My mother in law was a simple cook, using only basic ingredients and recipes that were easy to make. Every now and then I go through her single tiny recipe book, written in her neat meticulous writing, with minimum instructions. She used to call these cheese puffs, and the ingredients were put together in a flash, and ready to eat hot with butter within 30 minutes. It is not always multiple ingredients that make a recipe great, sometimes it is good to go back to basics for a good old fashioned winner.
These muffins are delicious with cheese alone, but I have added fresh basil, just because I love basil. You could add any herb if you wanted to. The egg, dash of melted butter, milk, and boiling water are added to the simple dry ingredients of flour, cheese, baking powder and cayenne pepper and then baked for 15 minutes. Honestly nothing could be more simple, and they taste delicious and are pretty much perfect every time. This recipe only makes 6 muffins though, so if you are wanting more, just double up.
Good old fashioned quick recipe which will take you 30 minutes from start to eating
- 1 heaped cup flour
- 1 1/2 heaped cups grated cheese
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup boiling water
- 1/4 tsp premixed mustard
- or a dash of cayenne pepper
- Pinch of salt
- Add sprinkling of herbs of your choice (optional)
- 1 Tbsp melted butter
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Beat the egg , melted butter, milk and boiling water, and mustard (if using, but if using cayenne pepper add this to the dry ingredients)
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Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder and add to the grated cheese.
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Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients .
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Spoon into 6 small greased muffin or cupcake cups and (sprinkle a little cheese over it top if you like, but not necessary) and bake at 200ºC / 400ºF for 12-15 minutes.
4 Comments
Fantastic. While I can respect your mother-in-laws simple approach I prefer your more sophisticated approach. You seem to have uncanny ability to add a certain je ne sais quoi to any recipe with just touch of this and that. Wow Cayenne, mustard and herbs. Nice combination. These sounds delicious. I wonder if one can do this with rice flour. The reason I ask is that US flour is just horrible and tainted.
Thanks so much for your kind words, and honestly I am not sure about the rice flour, but give me a few days and I will test it with rice flour and maybe another kind of flour. Have a fabulous weekend
Those recipes from mothers and mother in laws are gems. I love your styling Ev!
I love that these recipes can be passed down from generation to generation. I have been off the radar for so long, thanks for your constant support Ratna. Lots of love