Me and my muffin

I do love my muffins. I've been seriously addicted to juicy blueberry ones, needing at least one a day. I've recently discovered the joy of frosted dark chocolate & cherry muffins, and will bake another batch of tongue-tickling chocolate & chilly muffins and eye-pleasing cocoa & raspberry muffins when I get hold of some chilli chocolate and fresh raspberries, respectively. I have a very sweet tooth, and a lovely muffin just makes that afternoon cuppa so much more perfect.

But I also like savoury muffins. They are easy to make, are ideal for take-along-to-the-office lunch or a picnic in the park. These particular muffins, I keep telling to myself, are verging on the healthy side. While they aren't fat-free, they use sour cream instead of more common melted butter or oil. As the sour cream I use has about 10 per cent fat, the muffins are lighter in calories (but not compromising the taste). I've used feta & sun-dried tomatoes here, but you can certainly use chopped olives, roasted red peppers, blue cheese or goat's cheese instead. As for the herbs - anything goes, so just use whatever you fancy.

Savoury muffins with feta cheese and sun-dried tomatoes
(Juustu-tomatimuffinid)



200 g sour cream or crème fraîche (low-fat is fine)
3 eggs
1 Tbsp baking powder
5oo ml plain flour
a pinch of salt
100 grams feta cheese
a very generous handful of chopped sundried tomatoes
a handful of chopped fresh parsley

Mix sour cream and eggs, then gently fold in the flour, baking powder and salt. Add crumbled cheese and tomatoes and parsley. Mix just enough to bring the ingredients together (lumpy is fine).
Divide the mixture between prepared muffin cases and bake in a preheated 200˚C oven for about 15 minutes.

Yields 12 chunky muffins. These are best on the day you made them, though perfectly delicious on the following day as well.