Ham and Swiss Muffins

I'm partial towards savory muffins, and this might be the tastiest savory muffin recipe I've ever made.

I had written down the flavor combo in a notebook months and months ago. It was almost forgotten until one afternoon at the grocery store when I noticed a small smoked ham on sale. I decided to buy it and use it for ham and swiss muffins.

As is sometimes the case with recipe development, the first couple of batches ranged from 'meh' to 'lets throw that right into the garbage'.  The ham was used up, the test recipes tucked away in a binder, and the project was put on hold.

It wasn't until a bit of leftover ham from the holidays jogged my memory and inspired me to work the kinks out of the recipe that this verison came into being.

I wanted them to be soft, moist, and savory with chunks of ham and pockets of melted swiss throughout.

I should know by now that the answer to many a recipe's problem is MORE CHEESE. When will I learn? So for this batch I increased the amount of cheese which led to .. cheesy deliciousness (of course).

Another issue I had with the earlier versions was despite the ham and swiss, the muffins were lacking in flavor. This thyme added that something-something that had been missing. A 1/2 tsp was a little bit too much so the amount was reduced to 1/4 tsp which was perfect. Just enough to add a bit of flavor without overwhelming the cheese.


I now had the muffin batter that I was after: light, fluffy, flavorful, and studded with smoky ham and cheesy swiss.

That batter was scooped into these parchment paper muffins cups which are the best grocery store find that I've had in a long time. 

I had stopped using muffin liners for most of my recipes because I hated how much of the muffin would stick to the paper, especially when baking with cheese! Instead I would grease the muffin tins which worked but was annoying and added extra clean-up.

On a whim I bought these parchment paper muffin cups and oh. my. god. (I swear nobody is paying me to say this) these are magical! Nothing sticks to them. Nothing. Not baked on cheese, not sticky dough. Nothing!


The muffins come out of the oven all toasty and warm...



..and the papers practically fall off. I can't believe I've been baking this long without knowing about these. Why didn't anyone tell me?

So here they are, the muffins that I almost didn't get around to making. Thank god I finally did, we ate almost an entire batch between the two of us in one day! I normally try to exercise restraint if I'm planning on making multiple batches but I was totally helpless against them. I now have a double batch stashed in my freezer which requires me to warm them up in the microwave and prevents me from devouring them all at once. Savory muffin Nirvana

 

Ham and Swiss Muffins

 2 cups flour

1 TBSP sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1 1/4 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups grated swiss cheese

1 1/2 cups of ham cut into 2cm cubes

Preheat the oven to 375 and line two muffin tins with papers

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and thyme in a medium bowl.

2. In a separate bowl combine the milk, egg, and melted butter.

3. Stir milk mixture into the flour mixture until barely combined. Fold in the ham and swiss. Divide the batter up between 17 muffin cups.

4. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. Mine were always done at 17 minutes but it will depend on your oven.

Allow to cool on a wire rack and enjoy warm! If you plan on freezing some, allow to cool completely and then freeze in a ziplock freezer bag as soon as possible. The fresher they are when they go in the freezer, the fresher they will be when they come out.

 

Comments

[Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.)]

I LOVE LOVE savoury muffins too (I made a guacamole muffin a couple of years ago to die for!) and these look right up my alley. Also, parchment paper muffin cups? I need some stat!

[Amanda @ Once Upon a Recipe]

I am just tickled that you posted a savory muffin recipe. These look so yum - and heck yes to more cheese! PS. I LOVE those parchment liners - they sure do work like a dream!

[Clockwork Lemon]

Amanda: They are the very best.. I feel like I've been missing out all those times I had to grease and then wash the baked-on cheese off of muffin tins. Game changer! (maybe a little dramatic for muffin papers.. but washing baked-on cheese off is pretty hard).

[Paula]

What a great savory muffin recipe. I love that there are chunks of ham in these and combined with the cheese, it almost a ham & cheese *sandwich!*

[Renee]

Yum! Wish I had a stash of these in my freezer. Feel free to ship to Saskatoon :)

[Stefanie @ Sarcastic Cooking]

Oh my God! Stephanie, you are speaking to my soul! I love ham and cheese and I never thought to put it in a muffin!!!

[Clockwork Lemon]

Stefanie: There are no rules anymore for muffins! I swear I saw some buffalo chicken and blue cheese muffins on pinterest.

[Polka Girl]

I never baked savory muffins and these look delicious!!! I will definately try out your recipe. By the way Stephany it was very nice to meet you at the Bake Sale :)

[Jeane M.]

Never tried savoury muffins before but this looked really enticing. Love to have this in my table next morning. :D

[Isabelle @ Crumb]

I tend to be more of a sweet muffin kinda girl, but this recipe might just win me over to the dark... errr... savoury side. I'm just a sucker for anything made with lots of cheese. :)
And OMG, those parchment liners are amazing. I must have some! I sometimes make liners by pressing small squares of parchment into the tin using the bottom of a glass, but it's a bit of a pain, since you have to scoop in the batter very carefully lest it collect between the folds.

[karen]

I, too, am in love with the parchment paper muffin cups. I grabbed them by accident in the store and didn't realize until I got home. I will never use anything else from now on. I can't wait to make these muffins. They look scrumptious!

[eRiN]

Wow, I ran out of Swiss and had to use 1/2 cup cheddar, then screwed up the oven temp, but these STILL came out SO SO SO delicious :D I do wish I had those parchment paper cups though, mine are definitely sticking all over the place. Oh well ^.^

[Melissa@eyes bigger]

Always more cheese! Mmmmm....

[Jo]

These came out great; I'm not a swiss girl so I used gouda instead and they're just delicious. They do indeed stick like crazy to regular paper muffin cups; I swear I lost like half the muffin to stickage. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find parchment cups yet.

Thanks for the recipe!

[Clockwork Lemon]

Jo: I usually grease the muffin tins really well and skip the papers (before I discovered the parchment paper ones).

In my grocery store they weren't with the muffin papers, they were with the plastic wrap and parchment paper in a different aisle

[Allison Day]

My gosh these sound so good! I love the idea of keeping a stash of these in the freezer, for when you want a quick hot breakfast. :)

[Diana @ Appetite for China]

I'm definitely partial towards savory muffins too. Can't wait to try your recipe, since they're virtually impossible to find in a bakery or restaurant!

[Ariel]

Hooooly! I made these exactly as written and they were the best savory muffins I've ever made. I didn't bother freezing them because my family ate them up so quickly. Thanks for the recipe!

[hilary]

Did you get the parchment liners at a specialty store, i've never seen them!

Also, I dont like swiss much, what do you think would be a good substitute? cheddar?

these look perfect

[Clockwork Lemon]

Hilary: I've found them at a couple of grocery stores. Sometimes they are by the cupcake papers, but more often they are near the parchment paper and ziplock bags.
You can substitute with any semi-firm cheese you'd like! Cheddar would be a great one.

[Sara]

These were fantastic! I mixed it up a bit & used 1/4c applesauce & 1/4c butter instead of all butter & went with the 1/2tsp of thyme since I love it. They were so delicious that my picky 3yo ate THREE of them! I couldn't find the parchment cups so I just sprayed the tins with the flour spray for cakes & they slid right out. Thanks for the recipe!

[Becca]

Not sure if anyone will read this or not but the muffin cups at Whole Food ... Nothing sticks to them... Nothing... Maybe cause they are parchment paper? No idea. But they are awesome!