Savory 3 Cheese, Herb, and Nut Mini Muffins

Posted byKendall DunkelbergPosted inFoodTags:, , , ,

This recipe was first made for the MUW Sigma Tau Delta initiation ceremony this year. It is heavily adapted from the Basic Whole Wheat Muffin recipe in Ed Brown’s original Tassajara Bread Book, along with the Tassajara Cooking one of my original cooking bibles that I get out occasionally when I really need a basic recipe to work from or with.

1 C wheat flour

1 C white flour

1 Tbs baking powder

1 Tbs sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 olive oil

2 Tbs chopped fresh rosemary and sage (or other spices to taste)

1/2 C chopped pecans

pepper

2 eggs

2 1/2 C buttermilk

1 C each crumbled gorgonzola, grated mozzarella, and grated cheddar cheese

canola oil & corn meal

If you know me, then you know these measurements are approximate, all except the flour, which was pretty accurately measured.

Preheat oven to 400°

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Stir together well to blend and then make a well in the middle. Pour in about 1/4 C olive oil. Add two eggs and buttermilk. Stir to mix (just until blended), then add herbs, pepper, and nuts. Blend in a little. Add grated and crumbled cheeses and stir to mix together.

Spray mini muffin tins lightly with canola oil (I use a Misto sprayer, though PAM would work). Sprinkle the bottoms of the cups lightly with corn meal. Spoon batter into cups about 2/3 full (don’t fill too much — they look nicer when they don’t overflow the cup). Bake at 400° about 15 minutes  until done (test with toothpick. Makes about 4 dozen mini-muffins, if you don’t over-fill the cups. Since I had two pans, I made half a batch, washed, rinsed, and dried the pans and made the other half. They turned out very light, very savory, bite-sized muffins. I don’t know if I’d want a full-sized muffin with this recipe — might be too much. But the mini-size worked great. We’ll see how people like them at the initiation tomorrow!

Published by Kendall Dunkelberg

I am a poet, translator, and professor of literature and creative writing at Mississippi University for Women, where I direct the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing, the undergraduate concentration in creative writing, and the Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium. I am Chair of the Department of Languages, Literature, and Philosophy, and I have published four collections of poetry, Tree Fall with Birdsong, Barrier Island Suite, Time Capsules, and Landscapes and Architectures, as well as a collection of translations of the Belgian poet Paul Snoek, Hercules, Richelieu, and Nostradamus, and the textbook A Writer's Craft: Multi-Genre Creative Writing. I was born and raised in Osage, Iowa, and have lived for over thirty years in Columbus, Mississippi, where my wife Kim and I let wildflowers grow in our yard to the delight of spring polinators and only some of our neighbors.

Leave a comment