Gouda Herb Muffins for Derkje #MuffinMonday

Loads of cheese, fresh herbs and a bit of spicy cayenne pepper make these savory muffins rich and flavorful. 

Every Monday I get together with a lovely group of ladies for Bible study. We come from many countries and varied backgrounds but we enjoy our time together trying to learn whatever God wants us to learn, whether from the Bible or each other.  And, with such a diverse group, as you can imagine, there is so much we can learn from one another. The last couple of weeks we’ve been joined by someone special, the mother of one of our little group, who has been visiting since the holidays. As you might have guessed from my title, her name is Derkje.

As I left our meeting last week, she leaned over and almost whispered, “Do you have a recipe for a savory muffin? Perhaps with cheese?”  Well, I have plenty! But most of them make 12 muffins and our dear Derkje recently lost her husband, love of her life and best friend of more than 60 years. Even though they freeze well, 12 muffins is an overwhelming number and I didn’t want to discourage her from the outset with a large batch she’d never end up baking. So I worked out a recipe for just six, baked them up, and passed them over with the printed notes. I wanted to use a cheese that was readily available where Derkje lives in the Netherlands so I made them with Gouda, but you can substitute any aged cheese you have. A nice cheddar would work just as well.

At today’s meeting, I told her that I’d be sharing the recipe with the rest of you for Muffin Monday but, not to worry, I wouldn’t use her name. Derkje replied that she would be delighted if I would. It’s a name that was given to her by her father and she is very proud of it. Isn’t that lovely? She heads home tomorrow and we are going to miss her lively contribution to our group.

Ingredients
8 1/2 oz or 240g Gouda cheese
Small handful mixed fresh herbs of your choice (green onions, thyme, basil, parsley, coriander, rosemary, etc.)
1 cup or 125g flour (or 125g + 1 tablespoon self-rising flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (Omit if using self-rising flour.)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder (Derkje says use more! And I agree!)
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and generously grease your 6-cup muffin pan.  I would suggest putting the batter into a greased tin rather than muffin cups because the cheese in these makes them bake up lovely and browned and crunchy all over.  You’d miss that in a paper cup. I used non-stick cooking spray but you can use butter or a little more oil.

Grate your cheese, setting aside a generous handful for adding to the top before baking.

Pull the leaves off of any herbs with woody stems, then mince your herbs, saving a few tiny sprigs or leaves for decoration, if desired.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients, including the cayenne pepper.

Then stir in the big pile of Gouda, making sure all the bits are well coated with flour. Add in herbs and mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and oil together.

Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients and fold until it is just combined.

Spoon the batter into your very well greased muffin pan.

Top with the reserved cheese and decorate with a herby leaf or two.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are looking browned and crispy and delicious and you can’t wait another second to eat them.

BUT, allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then use a non-pointy knife to loosen/remove them from the muffin pan.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other great recipes my Muffin Monday bakers are sharing today!

• Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chocolate Chip Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cinnamon Pear Muffins from Making Miracles
• Coconut Lime Mango Muffins from The Spiced Life
• Glazed Orange Poppyseed Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Gouda Herb Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Nutmeg Banana Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Orange Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of 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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Caramelized Pineapple Blue Cheese Corncake Bundt #BundtBakers

With just enough cornmeal to border on cornbread but almost enough sugar to be cake, this tender crumb Bundt encloses little nuggets of sweet and savory with caramelized pineapple and crumbled Roquefort cheese.

This month’s Bundt Baker challenge, set by June of How to Philosophize with Cake, was to create a Bundt with unusual flavor combinations. Fortunately, I received the perfect Christmas gift to help me out, a handy little book called The Flavor Thesaurus – Pairings, recipes and ideas for the creative cook. <affiliate link

I must admit that I don’t always agree with the author who readily admits that taste is subjective, yet gives her own as fact. She states, for instance, that coffee is used as a marinade for beef in many Latin American cultures, but she tried it once and it’s better avoided. She suggested that one might as well add lit cigarettes as a garnish. Harrumph. Well, I have tried coffee with beef  too and thought it was fabulous. So there.

