Savoury Cheese & Dill Muffin

How time flies, couldn't believe that it's already end of October! Been really slacked this month, partly because I was feeling blue, and to make things worse, dear son was sick for one full week! It was a terrible week for hubby and I for dear son's fever was quite high and persisted day and night for 5-6 days. We returned home from a Bintan weekend getaway and he developed a high fever. The PD diagnosed his condition as stomach flu virus and assured us that he would get well in 4 days. However, the fever persisted and we had to go to KKH for blood test in case of any bacterial infection. Thankfully, the blood tests indicated a viral infection rather than bacterial, and he got better. *Phew*.

 

Hadn't been baking much, except for a batch of blueberry muffins (specially for dear son to entice him to eat) and I really missed baking! I have a whole list of to-bakes and it just gets longer each day as I browsed through other bloggers' recipes and pictures on FB. *sigh* but I simply couldn't muster the energy. 心有余而力不足!

 

And finally the night before, I just had the urge to bake. That was despite the fact that I had a weary day at work and reached home late after dining out, grocery shopping and food preparation for next day's dinner. Decided to bake a simple Cheese & Dill muffin to use up the grated cheese, Greek yogurt and milk I had in my fridge. The recipe is adapted from a user-submitted recipe found at nigella.com, and I made several modifications like adding more cheese and using mixture of unsalted and salted butter. And couldn't find fresh dill at the supermarket so I used bottled dill weed. For cheese, the recipe stated cheddar but I just used what I bought previously, those ready grated cheese meant for pizza and I think it turned out fine :p

 

Cheese & Dill Muffin
(Makes 16 regular size muffins)

• 256g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 280g Greek yogurt
• 35g salted butter, melted
• 10g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg (about 60g with shell)
• 120g fresh milk
• 100g grated cheese
• 2 tsp dill weed

1. Preheat oven to 200 degree celsius.
2. Sift flour with salt and baking powder, then stir in the sugar and dill. Set aside.
3. Combine egg, yogurt, milk and melted butter.
4. Gently mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients, and fold gently until just combined. Fold in grated cheese. Do not over-stir or the muffin will turn out tough.
5. Fill the muffin cups with the batter to 3/4 full.
6. Bake at 200 degree celsius for 20 mins.
7. Best serve warm.

Notes:

• I replaced plain yogurt with Greek yogurt.
• As I have some salted butter leftover, I used a mixture of salted and unsalted butters.
• I replaced cheddar cheese with pizza cheese (I think combination of cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan) and increased quantity from 50g to 100g as I wanted a more cheesy taste.
• I replaced fresh dill with bottled dill weed. If using fresh fill, quantity is 1/4 cup.
• If eaten the next day, heat up in microwave oven first.

The muffins smelled heavenly as they were baking in the oven, and I couldn't wait to munch into one even though it was already late night by the time they were ready. Fattening yes, but I couldn't care less. Savoury muffins are comfort food, who could resist cheesy goodness! The taste of dill was almost negligible and I wonder if fresh dill would make any difference? Anyways, I'm happy with this quick fix for my cravings.

I found another carrot, zucchini and dill muffin recipe and have added it to my to-bake list. Hope I will pick up my baking and blogging mojo soon.