Walnut, Pear and Blue Cheese Muffins

This month's entry for Alphabakes is a bit of an experiment. The challenge is organised by Ros, of The More Than Occasional Baker, and Caroline, of Caroline Makes, and is based on a different letter each month. This month's is 'W'.

I decided to have another go at savoury muffins, using the classic walnut, pear and blue cheese flavour combination. I quite liked the result, as I love blue cheese in baked goods, and the crunch from the walnuts was nice. Mike was a little 'meh' about them though, as he felt the walnut taste was a little strong and he couldn't detect much cheese or pear flavour (with the pears this may be because I used tinned - which didn't have much flavour to start with). I definitely could taste the cheese, not so much the pear, but the cheese definitely balanced the walnuts. Maybe the difference was how the ingredients were distributed and then divided in the cases? The texture was moist, light and fluffy, although a little firmer than normal  (say a chocolate muffin) because of the cheese melting through. The crust was nice and cheesy, with a lovely golden colour.

Anyway, this is what I did.

Walnut, Pear and Blue Cheese Muffins

Ingredients (makes 12)

300g plain flour
1 tbspn baking powder
1/2 tspn salt
80g caster sugar
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
5 tbspns water
5 tbspns sunflower oil
175ml milk
80g blue cheese, crumbled (I used Roquefort)
40g walnuts, chopped
80g pear, diced

Preheat the oven to 160 Fan / 180 conventional / Gas 4. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cases (or grease).

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. In a separate jug,  mix the egg, water, oil and milk. Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients, along with the blue cheese, pear and walnuts. Mix briefly until just combined. The mixture should look quite wet, with some dry bits of flour showing.

Scoop into the prepared tin, filling each case no more than two thirds full. Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes, until risen and golden. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Best eaten on the day they are made, and preferably still warm from the oven.

I think these would best suit a brunch or picnic menu. I think next time I make them, I'll try using fresh pears - this time I tried tinned as I wanted to make sure they were soft in the muffin, and I wasn't sure that fresh (as they can be a bit under ripe when you buy them) would cook to the texture I wanted in 20 minutes.

Aaanyways, as they include a magic 'W' ingredient in the walnuts, I'm sending them to Alphabakes. This month's host is Caroline, and the roundup will appear sometime after 25 July over at Caroline Makes.

Susie