But in the case of pineapple and blue cheese, she was spot on. They do go very nicely together, especially as I decided to caramelize the pineapples at the last minute and created a batter with some cornmeal and just enough sugar to make what I have christened corncake. We ate thick slices of it with big bowls of spicy beef chili! So good!

Ingredients
1 small can (4.95 oz or 140g drained weight) sliced pineapple in light syrup
4 oz or 115g blue cheese
1/2 cup or 65g fine yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup or 184g full fat sour cream
Drained light syrup from canned pineapple, topped up with milk to make 1/2 cup or 120ml
(It's going to look a little curdled. Don't let that bother you.)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup or 78ml canola oil

Method
Drain and save the light syrup from your pineapple slices. Dry off the pineapple with paper towels.

Heat your griddle or non-stick frying pan till it’s smoking hot and toast the pineapple slices till browned and caramelized on both sides.

Leave to cool and then chop into small wedges with a sharp knife. Crumble the blue cheese and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and butter and flour your 10-cup Bundt pan liberally or use a non-stick baking spray to prepare the pan.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together your sour cream, pineapple syrup topped up with milk, eggs and oil in another bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Fold in the pineapple bits and the crumbled blue cheese.

Pour or spoon the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before turning it out on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to June for this creative challenge! Want to see what everyone else baked?

• Banana Bacon Bundt Cake by Liv For Cake
• Beet and Beer Red Velvet Bundt Cake by I Sugar Coat It
• Beet and Blood Orange Bundt Cake by Brooklyn Homemaker
• Black Pepper and Red Wine Bundt Cake by Passion Kneaded
• Caramelized Pineapple Blue Cheese Corncake Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Banana Bacon Bundt Cake by The Freshman Cook
• Chocolate Lemon Bundt Cake by I Bake He Shoots
• Chocolate Liquorice Bundt Cake by Baking in Pyjamas
• Chocolate Potato Bundt Cake with Strawberry Glaze by Magnolia Days
• Chocolate Tomato Soup Bundt Cake by SpiceRoots
• Coconut and Rose Syrup Bundt Cake by I Camp In My Kitchen
• Coconut, Cardamom, and Orange Cake by Baking Yummies
• Dark Chocolate Beet Cake by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Dark Chocolate Stout Bundt by Living the Gourmet
• Junk Food Bundt Cake by Faith, Hope, Love, and Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Lemon Rosemary Bundt by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Lovely Fields Bundt Cake by Los Chatos Chefs
• Mini Mayonnaise and Chocolate Bundt Cakes by I Love Bundt Cakes
• Olive Oil Rosemary Bundt Cake by Tartacadabra
• Orange Bourbon Rosemary Bundt Cake by The Spiced Life
• Peanut Butter Sour Cream Bundt Cake by Basic N Delicious
• Six Flavor Bundt by Making Miracles
• Sweet Potato and Marshmallow Bundt by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Triple Rum Black Pepper Bundt Cake by How to Philosophize with Cake

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving Bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest Board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our homepage.

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Enchiladas Callejeras with Chicken and Mexican Chorizo

From the shredded chicken inside to the sauce-soaked pan-fried tortillas and the Mexican chorizo hash on top, these enchiladas callejeras are too many bites of wonderful to count.

 

One of the things I really, really miss living overseas is Mexican food, or I should properly say Tex-Mex since that’s what I grew up on in Houston, Texas. It’s almost always the first meal out when I go home. And I always order the enchiladas with a crispy taco on the side. That’s why I jumped at the chance to get a copy of Enchiladas - Aztec to Tex-Mex by Cappy Lawton, who currently owns three restaurants in San Antonio, and Chris Waters Dunn, a Nashville songwriter and record producer turned food writer. I could recreate those wonderful meals at home? Yes, please!

