this one for Cornmeal Blini Bites. They didn't really look like much in the photo, but something intrigued me about them and I had to try it. I made these little darlings for a planning meeting we had this week for the event and they were a great hit. So easy to make, not a lot of ingredients, very inexpensive and so, so tasty.

The ingredients include:

1 8.5 ounce box corn muffin mix
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, beaten
Olive oil, or shallow frying (about cup)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
18 seedless green grapes, halved
Honey, for drizzling

Directions for making:

Whisk the muffin mix, milk and egg together until smooth.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 1/4 inch of oil to the pan and heat until shimmering. Working in batches, drop teaspoons of batter into the oil to make small pancakes, about 1 1/2 inches wide. Cook until bubbles appear on the tops and the bottoms are golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip and finish cooking, about 1 more minute.
Top each blini with ricotta and a grape half. Drizzle with honey and serve warm.

Some tips I would like to add based on my experience is:

• As you're cooking, the oil will lessen as it is soaked up by the cornmeal and you will have to add more as you go along.
• When you drop the teaspoons into the oil, try to shape them right away into a circle if they don't look like a circle right away. Just lightly tap on the top of the batter to make it rounder.
• Be sure not to drop too much batter, that will result in a very thick corn cake and the idea is to keep them relatively thin. I would say not much more than 1/4 of an inch.
• Feel free to be creative and use other ingredients for the topping. I think they're perfect the way they are, but not everyone likes ricotta. Maybe try neufchatel with a fruit topping like strawberry or raspberry jam.
• The instructions recommend serving them warm, but they are delicious cold as well.
• You do not want to add the ricotta as soon as you take them out of the oil as it may slide off the blini.

I apologize I don't have a photo to show you of the ones I made, but feel free to check out the recipe on the Food Network website for Cornmeal Blini Bites which is accompanied by a great photo.

I hope you enjoy these little bites. They are perfect for an appetizer or mini dessert because they're so sweet.