Cheddar Beer Muffins #MuffinMonday

Possibly my favorite muffin so far (and I’ve been baking them for #MuffinMonday for 13 years!) these cheddar beer muffins are tender and savory. They are the perfect snack. 

Lately, you may have noticed, I have been baking smaller batches of muffins, either six or nine because 12 is a lot. This time, I baked 12 because 1. mature cheddar and 2. beer. I knew we would love them and I was right. 

Completely unheard of, but we EACH ate THREE while they were still warm. The rest disappeared quickly over the next two days. 

Cheddar Beer Muffins

If you are a fan of savory muffins, do give these a try. I used a European pale lager (1664) and Cathedral extra mature cheddar for these. Substitute your favorite beer and sharp cheddar. 

Ingredients

4 oz or 113g extra sharp cheddar cheese, plus extra for topping, if desired

2 1/2 cups or 313g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

A few generous grinds black pepper

6 tablespoons or 85g butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for the pan

1/2 cup or 120ml buttermilk 

2/3 cup or 156ml beer

1 egg

Method

Grate the cheese and set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it with butter. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, black pepper and baking powder.

Add in the grated cheddar and stir till well coated.

In another bowl, whisk together the butter, yogurt and beer. 

Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold till just combined.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups. 

Sprinkle the tops with extra grated cheddar, if desired. 

Bake for around 20 to 25 minutes or until the muffins are well-risen and golden.

Remove them to a wire rack to cool. 

You can serve them with a little butter while still warm but they are also excellent plain!

Enjoy!

It’s the last Monday of the month, which means it’s time for Muffin Monday! Check out the great muffin recipe links below.

• Carrot Cake Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cheddar Beer Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Funfetti Muffins from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Zucchini Cornbread Muffins (Small-Batch Recipe) from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice 
• Zucchini Bread Muffins from A Messy Kitchen

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page. 

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Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers

These Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers are crunchy, spicy and totally more-ish! When you cannot simply buy a favorite snack food, sometimes you just gotta make them yourself. 

A couple of years ago I invited a friend to join us for Sunday lunch and she arrived with hot boudin and Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers to serve as an appetizer. The boudin - a Louisiana sausage made with cooked pork, rice, onions, peppers, and seasonings, all stuffed into a casing - was tasty but it was the spicy crackers that stole my heart. They were HOT.

I immediately asked where she had bought them and added Hobi’s Bites to the shopping list. I discovered that they come in many flavors but the original hot are the best, very spicy with a lovely crunch. I don’t buy them very often because they are that addictive, high in sodium and calories, and they disappear quickly. 

When our Sunday FunDay host proposed celebrating National Junk Food Day which is July 21st, I was excited to make my favorite spicy crackers, as a special treat. A little research revealed that some people call them fire crackers and recipes abound. 

Another thing I learned was that in the UK, they don’t have saltines! That ubiquitous cracker of my childhood, which, along with a glass of 7-Up, could cure any stomach bug. I guess they eat water crackers but those seemed too bland. I chose to use two different crackers, one French, the other from the Philippines. Both turned out great. 

In fact, I shared a bag of my copycats with my neighbors because I know they are fond of spicy food. I was hanging out the laundry yesterday when he popped over to tell me how addictively delicious they were and could he please put in an order for more! So you can bet I’ll be making these again! You know, just for them, because they are such good neighbors. 

Copycat Hobi’s Bites Original Hot Crackers

This recipe is adapted from one on the Southern Living website. Use whatever plain crackers you can find and as I mention below, buy some 2 or 2 1/2 gallon Ziploc bags, the better to coat the crackers evenly with the spicy oil.

Ingredients

1 cup or 240ml olive oil

1/4 cup or 60ml hot sauce (I used a mix of Louisiana Habanero and Dunn’s River Jamaican-style hot sauce.)

2 tablespoons ranch dressing mix

1 tablespoon crushed red pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

16 oz or 450g saltine or similar crackers

Method

Place oil, hot sauce, ranch dressing powder, crushed red pepper, cayenne, smoked paprika and salt in a small mixing bowl. 

Whisk to combine.

Add the crackers to a 2-gallon size Ziploc bag. (*See note below.) Pour the seasonings over them. 

Seal and gently turn the bag over several times to coat the crackers with the spice mixture. The more times you do, this the better the coating. 

*Note: As already mentioned but let me reiterate, when I make these again, I will use a bigger bag because I found that the crackers stuck together in the 1-gallon bag so it was hard to coat all sides. With more room in the bag, they’d be easier to shift around. I recommend using a 2- or 2 1/2-gallon Ziploc bag. 

