Monday, February 22, 2010

Feta, Ham, and Spring Onion Muffins

I don't know if you've noticed, but this blog has been lacking some sweet/dessert updates for a while now. I only realized this a few days ago when i had a sudden craving for chocolate (yes, it's the time of the month). Then i remembered the last time i baked something sweet was 3 weeks ago, when i tried to make cupcakes and ended up with a tub of majorly FAILED buttercream frosting. So for an entire week, i had to finish eating 18 ugly cupcakes (with the buttercream scraped off) all by myself. And even though Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cupcake is heavenly delicious, after day two, eating them felt more like a chore than a treat. So you can say that ever since then, I started making more savory stuff like flapjacks for snacks and actual dinner meals. In a way, it's more economical for me to make real food since they can serve both as a blog update and a good source of daily nutrition. I guess this is how my blog copes with tight budgets-- make more filling meals and give up self indulgent desserts!

Here's a recipe for one of the snacks that I made a few weeks ago: Muffins with Feta cheese, ham, and spring onions. I made the mistake of baking them in muffin cups (didn't want to get my pan too dirty) cuz they were impossible to peel off! And the paper liners probably interfered with the baking process as they were still a little moist on the inside (or that could just be the extra liquid from the cheese and spring onions). JLo and I still enjoyed them though, we ate 10 muffins in one sitting and called it a meal... leaving 2 for me to take to class the next day. So BOO for overly moist muffins, but YAY for budget success!

Feta, Ham, and Spring Onion Muffins
derived from tasteofhome.com
makes 12 muffins
INGREDIENTS:
  • 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
  • 1/2 cup spring onions, choppped
  • 1/2 cup sliced ham, chopped
DIRECTIONS:
  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt [picture 1].
  2. In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk and butter [picture 2]; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened [picture 3].
  3. Fold in the feta cheese, ham, and chives [picture 4, 5].
  4. Fill each greased muffin pan with batter, two-thirds full [picture 6].
  5. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
  6. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers.

Feta, Ham, and Spring Onion Muffins

13 comments:

  1. AWWW I'm so sorry about your buttercream frosting! I really hoped so much it would work out!

    Your savoury muffins look good, especially since I love feta and ham. I'm meant to be a a dairy-free diet for a few weeks but feta is goats cheese...sooo...it doesn't count right? hehe :) I have to make these gluten free!

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  2. Woww, this looks easy enough for me to make! I think I'll give them a shot.

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  3. mm.. savory muffins. im definitely tempted to try :) do u know what other cheese could go well other than feta?

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  4. Beautiful muffins, definitely nutritious!!

    You will get over the dessert discomfort and before you know it, you will be back baking sweet stuff. I mean who could really resist sweet dessert, right?

    Sawadee from bangkok,
    kris

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  5. @Vic: me tooo, ill give it another try when its warm enough to turn off the heater!

    @Denise: they're super easy, i should make more muffins to take with me to class.

    @Aisha: Actually i think any type of cheese would go well in muffins. You can try using something like cheddar, or some cheese with the same consistency. Parmesan could also work. Go wild with the additions, it's basically just adding whatever you'd like to a basic muffin batter :D

    @Kris: thanks you! i really hope my sweet tooth comes back soon as well. Feeling for some chocolate right now!

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  6. I don't think I've ever tried savoury muffins... I really like the sound of them, though!

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  7. These muffins look awesome! I agree that savory cooking is better for the budget, among other things. :)

    Failed desserts are somehow the saddest thing around but your story about the cupcakes made me laugh. I've definitely had similar experiences.

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  8. Heyyyy! I hope your studying is going great and on schedule! :) I had ants on a tree (that taiwanese dish, is that the right name?) today and LOVED IT! It was slightly spicy and I'm so bad at spicy food but OMG, love it! :)

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  9. Just discovered your blog and I am very impressed! As a fellow medical student, I have no idea how you have time to make such delicious food but thank you for all these great ideas! I miss Taiwanese food now that I'm away from home.

    Is there an RSS subscription link for this blog to make reading a bit easier? Thanks!

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  10. @Eric K: Thank you for stopping by! You can subscribe to my blog either by getting email subscriptions or "follow" using your google account. Both options can be found in the right hand bar :D

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  11. Hi!

    I just made these, they are baking in the oven now and they smell great! I used a few Italian cheeses like Parmesan and rosemary. The only thing is they stuck to the paper linings, so next time I wont use them

    Thanks for the post!!!

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  12. They are now in the oven and smell fantastic. Thanks for such a yummy easy recipe!

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  13. I've just made them :) I used ham and leek as a filling. And a pinch o curry. I thik puttig a slice of yellow cheese on them few minutes before turning off the oven.

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