Double Cheese Muffins

It's the holidays which means lots of packed lunches and picnic food.  These cheese muffins are so quick and easy to put together and the kids can help too.  They're great warm from the oven while the cheese is still melty or cold the next day if they last that long.  This recipe uses one of my favourite store cupboard ingredients - Crispy Onions! I love em. You know the ones in a tub, usually in the salad dressing section of the supermarket next to the soya bacon bits.  Both are good to have in as an emergency ingredient when you want to supe up your savoury scones or bread.  

250g Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp Bicarb

1/2 tsp Mustard Powder

100g Strong Cheese (1/2 cubed 1/2 grated)

6 tbsp Vegetable Oil

150g Onion & Chives Cottage Cheese

125ml Milk

1 Egg

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Crispy Fried onions

Heat the oven to 180C

Combine all the dry ingredients, apart from the onions in a large bowl.  In another bowl or jug, mix all the wet ingredients.  Stir the wet into the dry but don't mix too thoroughly, you should have lumps.  It's important with muffins that the mixture isn't over worked.

Divide the mixture between your muffin cases and sprinkle on the crispy onions.  Bake for 20-25 minutes. I makes 12-15 depending on the size of your cases and how generously you fill them.

Saturday Lunch

My Dad is visiting this weekend so I want to make a bit of effort with the food but he's also having to fit in around all the comings and goings and general busyness of the household.  The morning was taken up taxi-ing children to various classes or parties followed in the afternoon with a trip to Port Sunlight for a spot of culture at the LadyLever Gallery

Something quick for lunch was needed and these cheese scones are perfect.  10 minutes to make and 20 minutes to cook they are delicious straight from the oven and topped with some butter.




I've adapted this recipe from my McDougalls Better Baking book which was given to me when I was about 10 from a friend of my mothers who saved tokens from flour bags.  It's very dog eared and has a lot of cellotape keeping it together but I refer to it all the time.

This recipes makes about 6 depending on the size of your cutter but they're not going to go very far so I tend to multiply it by 4 and if there are any left they go in the freezer for another day or a lunch box.  I've also added some crispy onions, you know the sort you get in a tub to sprinkle on salads, soya bacon bits are good too.

200g Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp Wholegrain Mustard
Pinch of White Pepper & Salt
35g Butter
75g Grated Cheese
30g Crispy Onions
100ml Milk

Start off with the flour, mustard, S&P and butter in your processor or mixer and mix till butter is all rubbed in.  Add the remaining ingredients apart from the milk and combine everything.  Slowly add the milk while mixing until it forms a dough.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead till smooth.  Roll it out to about an inch thick and cut them out using a 3" cutter.  Lay the scones onto a baking tray and brush with milk.  Grate a little pecorino on top and bake at 220C for 15-20 minutes.