Recipe - Sour Cream & Chive Savoury Muffins

The original recipe for these muffins came from my Magical Muffins book from M&S, £5 which is sadly no longer available.  They do have this Muffin recipe book but I don't know how good it is.  I do tend to love their recipe books though!

Anyway, over the few times I've made these muffins (for Afternoon Tea, Christmas and ODP!), I have adapted the recipe a little each time.  First I added spring onions as suggested in the book, then I added parmesan cheese to make the cheesiness a bit stronger.  For The Olive Dragonfly Party I added parma ham which was a huge hit!  The recipe I'm sharing below is my favourite version with all the extras!  

I actually started a draft post for this in November but have only gotten round to finishing it now as I made them again for baking club on Friday.  (You can see my guest post all about our fabulous 1st birthday meeting on the Glasgow Baking Club blog, complete with Linsey's amazing Rainbow cake!!)  I never make these muffins in cupcake cases anymore as I much prefer them cooked directly in the tin.  When baked this way, they get a lovely golden base due to the cheese content whereas, if baked in cases they tend to stick too much and aren't as satisfying to eat.

Ingredients:

(Apparently this makes 12 but with all my optional extras, I made 18 large ones and 12 small although admittedly the large ones aren't large muffin size!)

1 tbsp vegetable oil (or cheat like me and use a spray for the trays)
280g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
25g Cheddar cheese, grated (I use 30g)
35g fresh chives, finely chopped plus extra to garnish (These come in bags of 25g so I make do with 25g)
3-4 spring onions, finely chopped (optional)
4 slices of parma ham, cut into small pieces (optional)
20g parmesan cheese plus extra to garnish (optional)
1 egg, lightly beaten
200ml soured cream
100ml natural yoghurt
55g butter, melted

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6 and oil your muffin tin.

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb together into a large mixing bowl.  Add the cheese and chives (and spring onion, parma ham and parmesan now if using) and mix together well.

In a separate bowl, lightly mix together the soured cream, yoghurt, egg and melted butter (I just do this all in the measuring jug to save on washing up/dishwasher space).  Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and gently (I assume this is a joke as it's a very tough batter to mix and will even bend a big metal spoon so use a wooden one!) stir together until just combined.  Do not over-stir the mixture, it's fine for it to be a little lumpy.

Once combined, divide the mixture between the muffin tins (they should be about two thirds full).  Sprinkle over the remaining snipped chives and parmesan to garnish and transfer to the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes or until risen and golden.

Remove from the oven and serve warm or put on a wire rack to cool.  I prefer these warm from the oven but they are even better when dunked in a slather of Creme de St Agur.

You can see the golden bases due to baking in the tin without cases, yum!

They also make a great breakfast with a boiled egg and a cup of tea  :)

Yes, I like milky 'baby' tea.