Pizza muffins
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Makes 12
- Dietary
- Nut-free
These pizza muffins are crammed with delicious flavours. Perfect for a packed lunch or picnic. Experiment with the ingredients by adding some of your favourite pizza toppings.
Ingredients
- 200g/7oz self-raising flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp or a pinch of salt (optional)
- handful of chopped basil and mint (optional)
- 90g/3oz cheddar, grated, plus extra for topping
- 20g/1oz Parmesan, grated
- 130ml/4fl oz buttermilk
- 5 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
- 1 free-range egg
- 1 small courgette, grated
- 2 tbsp black olives, pitted and roughly chopped (optional)
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped chorizo (optional)
- 6 cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper muffin cases.
Mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, a pinch of salt and the chopped herbs, if using, in a large bowl. Stir in the cheddar and Parmesan and mix until combined.
Beat the buttermilk, oil and egg together in a jug.
Pour the liquid slowly into the dry ingredients and stir together lightly. Don't overmix as this will make the muffins heavy – a few smears of flour are fine.
Squeeze the grated courgette to remove any the excess liquid. Stir the courgette, olives and chorizo (if using) into the mixture.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of the mixture into each muffin case. Sprinkle a little extra cheddar over each muffin. Top each muffin with half a cherry tomato and slightly press it into the mixture.
Bake for 18–20 minutes until golden-brown and cooked through. Cool for 5 minutes and serve.
Recipe tips
Replace the cheddar cheese with your favourite hard cheese.
To make your own buttermilk, take the same quantity of milk and add a few drops of lemon juice.
Other delicious toppings might be chopped chillies or peppers.
