Cheese and Bacon Muffins

I love muffins of all kind, sweet, savoury, as simple or as packed with lots of ingredients. The sweet ones might be more popular, but the savoury muffins are the real treats. And there are guilt-free too, since we don't have any refined sugar here to spoil the nutritional value.

Take these delicious breakfast muffins, they have everything you need to start your day right - and if you don't have time to sit down and enjoy a full breakfast, then breakfast-on-the-go it is! They are super easy to pack, mess free, and can keep fresh for many days.

The bacon and cheese make them so filling, you really don't need anything else to keep you full. Well, apart from a nice cup of tea or coffee, they go down a treat with a hot drink. I used the combo bacon and cheese in my Bacon and Cheese Turnovers and those were a big hit too.

And bonus point, they can be enjoyed by the whole family, toddlers included. They are fluffy, baked to perfection, and out of the oven in 20 minutes. My kind of treat anytime of the day. For a vegetarian option, why not check my pizza muffins, great for baby-led weaning too.

Ingredients used

• flour - either plain or self-raising
• baking powder & bicarbonate of soda
• egg - at room temperature
• milk - ideally full-fat milk, but semi-skimmed also ok
• vegetable oil - for a lighter texture
• Greek yogurt - or plain yogurt
• chopped cooked bacon - either regular or streaky bacon
• grated cheddar cheese - or any other hard cheese of your choice
• spring onions - or chives
• chopped dill - for extra flavour
• butter - to grease the muffin tin

Step-by-step photos and instructions

For this recipe we need the bacon cooked: baked, fried in the pan, grilled, whatever it's easier for you. I usually go for the baked bacon, it's mess free, and it doesn't stink up the kitchen as much. Not that I don't like the smell of cooked bacon, far from it, but l'd rather not deal with the smoke etc.

• in a large bowl, sift the flour, add the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and mix
• in a separate bowl, beat the egg with a pinch of salt, add the oil and milk, and mix again
• combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients
• add the grated cheese, chopped cooked bacon, chopped dill and spring onions, and combine everything
• butter and flour a muffin tin, and divide the batter between each muffin hole
• bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes until golden

Variations

There is one herb that completely transforms anything that is added to: the one and only dill. It has such a delicate, yet strong fragrance, and it goes wonderfully well here. You can omit it if you like, or replace it with fresh parsley if you don't have any, it's all about making your life easier and using whatever you have available.

The bacon can be easily replaced with ham, sausages, any leftover chicken or other meat, perhaps leftover from a nice roast? Anything goes really, as long as they are cooked, there is no problem using whatever you have.

Spring onions can be replaced with chives, they both work well here, and can even be used together. I love cheddar cheese, but feel free to use any hard cheese you have around.

And that's it! Some heavenly muffins, served either warm or cold, perfect any time of the day. Or several times a day! You can also turn them into a loaf like my Savoury Loaf Cake which are as food of goodness.