Thing-a-Day #5 : Cheese & Onion Muffins, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Today I made muffins, which are incredibly easy as well as hugely versatile. And you don’t have to stick to the omnipresent blueberry or chocolate chip varieties as this shows.

The recipe is adapted from “Savoury Cheese Muffins” in Muffins Fast and Fantastic by Susan Reimer.

This is what I did, but it is almost infinitely adaptable for other savoury ingredients including broccoli, peppers, chilli, mushroom, courgette, cherry tomatoes, ham.

Ingredients
9 oz (255 g) plain flour
2 tsp (10 ml) baking powder
½ tsp (2.5 ml) bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp (1.2 ml) salt
2 oz (60 g) grated strong cheddar cheese, plus a bit for topping
1 egg
2 tbsp (30 ml) fine white granulated sugar
½ large red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used fresh tarragon)
1 tsp garlic paste
2 tbsp sesame seeds
4 fl oz (120 ml) plain yogurt
6 fl oz (180 ml) milk
3 fl oz (90 ml) good olive oil (vegetable oil is OK)

Method
1. Prepare muffin tins. These tend to stick to paper liners so just using a well greased non-stick tin is probably better.
2. Preheat oven to 200°C for a conventional oven, or 180°C for a fan assisted oven.
3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Stir in grated cheese, sesame seed and onion.
4. In another bowl, beat egg with a fork. Stir in sugar, yoghurt, milk, oil, garlic paste and fresh herbs.
5. Add all wet mixture to dry mixture and, with a metal spoon, mix ingredients together with a minimum of stirring. The batter will have a “thick dropping” consistency.
6. Fill muffin cups three-quarters full. Sprinkle tops with extra cheese.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes until tops are browned and spring back when pressed gently. (Mine could have done with an extra couple of minutes.)
8. Cool for several minutes to make removal easier.

Best eaten fresh and slightly warm.