Kitchen Experiments: Jalapeno Cheese Mini-Muffins

We all know that chilli and cheese is a combination made in heaven - right at the top with tomato-and-cheese and garlic-and-butter. Chilli cheese toast is testimony to this divine coupling. Jalapeno Cheese Muffins are a step toward taking chilli cheese toast to a more evolved level.

Given the fortuitous trine of a hunk of cheddar waiting to be used up, a mid-week holiday and a strong urge to be a-baking, I did a few Google searches and came up with a few cheese muffin recipes. One of them recommended using copius amount of chopped jalapenos - and hey presto!- off went the light bulb in my head - there was a tin of sliced-jalapenos-in vinegar lounging in the store cupboard in the kitchen! Now so many convenient coincidences HAD to be a sign, so who was I to ignore it?

I used this recipe, since the ingredients it required were closest to stuff I had at hand.


Of course, I did tweak the recipe a bit - the recipe calls for fresh jalapenos while I used tinned-in-vinegar ones, the recipe says 1 cup yoghurt OR 1 cup sour cream - I used half-and-half (didnt want too much sour cream and Indian yoghurt is not as creamy as the stuff you get in the US, so using only yoghurt would not do the trick). Also, the recipe needed 1/4 cup melted butter - I had a butter shortage sp again, used a butter-and-olive oil combo. And oh yeah, I used a generous dash of Nando's Wild Herb Peri Peri Sauce and Sriracha sauce to liven things up. (the batter was too cheesily rich when I tasted it, needed sharpness to cut through it)







These taste best when warm from the oven, served with a side of fresh salsa / tomato chilli sauce/ Sriracha sauce/ chilli sauce-with-dash-of-vinegar.

Note:
1. Make mini muffins instead of full-size muffins - I suspect a large muffin will be too rich to stomach.


2. They also make an excellent starter for parties - all that cheesy goodness can absorb alcohol very well. :)