Pepper and Cheese Muffins for Babies and Toddlers

First of all, my sincere apologies for the lack of blog posts.  I’m writing this on word (which will explain any differences in formatting) and hoping I will get the chance to post it to the blog soon.

Well I have a good excuse; I’ve just moved house.  I hadn’t really talked about it for fear of it all falling through.  Things were very touch and go in the end.  While we were packing up the truck, we still didn’t know if we were going to get the keys at the other end.  Delaying the move was going to mean moving in 5 days before Christmas.  I pride myself on my resilience but that was a step too far, so we took the risk and it paid off.

So, generally I’ve been unpacking boxes, sleeping, spending far too long in Ikea, not sleeping (new house, new smells, strange boiler), etc, etc. 

So accompanied by the general feelings of tiredness, a monster cold after weeks of stress, we also have no broadband and won’t have for a few days yet but I will keep popping to the library as I get the chance.

It’s nice to be somewhere new but it’s also disconcerting for the whole Mamacook family.  My 19 month old is still settling in with the new room, new nursery and I’m still settling in with the new cooker.  It would seem my previous ‘fan’ oven was a fan in name only.  This cooks super efficiently.  They say the best test for an oven is to cook a sponge cake; well I did yesterday and it’s no exaggeration to call it a disaster!  It takes some getting used to but I did cut 10 minutes off jacket potatoes at 20 degrees lower earlier.

So anyway, please bear this in mind when following my recipes from now on.  If you found previous recipes worked well in your oven with the timings I gave, you may now need to increase the temperature slightly or give it a little longer.  Still, better than having a burned coffee sponge disc like I did yesterday!

Inspiration has been a little thin on the ground but on hunting through my fridge, I came up with this.  Nothing like a muffin recipe to make things feel homely.  I have a gut feel this would go pretty well with some baby chilli or some home made soup and like all muffins they’re bound to freeze well.

Pepper and Cheese Muffins – Makes 18 - 24

Ingredients

1 red Pepper (capsicum), chopped into small dice

Small splash of olive oil

Further 3 tbsp olive oil

100g Full fat yoghurt

160 ml Full fat milk

½ tsp White Wine Vinegar

1 egg

85g Grated strong cheddar

250g SR flour

¼ tsp paprika (the mild kind)

Method

Fry the pepper in the splash of oil until softened and allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180oC (fan oven).  Grease a non stick cupcake or mini muffin tin with spray oil or brush on some oil.

Put the flour and paprika in a bowl.

Mix the yoghurt, milk, vinegar, cheese, egg, cheddar and 3 tbsp oil in a jug.

Mix the wet mix into the dry being careful to stir until only just combined.  If some small bits of flour remain, don’t worry.

Spoon into the tin and bake for approx. 15 mins or until well risen and springing back when pressed.  They freeze well; either defrost at room temperature or in the microwave (allowing to cool before serving to your child.)


If you like this, why not give the spinach and feta muffins a try?