Let crackers soak at room temperature at least 1 hour turning the bag over every 10 to 15 minutes. Be gently with them to keep the crackers mostly intact. 

Preheat your oven to 300°F or 149°C with racks in the upper third and lower third positions. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil.

Transfer the crackers to prepared baking pans, arranging cracker in a single layer. 

Bake in the preheated oven until dry, crisp, and golden, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating baking pans between top and bottom racks halfway through bake time.

Remove from oven. Carefully remove the crackers to wire racks to cool. 

Repeat the process to bake the remaining crackers. 

Let the baked crackers cool completely, about 30 minutes. 

Serve immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are celebrating National Junk Food Day! Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Cam. Check out the links below.

• Brownie Pizza by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Copycat Hobi's Bites Original Hot Crackers by Food Lust People Love
• Crunch Bars (copycat) by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Donuts & Chicken Strips by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Roasted Pumpkin Hummus Veggie Wrap by Sneha's Recipe
• Walking Taco by Mayuri's Jikoni

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Original Hot Crackers!

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Roasted Strawberry Muffins #MuffinMonday

These roasted strawberry muffins are baked with intensely sweet summer strawberries, roasted to concentrate their flavor even more! 

It’s such a pleasure to sniff summer berries that actually smell like they should! Sweet and fragrant. Most of the year strawberry smell of very little, flown in from who knows where but this time of the year, they come from a nearby farm and I just can’t get enough of them.

Mostly we just eat them straight out of the little boxes but occasionally some are left that are getting past their best. Those make the best muffins!

Roasted Strawberry Muffins

No strawberries? Substitute blueberries or raspberries. Or even chopped up peaches or nectarines. 

Ingredients

9 oz or 250g (after hulling and dicing) strawberries

1/2 cup or 100g sugar (I used golden caster sugar.)

1 1/3 cups or 167g flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/3 cup or 75g butter, melted and cooled

1 egg

2/3 cup or 160ml milk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F or 200°C. Grease or line 9 muffin cups with paper liners. Line a baking pan with nonstick baking parchment for roasting the berries.

Hull your strawberries. I use a small paring knife to dig out the hull.

Chop the strawberries into pieces. Separate out a small pile of strawberry pieces for topping and set aside. 

In a mixing bowl, toss the rest of the strawberries with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. 

Spread the strawberries out on the baking parchment lined baking pan. 

Roast in the preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. 

Meanwhile, in large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and the rest of the sugar.  

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the butter, egg, milk and vanilla.

Add your cooled roasted strawberries along with any syrup that has been created to the flour bowl and toss gently to coat.  

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and folded until just blended. 

Spoon into your prepared muffin cups, topping each with some of the reserved strawberries.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden.

Transfer from the oven to a wire rack and leave to cool for a few minutes. Remove from the pan. 

Enjoy!

It’s the last Monday of the month so that means it’s time for Muffin Monday. Check out all the muffin recipes we are sharing!

• ABC Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Banana Cream Cheese Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Panettone Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Raspberry Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Roasted Strawberry Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Birthday Cake Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Strawberry Ricotta Jumbo Muffins with Ricotta Glaze from Jolene's Recipe Journal

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Pin these Roasted Strawberry Muffins! 

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Gujarati-style Savory Pancakes

Also known as dangela, these Gujarati-style Savory Pancakes are made with dhokla flour: a mix of rice, chickpeas, pigeon peas and lentils. The fermented yogurt batter is traditionally cooked on a tawa or griddle.

I first read about these wonderful savory pancakes on my friend Mayuri’s blog, Mayuri’s Jikoni. I had never heard of dhokla flour but I am often looking for ways to up our protein intake and a flour containing legumes sounded like an easy, tasty way of doing that. 

Fortunately, my favorite Indian market in Houston, Subhlaxmi Grocers, carries it! There are a lot of recipes online that start from scratch, grinding the various ingredients to make the flour first so, if you are so inclined, you can certainly make it yourself. Mayuri says the ratio to use is 2 parts rice, 1 part split chickpea (chana dal) and 1/4 part urad dal (split black gram aka white lentils.)

Gujarati-style Savory Pancakes

The batter requires time to ferment so start this recipe in the morning to make the pancakes in the afternoon or evening. Or start in the evening and leave it to ferment overnight. The weight of the vegetables given below is what I used. You can add more or less, according to your taste. You can find the original recipe with Mayuri’s notes here. If you can't find ajwain seeds, Google offers this advice: Ajwain seeds have a distinctive flavor that is similar to thyme and cumin. When a substitute is needed, thyme, caraway seeds, or a combination of cumin and oregano can be used. 

