It’s been a busy few days here. My aunt and uncle are staying with us while they are in the process of moving into their new home, and so it’s been a bit hectic with all the moving-related stuff.
But I did find a little pocket of time to make some savoury muffins today! This recipe is my take on the more common bacon-chive-cheddar muffin. I omitted the cheddar and used chinese sausage instead of bacon. I’d actually made these once before, but I tweaked it a little today, and I think we have a winner of a recipe!
Chive and Chinese Sausage Muffins
- 1.5 links of Chinese sausages (I used a pork and chicken kind)
- 1/2 C minced chives
- 2 C pastry flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 TB organic cane sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 C + 2 TB non-fat plain yogurt
- 1/4 C grapeseed oil (or canola oil)
Preheat oven to 400°.
Finely mince chives.
This recipe specifically uses Chinese sausages, or “lap cheung”, as it is known in Cantonese. It’s a dried sausage typically made from pork (I used one that was made from pork and chicken), and is firm in texture. Because of the unique texture, you cannot substitute other forms of sausages, but bacon bits would probably work. In fact, I finely minced the sausages so that they resembled the size of large bacon bits:
(I first thinly sliced the sausages lengthwise, then julienned them into matchsticks, then sliced across to finely mince)
Throw the minced sausages into a small non-stick frying pan over med-high heat. Stir around for 2 – 3 minutes.
Remove from pan and set aside to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. (A side note: I recently learned that you need baking soda if you use yogurt in the recipe; it has something to do with balancing the acidity in the yogurt.)
In a separate bowl, lightly beat 1 egg.
That’s obviously the egg pre-beating, but seriously, anyone else totally love that gorgeous deep colour of the yolk? Mmm eggs.
Where was I? Right, beat the egg. Then add the yogurt and oil and mix together until smooth.
Now add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients, along with the chives and sausages. Mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
Lightly spray a muffin tin with cooking spray and divide the batter amongst the 12 tins.
Pop them into the oven and bake for 20 – 25 mins, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean and the outside is golden brown. Remove immediately to a cooling rack.
They turned out beautifully! Crispy on the outside, moist and soft on the inside, and with a scrumptious savoury flavour of chives and sausage.
Ok, thoroughly tired now so I’m off to bed! I have amped up my cardio in prep for our trip to Peru, (which will be in exactly 29 days!!) so my legs are TIRED. Goodnight!
