As I write this and schedule it to post on Monday morning, the moving company folks have just called it a day for day one of Pack Out Cairo. We have two more days of packing up and then on Tuesday, the 40-foot-high-top container will arrive and they will attempt to make all the boxes fit into that sucker. Always a nail-biter but I am feeling good this time. I have bought just a couple of things since we moved to Cairo and they aren’t big. And I have given some stuff away. And we came 11 months ago with the same size container. So: feeling pretty good. Also feeling pretty good about Muffin Monday this week! Finally, a savory muffin! Anuradha didn’t tie us down to one recipe, just an ingredient: Cheese. Well, you know I am all over that! So I had a rake through the freezer and the cheese drawer (You don’t have a cheese drawer in your refrigerator? Well, why the heck not? I am flexible on what can go in there and, so, there is actually a baloney from Bologna there too. And some beef salami.) and came up with some gorgonzola, pepperoni and a bag of frozen homemade pizza sauce. Oh, yeah! But you knew that from the title already, didn’t you? As they say in Malaysia, you so smart. Make this muffin. You even smarter.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil
1 cup or 240ml pizza sauce, divide into 1/2 cup or 120ml for muffin and balance for topping
100g Gorgonzola (And other strong cheese can be used as well.)
50g pepperoni
Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and generously grease your muffin tin or use paper liners.
Cut your pepperoni into pieces and grate or cut your cheese into chunks. My Gorgonzola had been in the freezer so, as you can see, it crumbled when I tried to cut it. If you would like, reserve 12 small pieces of the pepperoni to put on top of the batter before baking.
In a large bowl, mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, crushed red pepper and dried oregano.
Add the cut pepperoni to the flour mixture and use your hands to separate the little pieces from each other.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and oil together.
Add your wet ingredients to your dry and mix just until it is just combined.
Gently fold in half of the pizza sauce and all of the Gorgonzola cheese. It's NOT pretty but don't let that put you off. It will be delicious.
Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin tin.
Divide the remaining pizza sauce between the muffin cups. Top with a little piece of pepperoni, if saved.
Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove from the muffin pan and cool on a rack.
Enjoy!
