The Weekend Bake: Mushroom, Cheese & Onion Muffins

In the interest of cleaning out my fridge and pantry a little today, I thought a batch of savoury muffins were in order.  They should freeze well too, and make a great breakfast on weekdays as I rush to work in the morning.

I used this recipe as a start, with a few modifications based on the ingredients I had available – I only had 200g of mushrooms, and replaced the bacon with a whole onion (bacon doesn’t last long enough around here to be left in the fridge!).  Also used a combination of cheddar and parmesan cheeses.

With some adjustments, the recipe ended up looking like the below – and I must say, for me the ratio of muffin to onion & mushrooms was perfect and the onions kept the muffins moist.  However, if you like a muffin densely packed with veg, you might want to add the full 400g as shown in the original recipe.

Mushroom, Cheese & Onion Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion
• 200g mushrooms
• 1.5 cups wholemeal flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• salt & pepper
• 75g grated cheddar
• 25g grated parmesan
• 75g butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup whole milk

   

Directions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
• Heat up a non-stick fry pan on medium heat, and fry onion in olive oil until soft and golden.  If the onion browns too fast, add a small dash of water to the pan.
• Remove the onions, set aside, and add mushrooms to the pan – if you have a good non-stick pan, you shouldn’t need any more oil.  Fry the mushrooms for about 3-5 mins or until the water from them has evaporated.

• Remove mushrooms from the fry pan and set aside.
• Line 6 large muffin cups (aka a “Texas” muffin pan – because everything is bigger in Texas?) with baking paper, or if you prefer, just grease the muffin tin with a little butter.
• In a mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt & pepper.  Note:  if you are using wholegrain flour and freshly cracked salt & pepper, these probably won’t sift through fully – just tip the remaining grains into the mix.  Don’t ditch them as they are, after all, the best bits!

   

• Add the cheese and mix through gently until combined
• In another bowl, whisk the butter, milk and eggs together
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix very gently until just combined
• Fold in the mushroom & onions.  The mix should be a dense and sticky consistency as below

• Spoon the mix evenly across the 6 muffin cups.  If you are using a standard size muffin tin, spread evenly across 12.

• Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes, until cooked and a skewer comes out clean (I checked mine at 22 minutes and they were perfectly done).  If you are using a smaller muffin tray, then check at about 15-18 mins.
• Rest for a few minutes in the tray, and then move onto a wire rack to cool