Enchiladas - Aztec to Tex-Mex: What started out as a small exploration of enchiladas – things enhanced with chili peppers – became a treatise on ALL the enchiladas, from ALL the regions of Mexico and beyond. I hesitate to use the word "definitive" because it is so overused in book reviews and someone is bound to leave a comment about some enchilada their abuela makes that wasn’t covered, but, dang, there’s a lot of information there! The book is divided into three sections covering ingredients, fundamentals and then recipes. Read through the first two before checking out the recipes. You will be so glad you did!

If you’d like to buy your own copy of Enchiladas - Aztec to Tex-Mex, it’s available at Amazon.com <affiliate link or get a signed copy on their website.

I have permission to share the recipe for Enchiladas Callejeras with you today and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Yields 12 enchiladas / Serves 4
Ingredients
For the sauce:
4 guajillo chiles or chiles de árbol, destemmed, deveined, deseeded
10 ancho chiles, destemmed, deveined, deseeded
1 medium white or yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons (18 grams) kosher salt
1 cup (237 ml) olive oil
(This makes way more sauce than you need! Save the leftovers for another dish!)

For the filling:
3 cups or 390 grams cooked, shredded chicken

For the chorizo/vegetable topping:
8 ounces (227 grams) chorizo
1 large Yukon Gold potato, peeled, medium dice
1 large carrot, peeled, medium dice
1⁄2 cup (65 grams) frozen green peas, thawed

For the assembly:
12 corn tortillas, preferably a day old

For the garnishes:
Crema Mexicana
Queso fresco
Avocado slices
Jalapeños en escabeche (pickled)

Method
Cook the diced potato and carrot in salted water until they are just done. I cheated by cutting the potato a little bigger than the carrot so I could pop them all in the same pot.

Now the sauce:
Place the prepared chilies a few pieces at a time on a comal (or iron griddle or skillet) over medium heat and dry roast until fragrant, about 30 seconds per side

Place chilies, onion, garlic, salt, and 4 cups (946ml) hot water in a blender. Let sit for 5 minutes to soften chilies.

Blend at medium speed into a smooth purée. Then, with the blender running, add the olive oil in a slow steady stream and process until emulsified.

Strain the sauce into a pan, then warm over medium heat.

Warm through, taste, and adjust seasoning. Cover and set aside. (No need to keep warm.)

To prepare the chorizo/vegetable topping:
Remove the casing (or cling film if you are using homemade) and crumble the chorizo into a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently to break up the chorizo, until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes.

Add the just cooked potatoes and carrots and gently stir to combine. Cook, gently stirring occasionally, until the edges of the potatoes barely begin to brown.

Remove from heat, stir in the peas, cover, and keep warm.

To assemble the enchiladas:
Gently warm the shredded chicken. Have the topping and garnishes ready and at hand.
Warm 4 individual serving plates.
Heat a 9-inch (23 cm) non-stick sauté pan or pancake griddle over medium-high heat. (The pan with
sauce should be nearby.)

Dip each tortilla in the sauce, making sure it’s well coated.

Place in hot sauté pan, and quickly sear for about 3 seconds per side—just long enough for the sauce to begin to caramelize.

Place 2 tablespoons shredded chicken on the tortilla, fold in half, and place on an individual serving plate.

Wipe the sauté pan with a paper towel and reheat. Repeat the process with the remaining tortillas, slightly overlapping the enchiladas on serving plates, 3 per serving. When the enchiladas are plated, top with a drizzle of crema Mexicana.

Add a generous scoop of the chorizo/vegetable mixture and a sprinkle of queso fresco. Place the avocado slices and jalapeños en escabeche to the side of the enchiladas.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I was sent one copy of Enchiladas - Aztec to Tex-Mex for review purposes.

Yin Yang Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Fudgy dark cookie on one side with chewy oatmeal cookie on the other side, these two halves complete or more importantly, complement each other.