Ingredients  

For fermenting the batter:

1 cup or 220g dhokla flour

1/4 cup or 60ml warm water

1/4 cup or 61g plain yogurt

1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

For adding to the fermented batter:

1 medium (about 5 0z or 142g) zucchini

1 medium (about 2 1/2 oz or 71g) carrot

2 good handfuls (about 1 2/3 oz or 47g) fresh baby leaf spinach

1/4 medium onion

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/4 teaspoon ajwain seeds

1/4 teaspoon garam masala

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne

1 small knob ginger, grated on a microplane

2 small green chili peppers, finely minced

For the tarka, to further season the batter:

1 tablespoon oil

1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

generous pinch asafetida

1- 2 tablespoons water, for rinsing the tarka pan

For cooking the savory pancakes aka dangela:

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Canola or other light oil

3-4 teaspoons sesame seeds for topping

Method

Measure the flour into a large bowl that will fit the rest of your batter ingredients later. Add the warm water, yogurt and 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds to the flour.

Mix well. Cover the bowl and put it in a warm place for 8 hours or overnight.

If the weather is warm, the bowl can be kept on the kitchen countertop. If the weather is cold, put the bowl in your oven (with a pilot light, if it’s gas) or turn just the light bulb on. 

During the fermentation time, finely grate your zucchini and carrot. Leave both to drain on paper towels to get rid of some of the excess liquid. 

Pinch the stems off of the spinach leaves and discard.

 

Chop the leaves.

Then mince the onion.

When the fermentation time is up, add grated carrot, grated zucchini, chopped onion and spinach to the batter. Mix thoroughly.

Add the salt, sugar, turmeric powder, garam masala and cayenne pepper. Mix again to combine.

Grate the ginger and mince the green chili peppers. 

Add them to the batter. Rub the ajwain between your palms and add it to the batter. Mix the batter well.

If it appears a bit dry then add normal tap water, little at a time. I found that the more I stirred, the wetter it got, no doubt courtesy of the chopped spinach, so I didn't add any water. You want a batter thick enough to be spooned into a pan but one that will spread out a little of its own accord, perhaps with a little help from your spoon.

Finally, we’ll make the tarka to finish seasoning the batter by lightly frying the tarka ingredients in a little oil. Heat the 1 tablespoon of oil in a small pan over low to medium heat. Add the fenugreek seeds. When they begin to sizzle add the mustard and cumin seeds.

Add the pinch of asafetida. 

Give the tarka a quick stir then immediately pour it into the batter.

Add about 2 tablespoons of water to the hot pan. Give it a swirl and add the water to the batter. Stir well.

I almost missed this step! When you are ready to make the dangela, add the baking powder to the batter and give it another good stir. Now you are ready to cook! 

This will make four nice thick pancakes so I eyeballed the batter in the bowl and scored the top in an effort to make them come out relatively even. 

Wipe out your tarka frying pan then heat it over medium heat.

Drizzle in some oil. Add about one-quarter of the batter to your pan and give it a little shake and use your spoon to spread it out into an even circle. 

Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds over the top of the batter.

Drizzle a little more oil around the pancake.

Leave it to cook for about 3-4 minutes over low heat or until it seems set enough to turn.

Carefully turn it over with a big spatula.

Drizzle a little more oil around the dangela and cook until it is golden on the other side. Put it in a low oven in foil to keep warm while you cook the other three. 

Repeat the process until you have four savory pancakes to enjoy. My husband and I ate the first two as snacks with mint chutney. 

Then the next morning, we enjoyed the last two, warmed, with a fried egg each on top. Lovely snack and lovely breakfast. Highly recommend either way! 

It’s already the second Tuesday of the month – how is it June?! – so that means it’s time for my Bread Bakers to share their recipes for this month’s theme: Indian breads. Many thanks to our host, Renu from Cook with Renu. Check out the links below. 

• Butter Naan from Passion Kneaded
• Cheese and Garlic Naan from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Gujarati-style Savory Pancakes from Food Lust People Love
• Gulachi Sanjyachya Polya with Whole Wheat Flour from Sneha's Recipe
• "Instant" Appam from A Messy Kitchen
• Khamiri Roti from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Litti Chokha from Cook with Renu
• Magical Avocado Paratha from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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