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!
Kendall Dunkelberg 