Three cheese and tomato muffins and Mexican cheese muffins

Its not that often that I make a recipe so soon after finding it but this one was printed in the You magazine last week.  These are not cheap muffins to make unless you habitually buy the cheeses because most supermarkets sell them in double the quantity you need.  You should try to use these cheeses though because they have a taste that doesn't overpower the muffin like a strong cheddar might.  I did substitute parmesan for the pecorino originally specified in the recipe because I only needed 50g and it was only available in 175g portions and I knew it would go to waste.  The original recipe also said to use muffin cases but I have found that a lot of muffin can stick to the case whereas if you just generously butter the tin they will pop straight out with lovely smooth edges.  I did wonder however if the muffin cases would have prevented the melted cheese I found all over the top of my tin (see picture).  Scraping it off was delicious though.  These are best served warm or newly cooled but will keep for several days in an airtight container and can be reheated.

THREE CHEESE AND TOMATO MUFFINS

 

• 250g/9oz plain flour
• 50g/2ox ground almonds
• 50g/2oz grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 225ml/8 fl oz milk
• 5 tbsp. olive oil
• 8 sun dried tomato halves in olive oil, chopped
• 100g/3.5oz emmenthal cheese cut into 1cm dice
• 100g/3.5 oz gruyere cheese diced
• 2 tbsp. pesto

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7 and butter a twelve hole deep muffin tin
In a large bowl combine the flour, almonds, baking powder, salt and parmesan
In another bowl whisk together the eggs, milk and olive oil
Pour the wet into the dry and mix to a lumpy texture
Fold in the tomatoes
Combine the cheeses; reserve twelve cubes and fold the rest into the mixture
Dot with the pesto and fold over a couple of times to streak the mixture
Divide the mixture between the muffin tins and place a cube of cheese on top of each one
Bake for 10 minutes then turn the heat down to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and bake for another 15 minutes

 

Check out that cheesy mess, yum!

 

 

MEXICAN CHEESE MUFFINS

 

 

So now you're left with some cheese you probably don't usually buy and wonder if you should make some more.  I have discovered that Tesco has a new range of cheeses for entertaining and one of these is Mexican Style Cheese Filler, a combination of Monterey Jack cheese and chillies.  Trust me, its good.  What I did next was to omit the parmesan cheese and use a 125g pack of this cheese filler and the rest of my left over cheeses.  I replaced the pesto with sun dried tomato puree and left out the cube on the top.  This gave me a more even top and a slightly denser muffin.  There was some cheese overflow but nowhere near as much.  Tesco also do a large bag of grated Chilli Cheese that would work too.  Try not to chop the tomato too small as it can get lost.