I love this kind of baking that allows you to use bits and pieces you have left over in the fridge.
In this instance, I had some spinach puree left over from a spinach risotto (spinach briefly sauteed after sweating a finely chopped shallot, some finely chopped fennel bulb and lots of finely chopped dill) and I used a spoonful of this in the middle of each muffin for 6 of them made in a 12 muffin tin.
The other 6 were made by crumbling feta and mixing it with some chopped chives and ½ a chopped flame roasted pepper. You can throw at feta any number of things and it will happily add its saltiness and creaminess turning a fairly simple dough to a rather delicious treat!
You can omit the spinach puree but use 100g feta and 1 whole flame roasted pepper and omit the dried dill.
This recipe makes 12 normal size muffins
Dry ingredients
- 250g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp fine salt
- A pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Wet ingredients
- 100g Greek yogurt
- ½ bicarbonate of soda
- 50ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 75ml milk
Mix 1 – Feta, pepper and oregano muffins
- 50g feta
- ½ flame roasted red pepper, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp finely chopped chives
- ½ tsp dried oregano
Mix 2 -Feta, spinach and dill muffins
- 50g feta
- ½ dried dill
- 6 tsp spinach puree
also,
- A knob of butter for greasing
- Mixed seeds or sesame for topping
Method
Preheat the oven to 1800C.
The idea is to mix in a bowl all the dried ingredients and in another all the wet ingredients. You then divide each mix into two and add the flavourings for each.
Sieve all the dry ingredients into a bowl.
In a small bowl, mix the soda into the yogurt and leave for a few minutes for the soda to be activated by the acidity of the yogurt.
Put all the other wet ingredients into a large bowl. Spoon the fluffed up yogurt into it and give it a good stir. Transfer half of this wet mix into a bowl to which add half the flour mix and the ingredients of mix 1. Use a spatula to incorporate.
Repeat this with the other half of wet and dry mixes and add the feta and dill of mix No. 2
Add a little milk at a time to loosen the mix further if necessary, it should remember a cake mix.
Use a spoon to fill the muffin holes of half the muffin tin. Half fill the other 6 holes with mix No.2, add a tsp of spinach puree in each and top with the rest of the mix.
Sprinkle with the seeds or sesame if using and bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until a skewer dipping into the muffins comes out clean.