Sweet, sweet potato, roasted chilli & feta muffins

More Savoury Muffins...

This recipe came from a book I bought in work from the Book Club of Ireland. The book is called Home Made Baking and is a UK publication. It's one of those cookbooks I had to get at the time but I haven't cooked anything from it since I got it(we are talking years!). I have many cookbooks like that :-(

But the recipe was easy to follow and was tasty so I will have to use that book again:-)

Sweet Potato, Roasted chilli and Feta muffins
Ingredients(makes 12)
1 medium orange-fleshed sweet potato
1 fresh hot red chilli
300g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Half a teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
Half teaspoon cumin powder or 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
225mls low fat milk

Tulip wraps

3 tablespoons olive oil
75g feta cheese


use a 12-hole muffin tray. 
Again I used tulip wraps for presentation purposes. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius/400 degrees fahrenheit/Gas mark 6

Bake the sweet potato for 30-45mins having stabbed it with a fork several times and placed it on a baking sheet. I made the mistake of peeling the sweet potato before I baked it. However once it is cooled you can scoop out the flesh, mash it and set aside. 

I have always wanted to get a blowtorch for cooking but thought creme brulee would be the only reason to use one, so couldn't justify it. For this recipe I could have done with one to blacken the chilli. Instead I brushed it with a little oil and put it under the grill until it was scorched. Then put the chilli in a sandwich/freezer bag until cool enough to handle. It can be easily peeled now. Slit the chilli open lengthways and remove the stem, seeds and membranes. Finely chop the chilli flesh and set aside.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the garlic, cumin and basil. In a separate jug, beat the eggs, milk, olive oil and cooled mashed sweet potato together. 

Add the egg mixture and the chopped chilli to the dry ingredients. Now crumble the feta in and briefly mix until just combined. 

Crumble the feta in

Yes, I know, it looks like a bowl of vomit.

Spoon the batter into the muffin wraps, dividing evenly. Bake for 20-25mins or until well risen and golden.

Cool in the tin for 10mins, then turn out onto a wire rack. 

These muffins had a much more subtle flavour than the spinach and cheese muffins