Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam

Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam

These Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam are really quick and easy to make and combine a delicious, gooey cheesiness with the hot-sweet punch of the jam. I think cheese and chilli is a flavour combination made in heaven! You can use either shop-bought or home-made Chilli Jam for this recipe. If you want to make your own, have a look at my really easy Chilli Jam recipe.

I have always made quite a lot of sweet muffins as they lend themselves to seasonal flavours and adaptations – such as my Blackberry Muffins – but I had not made many savoury muffins until recently. Now I make a lot of plain Cheese Muffins – they are my school lunch box salvation on many occasions – but decided to try and make a more adult version. These Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam are the result. However, if you are cooking for non-chilli lovers, you can use this recipe to make plain Cheese Muffins – just don’t add the Chilli Jam.

Gotta love a muffin..

Muffins are the perfect introduction to baking for anyone who lacks confidence in their baking skills. The method is really easy (just combine the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients) and also very quick (20 minutes to cook). This means you can pretty much whip up a batch of muffins whenever you are in the mood! This is good as the only issue with home-made muffins is that they must be eaten fresh. In my opinion, the best time to eat a muffin is when it is still warm from the oven. Otherwise, you need to eat them within a day or so as they will get stale pretty quickly.

Lovely Chilli Jam

I love Chilli Jam. It packs a chilli punch, tempered with sweetness, and is fantastic as a condiment as well as an ingredient. I use it a lot in sandwiches (particularly good with cheese and also hummus) but it is also great with roasted sweetcorn or drizzled onto baked potatoes with a dollop of sour cream.

I make my own Chilli Jam and will sometimes use it in these muffins. However, if I do not have any home-made chilli jam, I will use ready-made and this works really well too. I particularly like the Garlic Jame with Chilli produced by the Garlic Farm which has the additional benefit of garlic flavour too. The heat of these muffins will depend on the the strength of the chilli jam so choose one according to your chilli tolerance.

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Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam

Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 20
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
  • Category: Muffins
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: English

Description

These Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam are really quick and easy to make and combine a delicious, gooey cheesiness with the hot-sweet punch of the jam.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 275 g self-raising flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 250 ml milk
  • 100 g melted butter
  • 1 large sprig of thyme
  • 75 g of strongly flavoured cheese (I generally use cheddar or a mixture of 50g cheddar and 25g gruyere)
  • Chilli Jam – (I have a really easy recipe to make Chilli Jam but shop-bought is great too)

Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam


Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 200 C/180F/Gas Mark 6.
  2. Line a 12-hole muffin tin.
  3. Put the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
  4. Add the egg, milk and melted butter.  Stir to combine.
  5. Remove the leaves from the sprig of thyme, roughly chop them and add them to the mixture.
  6. Finely grate the cheese and stir into the mixture.
  7. Spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of the muffin mixture into each of the lined holes in your muffin tray.  
  8. Make an indentation in each portion of muffin mixture and add a spoonful of chilli jam.
  9. Put the muffin tray in the oven and bake the muffins for 20 minutes until they are risen and golden.
  10. Remove the tray from the oven and allow the muffins to cool for five minutes before taking them out of the tin.

Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam


Notes

If you don’t have shop-bought liners, you can easily make your own by cutting baking parchment into squares and using a small jar or tin to mould each square into the hole in the tin before adding the mixture.

If you are cooking for non-chilli lovers, you can just leave out the Chilli Jam and then you have a straightforward gooey cheesy muffin.

Keywords: muffins, cheese, chilli, easy,

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare at Recipes Made Easy and #Baking Crumbs at Jo’s Kitchen Larder and Apply to Face Blog and #Fiesta Friday with Fiesta Friday and Antonia @ Zoale.com 

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Chilli Jam recipe

Home-made Chilli Jam recipe

This easy, home-made Chilli Jam recipe has a fantastic combination of heat tempered by sweetness. You can use this jam as a condiment to add a boost of heat to pretty much anything! Some of my favourite ways to use are listed below.

  • Use in place of a chutney in sandwiches. It is particularly good with cheese or hummus.
  • Drizzle into a baked potato together with a dollop of sour cream;
  • Makes a great dipping sauce for all kinds of things – prawn crackers, chips, prawns, grilled halloumi..
  • Add as an ingredient to liven up your baking – see my recipe for Cheese Muffins with Chilli Jam.

Lots of lovely chillis..

You can use any kind of fresh chillis to make this jam. When choosing your chillis, bear in mind that the heat of the jam will be in direct correlation to the heat of the chillis that you use. If you are a straight-up hot chilli lover, by all means go for the California Reaper! However, if you like a milder punch of heat, go for something a bit less ferocious such as a Habanero. The Scoville Scale measures the heat of chillis and most of those you buy in stores have an indication of their fierceness. I grow my own chillis and the heat thing is sometimes a bit more hit-and-miss – especially when I forget what variety they are!

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Chilli Jam

Chilli Jam recipe

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 10
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Category: Jam
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This fiery Chilli Jam combines the heat of fresh chillis with a sweet  jam.  It is perfect for perking up all kinds of savoury dishes as a condiment or an ingredient.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 100 g fresh chillis (red, green or yellow)
  • 100 g fresh red pepper
  • 750 g jam sugar
  • 40 ml cider or wine vinegar

Chillis


Instructions

  1. Finely chop the chillis and the red pepper and remove the seeds.
  2. Put the sugar and vinegar in a heavy-based pan.  Heat gently, without stirring, until the sugar has dissolved.   
  3. Then add the chopped chillis and pepper to the pan.  Increase the heat and cook at a rolling boil for 10 minutes.
  4. Remove the mixture from the pan and blend using a food processor or hand blender.  You should end up with very small pieces of chilli suspended in the jam.   
  5. Pour the jam into a sterilised jar and seal with a lid.Chilli Jam

Notes

You can sterilise your jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.       

The jam will keep for several months.  Once you  have opened the jar, keep it in the fridge.

Keywords: jam, chilli,

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare at EasyPeasyFoodie

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.