Andrea made some savoury muffins in the South Arm Community Kitchen. The savoury muffin is something different from the usual sweet ones like banana muffin, chocolate chip muffin, blueberry muffin and more which you can find in the quick bread category in chowtimes.com.

These savoury muffins are great for school lunch or picnic. It is a complete meal with all the basic food group like grain products, vegetables, milk and meat. What I like about this muffin is its portability. It can be easily fit into a lunch box and can be easily transported in a cupcake caddy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted, cooled slightly
• 4-5 green onions, diced
• 3/4 cup red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 3/4 cup cooked ham, cubed (about 200g)
• 3/4 cup grated cheese (Cheddar or Harvarti), about 100g

The buttermilk can be substituted with the following:

• For each 1 cup buttermilk called for in a recipe, use 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream or
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar plus enough milk to make 1 cup or
• 1 cup milk plus 1 3/4 tablespoons cream of tartar or
• 1/4 cup buttermilk powder and 1 cup water

Usually, when a recipe use baking soda as a leavening agent, it needs an acidic environment for the chemical reaction to take place.

A little side note here, the South Arm Community Centre will be starting a cooking club for seniors in January 2008. It will be held in the South Arm Community Kitchen every 2nd and 4th Tuesday from 10am to 12:30pm. The cost for this program is $3 per session, to cover the cost of the ingredients. This cooking club is intended for seniors to come and meet regularly and cook healthy and nutritious meals. For those interested, you may contact Stella of South Arm Community Kitchen @ 604 718 8070.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Prepare the muffin tins with generous amount non-stick cooking spray or butter. This recipe is low in fat and it tends to stick to the pan. If they still stick to the tins after you take them out from the oven, leave the muffins in the tins for 10 to 15 minutes before you try to knock them out from the tins. You may use paper baking cups but the muffins will stick to the paper cups, trust me, we tried that.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper, mix well and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil and melted butter.

Fold in the finely diced green onions, red pepper, ham and cheese.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Fold just until moistened.

Scoop the batter into the muffin tins, add more grated cheese on top if you desired. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. This recipe yields 12 muffins. Andrea, thank you for sharing with us.