This month’s Creative Cookie Exchange theme is love and hearts which started me thinking about what love really is, I mean, beyond the heady first rush and tumble of quick emotions, all the highs and lows that are often the hallmarks of young relationships. I’m talking about the comfortable love that settles in, where you can complete each other’s sentences and anticipate each other’s needs, and still thoroughly enjoy spending time together, laughing, traveling, playing. And that brought to mind yin and yang, the Taoist concept of two halves that together complete wholeness.

I’m not sure that’s something two people can ever truly accomplish, but let me just put it out there that this year, in just a couple of short months, my husband and I will celebrate 30 years of marriage and 32 years of laughing, traveling and playing together. Of raising babies to young women of whom we are most proud, moving about the planet making homes in six of the seven continents and sharing the joy of life with friends and family too numerous to count. We have been so blessed.

Since we are both flawed human beings (Ain't nobody perfect folks!) still growing and learning about each other and life, I will never complete him and he may never complete me. After this many years of experience, I believe that complementing each other seems a much more worthwhile goal anyway. Together, we make a pretty solid team. Just like these cookies. These aren’t traditional cookies for Valentine’s Day but bake them for someone you love anyway.

And just because everyone's thinking it anyway, this scene:

Note: Start early in the day to allow chilling time for the two doughs.

Ingredients for about 3 dozen cookies
For the yin:
1/2 cup, firmly packed, or 100g brown sugar
3/4 cup or 150g granulated sugar
1/3 cup or 75g butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup or 125g flour
3/4 cup or 60g unsweetened extra dark cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the yang:
1 cup or 200g granulated sugar
1/2 cup or 115g butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups or 156g flour
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 95g uncooked quick rolled oats

To decorate: handful each white and semi-sweet chocolate chips
Useful tool: 5 in or 13cm length of stiff wire for marking where to cut the cookie dough

Method
For the yin dough:
Cream your butter with the two sugars.

Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat again.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the mixing bowl. Mix well until thoroughly combined.

Roll into a thick log about 2 inches or 5cm in diameter and cover tightly with cling film. Put the dough log in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.

For the yang dough:
Cream your butter with the sugar.

Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat again.

Sift in your flour, baking powder and salt and mix well.

Add in the oats and keep mixing until thoroughly combined.

Roll into a thick log about 2 inches or 5cm in diameter and cover tightly with cling film. Put the dough log in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.

Try to get your logs the same approximate size

While the dough is chilling, bend your wire around the neck of a bottle, first one way and then the other, to make a tool the approximate outline of the division between the yin and yang.

Once the dough is well chilled, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare your cookie sheet by greasing it with non-stick spray or lining it with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

Putting the two together 
Slice your two cookie dough logs into even slices. Use your wire tool to press down on the slices to mark where to cut them into two. You can, of course, do this free hand. But the pieces might not match up as neatly.

Use the tip of a sharp knife to cut each slice apart. Fit them back together, one half light, the other half dark, pressing gently to make them one on the prepared cookie sheet.

Decorate each with one white and one dark chocolate chip.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until just done for chewy cookies.

Leave to cool for a few minutes in the pan, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

These would also be pretty cool for Chinese New Year, another holiday coming upon us shortly. Many thanks to Deepti of Bakingyummies for handling the hosting responsibilities this month!

Check out all the other interpretations of love and hearts from my fellow Creative Cookie Exchange bakers this month.

• Aloha Linzer Cookies by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Cheese Hearts by Bakingyummies
• Chocolate Valentine Sugar Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookies by Flours and Frostings
• Double Chocolate Spritz Heart Cookies by The Spiced Life
• Happy Heart Lemon Cookies by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• LoftHouse Cookies by Oven Delights
• Meringue Hearts by Noshing With The Nolands
• Nutella Raspberry Cookies by Upstate Ramblings
• Pomegranate, Rose and White Chocolate Cookies by A Shaggy Dough Story
• Sour Cream Pecan Sandies by Magnolia Days
• Stained Glass Heart Cookies by A Baker's House
• Sweet Heart Cookies by 2 Cookin' Mamas
• Yin Yang Cookies by Food Lust People Love

We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life). We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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