Nothing jump starts my day better than a breakfast muffin. Packed with flavor, vegetables and cheese. Throw in a boiled egg, milk, some orange juice and I’m a happy Dutch girl. But I’m also perfectly happy grabbing one of these babies on my way out the door and devour it in the car. Real healthy, huh!

Must admit that when I add this much cheese and/or butter to a dish, I mainly do that when I make an actual meal out of whatever it is I’m preparing, it makes it a different ballgame all together. You won’t quickly catch me making these just to snack on.

There’s another huge benefit to these muffins. My boy will eat anything we call ‘pizza‘. As soon as I found that out, it opened a multitude of perspectives! You could literally see a light bulb going on over my head! ‘Aha moment’. So I’ve added a little pizza flavor to the recipe and now he loves them.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
4 tbsp butter
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/s tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp oregano
3 tbsp pizza sauce
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/2 bell pepper
3 to 4oz ham
1 cup cheese
2 shallots
2 eggs

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 (200C)

Those yellow bell peppers with their green stems just do something to me. Gorgeous colors. Finely mince half to 1 bell pepper and 2 shallots. If by any chance you have some leeks lying around doing nothing useful, don’t think twice, dice them and throw them in. I ran out of them, but it’s a match made in heaven.

Lightly sautee the bell pepper and shallots in a tiny drop of olive oil.

I’m cheating, I’m using my food processor for this. It speeds things up remarkably. Pour 2 cups of flour in there.

Lots of things going on in the photo below!! I bet you’re real happy I’m using my storyboards now, aren’t you?

Add 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp onion powder, a heaping 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1/8 tsp cayenne, 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried oregano and 1/2 tsp sweet paprika powder. Quite a list, eh?

Pop the lid on and pulsate a few times to combine everything.

Grab a bowl and mix up 1 cup of yogurt with 4 tbsp butter. I’m using the (Dutch) liquid diet version, but use any kind of butter (melted). The yogurt will perform pure magic on the texture of the muffin, making it fluffy and light.

Break two eggs over it and lightly whisk until it’s all combined. Not sure why I do this by hand, but I always do.

Pour it in the food processor, right on top of the flour mix.

Add the sauteed vegetable mix, 1 cup of cheese (I’ve used a sharp Gouda cheese) and 3 heaping tbsp pizza sauce. I make my own pizza sauce and freeze seperate portions, but you can also use a commercial sauce for this. I promise I won’t be too upset!

Blitz until everything has properly blended and you end up with a consistency that looks like this. A fairly thick batter.

Chop about 3 to 4oz ham, you can also do this with chorizo. Add to the batter and pulsate a few more times. Just a few spins to get it combined, really, you don’t want to puree the ham. The batter will be even thicker now.

Now you can use muffin cups, but I always use these. They hold more batter and I’m greedy when it comes to my pizza muffins! I lightly butter them. Sure I could have done that with my fingers, but would it have looked just as good in my photos, I ask you?

Spoon the batter in whatever you’re going to bake the muffins in. Don’t fill them up completely, the muffins will need a little room to rise.

Put them in a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and they’re golden brown. The muffins will rise, but not as high as ’sweet’ muffins and the outside will be crispier, keep that in mind. Let them cool before taking them out, or just serve them like this, which I personally prefer. They’re best eaten lukewarm.

These are good. These are packed with flavor, they’re savory. They’re just good.

Tags: baking powder, baking soda, breakfast pizza muffins, butter, cheese, curry, eggs, flour, ham, paprika, pizza sauce, shallots, yogurt