Cottage cheese muffins

I’m tired today, so I’m just going to post the recipe for the nice savoury muffins I made last week. We were woken up in the night by yowling from downstairs, and were both out of bed and on the landing before we were even properly conscious. Whatever evil cat had somehow managed to get in through the magnet-locking catflap had shot out again, leaving a very unnerved-looking pooky cat, and the unmistakable signs of a cat tussle in the living room. We were pleased to note that the bits of fur on the floor were not white, suggesting that despite his cuddle-loving soppy exterior, pooky had kicked some evil cat bottom. I used to like all cats; now I dislike all cats who live near our cats. They both seemed ok today, but the upshot was that it took me quite a while to get back to sleep and I’ve been a bit fuzzy round the edges all day in consequence.

So, to the muffins. They were inspired by some cottage cheese and sundried tomato muffins on 101 cookbooks, taken from Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Supercook. I liked the idea and fancied a savoury muffin to have with soup. I don’t often make savoury muffins, partly because The Scientist doesn’t like them, but I loved the idea of the moistness of cottage cheese paired with sundried tomatoes. I get through gallon loads of cottage cheese anyway, so incorporating it into another foodstuff just seemed like a bonus way to get my fix. Heidi of 101 cookbooks described the muffins as being something like a quiche which didn’t appeal quite so much, so I turned to good old Moosewood Low Fat Favourites, and adapted a herb and cheese muffin recipe. I used cottage cheese instead of the cheddar and extra egg white since I thought it would bring its own moistness, and the muffins were certainly nicely moist. I also did the milk and vinegar trick instead of buttermilk as it’s not something I tend to have on hand. I also added chopped sundried tomatoes and basil to the mix, and I halved the whole batch as it would only be me eating them. They were delicious – quite cornmealy, but with a really nice flavour from the tomatoes and basil and, they went really well with my soup at lunchtime. I’ve since defrosted one from the freezer and warmed it in the microwave and it had no ill effects at all. I’ll definitely be making these again!

Cottage cheese, basil and sundried tomato muffins (adapted from Moosewood Low Fat Favourites)

Makes 12 muffins (I halved it)

1 cup white flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 cup cornmeal

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 whole egg

1 egg white [I omitted this]

1 cup buttermilk

3 tbsp minced scallions/spring onions

½ tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp dried dill

½ tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil (optional)

1 cup grated low fat Cheddar [I used the same amount of low fat cottage cheese]

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C

Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or a very coating of oil

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Thoroughly mix in the cornmeal and brown sugar. In a separate bowl beat the egg and egg white until frothy. Add the buttermilk, scallions, mustard, dill, thyme, pepper, and optional oil to the beaten eggs. Reserve 2 tbsps of the grated cheese and stir the rest into the egg mixture. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring just enough to make a uniformly moist batter.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and sprinkle the muffin tops with the reserved cheese. Bake about 20 mins until a knife inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 5 mins, loosen each muffin by running a knife around the edge, and then tip out onto a rack to cool completely