Baked melty cheeses. Fresh oniony chives. Baked into a savory bread (or mini muffin in my case) sounds like pure deliciousness. That's why I was excited to bake this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe for Savory Cheese and Chive Bread. When it comes to bread I love bread that has a crispy, chewy outside and my Hubby likes the soft pillowy inside. So when I made this bread, I knew mini muffins would be perfect for me. I could maximize the chewy, crispy cheesy exterior with each little muffin. Check it out!
How do these mini muffins rate on the deliciousness meter? They get high marks across the board. This would be the perfect accompaniment to a chili or a soup. This is no cakey "muffin". It's a hearty bread. I used 3 types of cheese, grated gruyere, small cubes of sharp cheddar and grated parmesan. For extra flavor I used basil flavored olive oil. And they get a nice little kick from white pepper. These savory treats will definitely make a repeat appearance at our house. Next time I plan to add pancetta or finely diced bacon. That would make these just about perfect. My mouth is watering just thinking about how they will taste with salty yummy bacon! Mmmmm.
The dough is simple. There is no yeast in this bread. It's a quick bread. Which really means dry ingredients (flour, salt, white pepper and baking powder) are mixed together (gently) with the wet ingredients (eggs, milk and olive oil) and then you stir in the mix ins (cheese and chives). Easy.
Next time I will take them out at 15 because they were just a touch on the dry side. Though these aren't intended to be "moist", they would have benefited if they came out of the oven a few minutes earlier.
To see how other French Friday's with Dorie bakers did click here. The recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspan's book, Around My French Table.
They look very lovely in mini-form! Bacon would be a great add-in to these.
ReplyDeleteBasil-flavoured olive oil and three cheeses - sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteYour mini-muffins look delicious! I also loved the crispy exterior of this bread, so I may have to try muffins next time to maximize the crust.
ReplyDeleteYum, these look perfect for soup season!
ReplyDeleteI love how you made these into minis! They look so delicious that it's no wonder your husband ate four of them. I did the loaf but used pine nuts instead of walnuts, hot chili olive oil and sun-dried tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteOh yes! Muffins are always a good choice. They are portable and store-able. Easy to share too. Here is my link as wordpress won't let me leave it on FFwD http://naturally-delicious.blogspot.com/2011/03/savory-cheese-and-chive-bread.html
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