Sundried Tomato & Parmesan Muffins (With a Twist)

Submitted by surethingdollface

"The original recipe was taken from the Kraft Philadelphia Cheese cookbook "Simply Heaven Volume 2". Being a girl who usually has to put a smear of butter or olive oil spread on muffins, these came as a shock to me as the cream cheese (being the twist and the reason it's in a cream cheese cookbook after all) gave such a moist muffin and delivered enough creaminess that it needed no other additions. This is perhaps the first non-butter or margarine muffin recipe I've ever used. The original recipe uses olive oil, spring onions and semi-dried tomatoes (same quantity amount), but as we had a big jar of sundried tomatoes in the fridge needing to be used up I decided to tweak it a little (which in my opinion, gave it a lot more flavour than the original recipe would have). This is my tweaked version of the recipe, not the original word for word from the book."

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 12 Muffins
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 1 egg
• 125 g philadelphia light cream cheese
• 125 ml sun-dried tomato preserve oil (the oil sun-dried tomatoes are kept in)
• 250 ml skim milk
• 290 g self raising flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup sun-dried tomato, roughly chopped
• 1 small onions, diced or 3 spring onions, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1⁄2 cup fresh parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 1⁄4 cup fresh parmesan cheese, finely grated for extra

directions

1. Preheat oven to moderately hot (190° Celsius or 375° Fahrenheit. Fan forced ovens use 160° Celsius or 340° Fahrenheit).
2. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Stir through Parmesan, tomatoes, onions and garlic.
3. Whisk together the cream cheese and egg (if using an electric mixer you must use the whisk attachment for this, the paddle won't do the job, start on slow). Gradually whisk in milk and oil until smooth (if using an electric mixer take the speed up to medium to incorporate the milk and oil). Gradually add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined (electric mixers can use a paddle for this part).
4. Spoon into 12 muffin pans (or 6 Texas muffin pans). Sprinkle with extra Parmesan and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until cooked through (a skewer will come out clean when inserted into one of the muffins) and are golden on top.
5. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or cold.